 Liu Yuxi’s father, Li Xu, was forced to leave Luoyang to avoid the An Lushan rebellion (755-763) and went to Jiaxing (in the north of present-day Zhejiang Province).Liu Yuxi was born and grew up in the south.In his youth he studied with two renowned poets in Kuaiji (now Shaoxing), the Chan (Zen) monks Lingche (靈澈, 746-816) and Jiaoran (皎然, 730-799), and his later works often reflected this Buddhist sensibility.