SOURCE: Kwei Chen, "Po Chu-i: People's Poet," in China Reconstructs, Vol. 4, July/August, 1953, pp. 31-5.

In the following essay, Chen expounds on the social criticism found in Po Chu-i's poetry.

Popular, bitter and lyrical, the poet Po Chu-i (772-846 A.D.) is no stranger to people outside China. For over a thousand years, his name has been inseparably connected with Chinese poetry, which is of course an integral element of Chinese civilization. But today Po has a fresh significance for Chinese poetry lovers and for the people of the world. The new, correct interpretation of Chinese history strengthens our appreciation of his contribution to the humanitarian mainstream of world literature, and to the "people first" tradition which was at times obscured but never extinguished in the five-thousand-year development of Chinese culture.

Fearless Social Critic

Po Chu-i is now admired and studied in China chiefly as a man who...