Jiang Yan, styled Wentong, was a native of Kaocheng during the Liang Dynasty of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In his youth, his family was so poor he couldn't even afford paper and brush. Yet he studied with fierce determination, and through relentless effort, he rose to the rank of Grand Master of Splendid Happiness and became a renowned literary figure, with his poetry and essays earning the highest praise of his time.
As he grew older, however, his writing not only failed to improve but actually declined. His poems became flat and unremarkable. Where once his thoughts surged like a tide and his brush moved as if guided by a divine hand, producing brilliant lines with ease, he now found himself staring at the page for hours, unable to write a single word. On the rare occasions when inspiration struck, the resulting verses were dry and dull, utterly devoid of merit.
A rumor spread that once, when Jiang Yan anchored his boat by the Chanling Temple riverbank, he dreamed of a man calling himself Zhang Jingyang, who demanded the return of a bolt of silk. Jiang Yan then pulled several feet of silk from his chest and handed it back. From that day on, his writing was never brilliant again.
Another story goes that one day, while Jiang Yan was napping at the Yeting Pavilion, he dreamed of a man claiming to be Guo Pu, who approached him, asked for his writing brush, and said:
"Brother Wentong, I've had a brush with you for quite some time now. Shouldn't you be returning it to me by now!"
Jiang Yan, upon hearing this, casually reached into his robe, drew out a five-colored brush, and returned it to the old man. Legend has it that from that moment on, Jiang Yan's literary inspiration dried up completely, and he could never again produce a single piece of fine writing.
Later, the idiom "Jiang Lang's Talent Exhausted" came to describe a decline in creative inspiration.
Source: *History of the Southern Dynasties*, "Biography of Jiang Yan"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "江郎才尽" came to describe a decline in creative inspiration.