10 Facts About Zhao Yi

Zhao Yi was a poet, historian, and critic during the Qing dynasty in China.

Zhao Yi began his education before the age of five, and was recorded to have been a precocious learner.

Later, Zhao Yi was further spurred on to achieve educational and career success to ensure the well-being of his family after his father died when Zhao Yi was only 14 years old.

Notably, Zhao Yi specialized in the difficult Book of Rites, and incorporated emphasis on practical problems of government.

At least in part because of an aversion to examination writing, Zhao Yi delved into poetry.

Zhao Yi eventually became and is still remembered as one of the Three Masters of the Qianlong Period for his poetry.

Zhao Yi wrote poems glorifying the Qing conquest and genocide of the Dzungar Mongols.

Zhao Yi wrote the Yanpu zaji in "brush-notes" style, where military expenditures of the Qianlong Emperor's reign were recorded.

Zhao Yi supported the view that historians and works of history were of great importance in China.

In one further notable divergence from many Chinese writers in his era and even more so during the Ming dynasty, Zhao Yi offered praise for the efforts of the founder of the Qin dynasty, Qin Shihuang, to secure the northern borders of China with the early Great Wall rather than the criticisms of certain other Chinese writers.