The flower market is as bright as day.
On the moon, willows sprout,
After dusk.
On the night of January this year,
The moon and the lamp remain the same.
I didn't see it last year,
Tears wet the sleeves of the spring shirt.
Author: Ouyang Xiu
Ouyang Xiu lost his father at the age of four and grew up with his uncle in Suizhou, Hubei. When he was young, his family was poor and had no money. His mother Zheng painted the land and taught him to read. Ouyang Xiu loved reading since he was a child, and often went to the Li family in the south of the city to borrow books and copy. He is talented and studious, and often recites books before copying them.
Teenagers, like adults, write poems and essays in complicated ways. Seeing the hope of family rejuvenation, his uncle once said to Ouyang Xiu's mother, "It's really strange that my sister-in-law doesn't care about her poor family and her children! Not only do you start with a big family, but you will be famous in the world one day.
"At the age of ten, Ouyang Xiu learned six volumes from Ricardo's Collected Works of Mr. Changli in the Tang Dynasty. He loved it very much and couldn't put it down, laying the seeds for the poetry innovation movement in the Northern Song Dynasty in the future.
Injong Tiansheng eight years (AD 1030), Jinshi. The following year, he was appointed as an official of Xijing (now Luoyang) and became a close friend of Mei He, exchanging poems with each other. In the first year of Jingyou (A.D. 1034), he called the Bachelor's College, appointed Xuandelang, and filled the pavilion for collation.
In three years, Fan Zhongyan criticized current politics in the last chapter and was demoted to Raozhou. Ouyang Xiu defended him and was demoted to the county magistrate of Yiling (now Yichang, Hubei). In the first year of Kangding (A.D. 1040), Ouyang Xiu was recalled to Beijing, and was appointed as the curator of the pavilion to collate and edit the Chongwen General Catalogue, which was later called the suggestion court.
For three years (A.D. 1043), Li Qing served as the right judge and issued an imperial decree. Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Fu Bi and others carried out the "Qingli New Deal", and Ouyang Xiu participated in the innovation and put forward the idea of reforming official administration, military affairs and tribute law. In five years, Fan, Han and Fu were successively demoted, and Ouyang Xiu wrote a letter to refute.
Because he was demoted as the magistrate of Chuzhou (now Chuzhou, Anhui). Later, it was changed to Yangzhou, Yingzhou (now Fuyang, Anhui) and Yingtianfu (now Shangqiu, Henan).