柳永

Liu Yong is an important author in the history of classical Chinese ci poetry. Publicly available information about his life and official career is limited, and details such as his dates of birth and death and his nationality are unconfirmed in our records, so this introduction relies mainly on his surviving works. The collection holds ten of his works, including the two volumes of The Complete Works of Liu Yong, Yuezhang Ji, Liu Yong's Ci Collection, and pieces such as "Pozhen Yue," as well as selections in the Ci Series, Famous Ci Collections of Successive Dynasties, and Essence of Famous Ci Collections of Successive Dynasties. Liu Yong is known for his ci, whose subjects often involve travel and lodging, urban scenes, and feelings between men and women. He excelled at long-form composition and exposition, and his language is accessible with harmonious tonal patterns; his influence on the later development and transmission of the ci form has been lasting. His works are commonly classified under classical poetry, historical reading, and literary appreciation, and are suitable for reading from both literary-historical and close-textual perspectives.