Bill Porter (Red Pine) was born in Los Angeles in 1943. While attending graduate school at Columbia University, he became interested in Buddhism and moved to Taiwan, where he began translating Chinese poetry and spiritual texts under the name Red Pine. Since returning to America in 1993, he has worked as an independent scholar. Among the awards his books have received are the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation and the Special Book Award of China. He is the translator of numerous volumes, including, most recently, Dancing with the Dead: Essential Red Pine and Choosing to Be Simple: Collected Poems of Tao Yuanming.

Xin Qiji was born in the city of Jinan in 1140 CE and grew up in the northern half of China. He was a fierce soldier in his youth, and in later life committed himself to poetry, adding words to popular melodies. During his own lifetime four editions of his lyric poems appeared in print, and he has ever since been acknowledged as China's greatest practitioner of this genre.