⬅️ 唐诗 Tang Poems
Cui Hao (崔颢, 704-754 AD) was a poet of Tang Dynasty. He was born into the prestigious Cui clan (博陵崔氏). Despite his family background, his literary talent and his pass of the Jinshi (进士) examination at young age, he was never promoted to any important position during his career due to his disreputable behavior. He indulged himself in drinking, gambling and women, which were despised by the traditional Confucian scholar-literati society. In the very limited space dedicated to him in New Tang Book, it was said that Cui Hao had literature talent but no character. He would marry a woman completely for her appearance, and he would abandon her rather quickly. It was said in the Tang Book that he married four or five times. The record of this kind was extremely rare in Chinese history books. It showed strong disapproval for Cui Hao's behavior by Chinese literati. His poems written in the first half of his life were regarded as frivolous and vulgar.
However, his style of writing changed dramatically in his later life, probably due to his extensive travel across the country, including to the north and northeast frontiers. His poems of this stage were said to be fresh and vivid in language and stern and righteous in spirit (风骨凛然).
The Yellow Crane Tower in the poem is located in present city of Wuhan (武汉). It was first built in 223 AD during the Three Kingdoms period as a military lookout and became one of four most famous towers in China (the other three were the Pavilion of Prince Teng （滕王阁）, the Yue Yang Tower （岳阳楼）, and the Stork Tower （鹳雀楼)). The tower was destroyed and rebuilt many times in history. In Ming and Qing dynasties alone it was destroyed more than ten times by either wars or by fire. The construction of the current tower was completed in 1985.
