Essayist and poet who attacked the stagnation of his time and called for reform. His 己亥杂诗, 315 short poems of 1839, gave the call 不拘一格降人才, to find talent in every form, and the line on fallen petals that turn to spring soil.
'Send down talent without keeping to one mold' comes from Gong Zizhen's 'Miscellaneous Poems of the Year Jihai'.
Tips
culture
In the title 《己亥杂诗》, 己亥 is 1839 in the sixty-year cycle. The cycle's couplet 落红不是无情物，化作春泥更护花, 'fallen petals are not heartless; they become spring soil to shelter the flowers', is now said of devoted teachers and parents.
culture
The idiom 万马齐喑, 'ten thousand horses all mute', for a stifled time when no one dares speak out, comes from the same quatrain as his call for talent. His maternal grandfather was the philologist 段玉裁.
