Preface:On the Mid-Autumn Festival of the Bingchen year, I drank joyfully until dawn, became deeply intoxicated, and wrote this piece, also thinking of Ziyou. When did the bright moon first appear?Holding my wine cup, I ask the blue sky.I do not know, in the palaces of heaven,What year it is tonight. I long to…
Wang Anshi (1021–1086) was a preeminent statesman, reformer, and literary figure of the Northern Song dynasty. His courtesy name was Jiefu, and he adopted the sobriquet Banshan (“Half Hill”). Born in Linchuan, Fuzhou (modern-day Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province), Wang passed the imperial civil service examination in 1042 (the second year of the Qingli reign).