Wang Anshi 1021-1086

A politician and writer in the Northern Song dynasty, is one of the ‘Eight Prose Masters of the Tang and the Song’. Besides his prose writing, which is admired for the close reasoning and simple, fluent language, Wang composed more than 1,500 poems, the majority being shi. Much of his early verse can be described as protest poetry, while his later work has been favourably compared to that of Du Fu 杜甫 (712–770). As a politician, Wang is best known for promoting the New Policies 新法, a series of highly controversial reforms.

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