Yuan Haowen

Timeline

1. 1190–1210Xiurong · ShanxiBorn to an official family in Xiurong, Shanxi, he was clever from childhood, publishing the 'Ode to Yanmen' at sixteen, and had already risen to prominence in literary circles in his youth.
2. 1211–1220Central Capital · Jin dynastyIn his youth he went to the Central Capital to sit the examinations and enter office; his poetic reputation grew daily, he socialized with literary leaders like Zhao Bingwen, and his writing matured, laying the foundation for his later status as 'literary patriarch of his generation.'
3. 1234–1257Xinzhou · ShanxiAfter the Mongols destroyed Jin he firmly refused Yuan summons, writing ceaselessly as a loyalist, compiling the Zhongzhou Collection to preserve Jin poetry and prose, and composing Thirty Poems on Poetry expounding his poetics; he died at Xiurong in 1257.