Mei Yaochen

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Mei Yaochen
梅堯臣
Hanyu Pinyin
Wǎnlíng Xiānshēng

Mei Yaochen (

poet of the Song dynasty. He was one of the pioneers of the "new subjective" style of poetry which characterized Song poetry.[1]

Mei Yaochen was born in

style name was 'Sheng Yu' (圣俞).[1] He passed the jinshi exam in 1051 and had a career in the civil service, but was unsuccessful. He was a prolific poet, with around 3000 works extant; he was popularized as a poet by the younger Ouyang Xiu
.

Most of his works are in the

Neo-Confucian
lines; later he turned to celebrations of ordinary life and verses mourning the deaths of his first wife and several of his children. An example is his poem translated into English by
Kenneth Rexroth as "An Excuse for Not Returning the Visit of a Friend."

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Cihai: Page 1306.

References

  • Ci hai bian ji wei yuan hui (辞海编辑委员会). Ci hai (辞海). Shanghai: Shanghai ci shu chu ban she (上海辞书出版社), 1979.

Jonathan Chaves. MEI YAO-CH'EN AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY SUNG POETRY. New York: Columbia University Press. 1976.