Yang Wanli

Yang Wanli (or Yang Wan-Li) (29 October 1127 – 1206), courtesy name Yanxiu (延秀), was a Chinese poet and politician, born in Jishui, Jizhou (today Jishui County, Jiangxi). He was one of the "four masters" of the Southern Song dynasty poetry.

Written during the final exile of the Song to Hangzhou, the poems celebrate the beauties and mysteries of nature, flora and fauna, much as the famed Song painters did. But they also querulously and wittily illuminate the annoyances and pleasures of everyday life.

He passed his jinshi exams in 1154 (24th year of the Shaoxing era) and served a number of minor official posts in the Song Dynasty.