The Southern-Song poet was styled Zhineng, known far and wide as Shihu Jushi (a hermit in Stone Lake), with roots tracked to Wu Prefecture (now northern suburban Wuzhen).

Fan featured in 4 Great Poets of Zhongxing (Resurgence), plus You Mao, Yang Wanli, and Lu You. The quartet was a sect instill a new lease of life to the realist New Yuefu Movement originating in the Tang, represented by Bai Juyi, Wang Jian, Zhang Ji, and the likes. Spanning a lineup of themes, the Fan poetry was characterized with style, simplicity, chic and charm, as exemplified in Pilgrimage to Miyin Temple in Wushu Year, a nod to his getaway to Wuzhen. His swansong was Impromptu Pastorals on Four Seasons (60 poems), which sketched an iconic and idyllic Shangri-la, bursting with Jiangnan scenery, folklore and farming (the lower Yangtze plains). The set of masterpieces sounded like folk songs, breezy and brisk, sleek and savoury. Fan was celebrated as a consummator on pastorals.