Gong Zizhen

In 1821 when he was 29, Gong passed the imperial civil examinations at the provincial level and obtained the title of Juren, or Recommended Man.

Concern over the Qing failure to deal with internal problems and Western pressures led Gong in 1830 to join other progressives in founding a literary club to agitate for reform.

He also pointed out that apart from domestic troubles, the country was facing external threats from the Russian Czar in the north and the Japanese aggression in the east.

In his style and behavior, Gong Zizhen was reminiscent of the early Qing "essentrics", breaking the ritual norms, gambling, and being disrespectful to elders.

However, he failed to become a Buddhist, because his passion for the nation and his concern about the general public prevented him from cutting off the external connection with the secular world.

In these poems, the writer recorded what he had seen along the journey, expressed his deep concern about the country on the eve of the conflict that would become known as the First Opium War and put forward his ideas for reform.

Gong fell ill when he arrived at Danyang, Jiangsu province, about 200 kilometers to the north of his hometown, and died there soon after on September 26, 1841.