yuán 元

Yuan Haowen (1190–1257), styled Yuzhi and known by the sobriquet Yishan, was from Xiurong of the Jin Dynasty (now Xin County, Shanxi Province). He was descended from the Yuan clan of the Northern Wei Dynasty. He could write poems at the age of seven. He became a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) in the third year of the Xingding era. He served as the Deputy Secretary of the Left Department of the尚书省 (Department of State Affairs). After the fall of the Jin Dynasty, he refused to serve in the new regime. His prose inherited the styles of Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, with a rigorous structure. His poems emphasized the backbone and opposed flamboyance. His thirty quatrains on poem criticism hold a prominent position in the history of literary criticism. He compiled The Collection of Poets in Central China and authored Collected Works of Yishan and Sequel to Records of the Unusual. The line "Ask the world, what is love?" in Jin Yong's novels is exactly from his ci poem "Mo Yu Er". Yuan Zhen (779–831), styled Weizhi, was from Henan of the Tang Dynasty (now Luoyang County, Henan Province). He was appointed as the prime minister during the reign of Emperor Muzong. His poems were simple and easy to understand, and he was as famous as Bai Juyi, together being known as "Yuan and Bai". He was the author of The Collected Works of Yuan Zhen's Era of Changqing.