Bai Juyi (772-846), styled Letian, with the sobriquet Xiangshan Resident Scholar, was from Xiagui (today's Weinan of Shaanxi province). He obtained the title of "Jinshi" in the sixteenth year of the Zhenyuan era, and successively held official posts such as Left Remonstrant, Counselor to the Crown Prince,司马of Jiangzhou, Prefects of Hangzhou and Suzhou, and Grand Tutor.