A Textual Research of "Yuan Baiyan"

Kai,a celebrated poet around the end of the Dynasty and beginning of the Ming Dynasty,shows his eminence by his poem Baiyan,from which he got his nickname Yuan Baiyan.He must have lived about 100 years old.But,there have been much controversy about the dates of his birth and death since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.It keeps a problem unsolved until now and the current researches provide many guesses supported by forced interpretations of evidence.His father,Yuan Jie,who was also a noted poet of his time,left a number of works.Concerning Jie's life span,many survived texts of the Ming and Qing Dynasties give boundaries contradictory to historical records.Yuan Jie nourished Kai's literary skills at home,and Kai showed the character of his father.Yuan Kai took delight in making friends with preeminently talented men of letters.Yuan Kai kept a very good relationship with his family members.He lived a mysterious and legendary life of being officials and of withdrawing to seclusions at times,who left no well-known descendants.