Fan Chengda (1126-1193) was one of the best-known Chinese poets of the twelfth century. His work deals with the traditional themes of the period, including peasant life, the seasons, Buddhism, and growing old. Fan was born in Suzhou into a middle-ranking family at a time of conflict between the Southern Song and Jin dynasties. A precocious child, his early studies of classical literature prepared him for a career in the civil service - a career that was temporarily interrupted when his parents died within a few months of each other in 1143, leaving Fan Chengda in sole charge of the family estate. These studies, together with his experiences of working in the fields as a teenager and his interest in Buddhism, provided inspiration for his later poetry. Events Rutherglen becomes one of the first Royal Burghs in Scotland. ... // Saladin dies, and the lands of the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt and Syria are split among his descendants. ... Buddhism is a dharmic, non-theistic religion, which is also a philosophy and a system of psychology[]. Buddhism is also known as Buddha Dharma or Dhamma, which means the teachings of the Awakened One in Sanskrit and Pali, the languages of ancient Buddhist texts. ... Suzhou (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; ancient name: 吳) is a city with a long history on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Lake Taihu in the province of Jiangsu, China. ... Alternative meaning: Song Dynasty (420-479) The Song dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝) was a ruling dynasty in China from 960-1279. ... The JÄ«n Dynasty (Jurchen: Anchu; Chinese: 金朝; Pinyin: ; 1115-1234), also known as the Jurchen dynasty, was founded by the Wanyan (完顏 Wányán) clan of the Jurchen, the ancestors of the Manchus who established the Qing Dynasty some 500 years later. ...

His best-known work is a series of sixty poems which he wrote in 1186, following his retirement from his position as a high official at the Southern Song Court. The poems have been translated into English under the name Stone Lake - the location of his retirement villa just outside Suzhou.