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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Yang Wanli

Chinese poet

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ2900054
Source-derived summary

Yang Wanli (or Yang Wan-Li) (Chinese: 楊萬里) (29 October 1127 – 1206), courtesy name Yanxiu (延秀), was a Chinese poet and politician, born in Jishui, Jizhou (today Jishui County, Jiangxi). He was one of the "four masters" of the Southern Song dynasty poetry.

Written during the final exile of the Song to Hangzhou, the poems celebrate the beauties and mysteries of nature, flora and fauna, much as the famed Song painters did. But they also querulously and wittily illuminate the annoyances and pleasures of everyday life.

He passed his jinshi exams in 1154 (24th year of the Shaoxing era) and served a number of minor official posts in the Song Dynasty.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Yang Wanli” as chinese poet. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1127, 1206, 1154—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1127. The account is most persuasive where Yang, Wanli and Chinese can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as chinese poet. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2900054. VIAF identifies the subject as 64258218. The Library of Congress control number is no89007275. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1127, 1206 and 1154.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Yang Wanli”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Yang Wanli primary sources, Yang Wanli archive and Yang research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Yang Wanli”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Yang Wanli” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.