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Yang Wanli

Type Figure Region China Time 1127–1206 Also known as Tingxiu、Chengzhai、Yang Chengzhai

Yang Wanli (1127–1206), style name Tingxiu, sobriquet Chengzhai, from Jishui, was a famous Southern Song poet and official;…

Timeline

  1. 1127–1154Jishui · Ji'anYang Wanli was born in Jishui; in the twenty-fourth year of Shaoxing (1154) he passed the jinshi examination in the same cohort as Fan Chengda, first serving as assistant magistrate of Lingling, thereafter entering officialdom while devoting himself to poetry, his early works already showing a fresh, natural style.
  2. 1155–1174Prefectures of Jiangdong · NanjingYang Wanli served as county magistrate of Fengxin, Jiangning and prefect of Changzhou among other posts, caring for the people's hardships and opposing exorbitant taxes; around the fourth year of Chunxi (1177) his style changed greatly, turning from the Jiangxi School to nature, beginning to form the prototype of his distinctive 'Chengzhai style'.
  3. 1175–1190Lin'an · HangzhouIn this period Yang Wanli's poetic fame soared; he wrote such popular works as 'Little Pond' and 'Seeing Lin Zifang Off at Jingci Temple at Dawn', exchanging poems frequently with Fan Chengda and Lu You; his language was plain, his images vivid, his humor lively, and the Chengzhai style became an important school of Southern Song poetry.
  4. 1191–1206Chengzhai, Jishui · Ji'anIn his later years Yang Wanli mostly lived at his old home Chengzhai, continuing to write poetry and compiling the Chengzhai Collection; though repeatedly recalled to office, he mainly amused himself with poetry and wine, dying at home in the second year of Kaixi (1206) at the age of eighty, his poems widely circulated.

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