Huang Tingjian
Huang Tingjian was born into the prominent Huang clan, which had established residence in Jiangnan, south of the Yangzi River, just across the river gorge from the main turmoils and troubles of the Five Dynasties period. Tingjian's great-great-grandfather had then and there established a great library, together with an educational system. Achievement of the "jinshi" degree was a common attainment for men of the Huang clan. Huang Tingjian's mother, Lady Li, was an accomplished painter of bamboo and player of the guqin. His father, Huang Shu (,1018-1058) received his "jinshi" in 1042, and introduced his son Huang Tingjian to the works of Du Fu and Han Yu, before dying when Tingjian was 13 years old, at which point Huang Tingjian left his hometown of Fenning (,in modern Jiangxi).