A high point of classical Chinese poetry occurred during the Tang period (618 - 907): not only was this period prolific in poets; but, also in poems (perhaps around 50,000 poems survive, many of them collected in the Collected Tang Poems). During the time of Tang, in China, poetry was integrated into almost every aspect of the professional and social life of the literate class, including becoming part of the Imperial examinations taken by anyone wanting a government post;By the Song Dynasty (960-1279), another form had proven it could provide the flexibility that new poets needed: the ci (词/詞) lyric—new lyrics written according to the set rhythms of existing tunes. Each of the tunes had music that has often been lost, but having its own meter. Thus, each ci poem is labeled "To the tune of [Tune Name]" (调寄[词牌]/調寄[詞牌]) and fits the meter and rhyme of the tune (much in the same way that Christian hymn writers set new lyrics to pre-existing tunes). The titles of ci poems are not necessarily related to their subject matter, and many poems may share a title. In terms of their content, ci poetry most often expressed feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona. However, great exponents of the form, such as the Southern Tang poet Li Houzhu and the Song Dynasty poet Su Shi, used the ci form to address a wide range of topics.

Ren Zhiji （Charles Jen in USA）, born in 1930,graduated from the English Dept. of Fudan University in 1956 and worked his way in the academia as an assistant teacher and lecturer of English until he was an associate professor in 1980. He also participated in compiling English textbooks for non-English majors in the early 60's as well as editing dictionaries in the 70's. He left Fudan University in 1988 and has been living in Los Angeles ever since. His interest in translating classical Chinese poetry dates back to the late 90's of the last century. A late comer, but an addicted one at that,for now he considers it as one of his hobbies. His other hobbies are: music and photography.