Liu Ling, born 221 and died 300 CE, was a Chinese poet and scholar. Little information survives about his family background, though he is described in historical sources as short and unattractive, with a dissipated appearance.
Name
Liu Ling's name is commonly misprinted as "劉靈". ==Background==
Background
Liu Ling was born in the state of Pei of the Western Jin dynasty (266–316 CE), which is now the Suzhou of Anhui province. ==Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove==
Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove
One of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, Liu Ling was a Taoist who retreated to the countryside in order to pursue a spontaneous and natural existence that would have been impossible under the tight constraints of the Imperial court. ==Personality and life==
Personality and life
Popularly regarded as an eccentric, he was notorious for his love of alcohol. The earliest depictions of him, on tombs in Nanjing, show him drinking wine from a gourd, and his most famous work is a poem titled "In Praise of the Virtue of Wine". ==Literature==