Bai Juyi (白居易) [772- 846] uses very simple language, and is therefore particularly accessible for the beginner. (17 poems).

Du Fu (杜甫) [712- 770] is widely acknowledged as the finest of the classical Chinese poets. His poems have a particularly sensitive feeling for humanity. (56 poems).

Du Mu (杜牧) [803- 852] was one of the foremost writers of the late Tang period. (9 poems).

Han Yu (韓愈) [768- 824] was a founder of Neo-Confucianism as well as a poet, and was exiled for his views. (3 poems).

Li Bai (李白) [701- 762] is the most popular Chinese poet, with a distinctively Romantic style. (21 poems).

Li Shangyin (李商隱) [813- 858] wrote verse which was allusive, but which nevertheless dealt with readily accessible themes of loss and parting. (3 poems).

Li Yu (李煜) [937- 978] was the last emperor of the Southern Tang dynasty, deposed in 975. His works focus on the memory of lost pleasures. (12 poems).

Liu Zongyuan (柳宗元) [773-819] was a Mid-Tang politician and another victim of political intrigues. (3 poems).

Mei Yaochen (梅堯臣) [1002-1060] lived in the Song dynasty, and wrote simple, moving poems of everyday life and of mourning for his family. (6 poems).

Meng Haoran (孟浩然) [689- 740] was associated with Wang Wei, and was himself one of the greatest poets of the High Tang. (11 poems).

Ouyang Xiu (歐陽修) [1007- 1072] was one of the pioneers of serious ci poetry in the Song dynasty. A self-taught polymath, his works express a warm, self-deprecatory persona (10 poems).

Su Shi (蘇軾) [1037- 1101], also known as Su Dongpo, was the most important of the Song dynasty poets. (8 poems).

Tao Qian (陶潛) [365- 427] wrote about his decision to abandon public life and return to live among nature. He was a major influence on Wang Wei. (3 poems).

Wang Wei (王維) [701- 761] is one of the three most admired Tang dynasty poets, alongside Du Fu and Li Bai. A painter as well as a poet, he is known above all for his miniaturist celebrations of nature. (20 poems).