Yuan Haowen

Who was Yuan Haowen?

Yuan Haowen also known as Yuan Yishan or “Yuan of Yi Mountain” was a poet from Xinzhou, in what is now Shanxi province, noted for his poems in the ci and the sanqu forms and for including poems in the sangluan genre of Classical Chinese poetry among his poetic works. Yuan Haowen was the outstanding literary figure of his period, in northern China, excelling at various genres of both prose and poetry: his ci poetry is said to be some of the best of the Jin period writers. Just a few of his sanqu lyrics have survived. Yuan Haowen was born in the territory of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, in what is now northern China, and which was co-existent with the Chinese Southern Song Dynasty.