Gao Qi (1336-1374)is generally acknowledged as the greatest poet of the Ming dynasty in China. He was born and raised in Suzhou, where his life was dominated by the fall of the Yuan dynasty and the rise of the Ming. Suzhou was a centre of resistance to the new dynasty, and Gao Qi found no favour with the new regime (whether because of his own opposition to it, or as part of the city's collective punishment, is unclear). In 1374 he was executed on false charges. His poems are imitative of those of earlier dynasties.