Soong Hsün-leng, tzu Hsin-leng, also Yü-li; hao Hsing-an (literally Fragrance Hermitage). He came from a Wu-hsing family, in Chekiang Province. He was born in the second year of the Hsüan-t’ung reign (1910) in Foochow, and grew up in Shanghai. He graduated in 1932 from National Central University.

When China Mainland fell to the Communists, he took refuge in Hong Kong. His lyrics, written privately over the years, have here been collected into a single volume entitled The Fragrant Hermitage. He was never one for writing affected verse, but always proceeded from something real, a person in his heart, an idea conceived in his mind: such things he would strive his utmost to express in lyric verse. His younger work tends to be more flowery and sentimental; after the fall of China to the Communists, his verse took on a more vehement and melancholy tone.

   From Prof. John Minford’s translation 
of The Fragrant Hermitage