HUANG TSUN-HSIEN

born 1848, Chia-ying, now Mei-hsien, Kwangtung province, China died March 28, 1905, Chia-ying Pinyin Huang Zunxian Chinese poet and government official who instituted both literary and social reforms. In his career as a diplomat, Huang Tsun-hsien traveled to Japan, the United States, and England, expanding his outlook and accumulating new material for his poetry and prose works; but the new style that made his poetry popular originated in his hometown of Chia-ying. There he observed the speech of the common people, reproducing it in his verse. Even more importantly, he borrowed from the styles and rhythms of the local folk songs, incorporating these new patterns in his poetry. Huang Tsun-hsien's use of vernacular Chinese and the folk-ballad style was a major breakthrough in Chinese verse. The poet was also a social reformer, instituting changes in the local government when he served as judicial commissioner of Hunan province in 1897.