Shen Song was born in 863, during the reign of Emperor Yizong of Tang. He was said to be from the Min region. His grandfather Shen Lu was a judge at Tang's supreme court. His father Shen Chao served as the magistrate of Changxi County, and Shen Song might have been born there. In 895, during the reign of Emperor Yizong's son Emperor Zhaozong, Shen Song went to then-capital Chang'an to submit himself for the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class. The minister of justiceCui Ning was in charge of the imperial examinations that year, and he chose 25 examinees as having passed the examination, and Shen was one of them. However, for reasons unclear, Emperor Zhaozong then had the imperial scholarLu Yi and the director of the archival bureau Feng Wo conduct a second-round examination, which eliminated 10 examinees — but Shen survived this round as well. However, Shen then headed home toward the Min region rather than remain to serve in the imperial examination — perhaps because at that time, the Tang state was overrun with various disturbances. As he went through Huainan Circuit, the military governor of Huainan invited him to serve on staff, but he declined. He proceeded to Hang Prefecture, which was then under the rule of Qian Liu the military governor of Zhenhai Circuit. Qian kept Shen on staff to serve as secretary in his role as military governor of Zhenhai.
Service under Qian Liu
In addition to being Qian Liu's secretary, Shen Song was later also made Qian's deputy in Qian's role as the circuit's agricultural director. It was said that most of Qian's public declarations and communiques with other circuits were written by Shen. Tang fell in 907 and was, as to the central part of the empire, succeeded by Later Liang, which Qian's realm, which became the state of Wuyue, became a vassal to. In 923, when Li Cunxu, the prince of Later Liang's archival Jin, declared himself emperor of a new state of Later Tang, Qian asked for Shen's thoughts about Li's era nameTongguang. Shen responded, "Looking at this era name, the state would not be completed, as it only had one mouth" lacked the enclosure of the character for "state" and contained the characters of "one" and "mouth".
Qian Liu died in 932, and was succeeded by his son Qian Chuanguan. Qian Yuanguan established a Zeneng Institute to select members of the intelligentsia to serve in the Wuyue state government, and he put Shen Song in charge of the institute. In 937, Qian Yuanguan took the title of King of Wuyue, and he commissioned Shen, as well as Cao Zhongda and Pi Guangye, chancellors. Shen Song died in 938 and was given the posthumous nameWenxian. He left a 20-volume collection of his work.
