Chinese poet famous for his 'Book of the Bamboo' where he describes with enthusiasm a great many qualities of bamboo and other plants.

Li Kan was a northern Chinese who entered the service of the Mongol government in an early period of his life and rose to a high position in the Yuan court.

Li asserted that the painter must possess 'the complete bamboo in his breast', and he urged the statesman to take up bamboo painting to discipline his mind and expand his breadth of vision.

Lo Kuan-chung
c.1260 ? - c.1340 ?

Chinese poet and first known master of a new literature in China who wrote in the vernacular style addressing the masses rather than fellow literati.

'San Kuo chih yen-i' (Romance of the three Kingsdoms) describes a period of division in Chinese history after the collapse of the Han dynasty.

This work became for centuries the most popular book in China. 'Shui-hu chuan' (transl. All Men are Brothers) deals with stories woven around a number of enlightened bandits - armed and social dissenters - whose exploits were recorded during the Sung period.