Bai Juyi

Bai Juyi was born in 772 near present-day Zhengzhou, in Henan, into a poor family of scholars. Passing the examinations in 800, he served at the Hanlin Academy, then was exiled in 815 to a minor post on the Yangtze. Governor of Hangzhou from 822 to 824, he had the dike of West Lake rebuilt there; according to the New World Encyclopedia, he also governed Suzhou, then Luoyang. He wanted a poetry that was simple and attentive to the condition of the people, and wrote nearly three thousand poems, which he had copied so that they would survive. He died in 846.

In the catalogue 1

• PoetrySong of Everlasting Sorrow長恨歌Bai Juyi · 806Literature