When the Mongols took the Jin capital 汴京 in 1233 he was separated from his mother, and the poet 元好问, a friend of the family, raised him. He never took office under the Yuan and spent his life writing.
culture
He is one of the four great Yuan dramatists, with 关汉卿, 马致远 and 郑光祖. His short song 《天净沙·秋》 uses the same tune as Ma Zhiyuan's more famous 《天净沙·秋思》.
