Yuan Zhen (元稹) was born in Xi'an in 779 - 831 AD. He lost his father at the age of eight and came from a poor family. He was intelligent by nature, learning poetry at the age of nine, reading the scriptures at the age of ten, taking the examination in Beijing at the age of fourteen, and attaining the rank of Mingjing at the age of fifteen.
元稹
yuán zhěn
Popular works:
Satirical Poetry:
Yuan Zhen's satirical poems occupy an important place in his verse. He considered these poems to be the most valuable, expressing the people's desire for peace and his own political advocacy of using the written word instead of the sword. These poems are often characterized by the fact that they are not poetry, but by the fact that they are not poetry, that they are complex, that they have several meanings, and that they are less perfect than Bai Juyi's work in terms of phrasing and diction.
Lyrical Poetry:
Yuan Zhen wrote the most poems that belonged to the category of lyrical aria. These include short poems about the scenery in front of the flower house and the feelings of the moment, as well as poems that drive away the words and maximize the sounds and rhymes, either in thousands of words or in 500 words. Although Yuan Zhen placed these poems in a secondary position in his own compositions, he strove to be innovative in his art.
Mourning Poems and Erotic Poems:
Yuan Zhen's erotic and eulogy poems are the most artistically distinctive. Yuan Zhen was originally married to Wei, and they were very much in love. Wei's unfortunate early death, Yuan Zhen stroked his memory and wrote a number of poems in memory of Wei's. For example, the three poems “Sentimental Memories” were written in memory of Wei. Such as the “sadness of the three”, etc. deliberately portrayed Wei's life after the death of all kinds of scenes, expressing the enthusiasm of longing, lingering back and forth, true feelings, infectious, can be called a masterpiece. As for the erotic poems he wrote, he was good at writing about love between men and women. He had a love experience in his early years, and these poems often have his specific real feelings.
