Career
His life spanned nearly the whole of the Wanli period (1573-1620) in Chinese history. Yuan was from Gong"an in Hukuang. His family had been military officials for generations.
Yuan showed an interest in literature from youth and formed his own literary club at age fifteen.
At the age of twenty-four in 1592 he took the chin-shih examination and subsequently received an official position in 1595. However he quit out of boredom after a year.
Yuan traveled and consulted with the radical philosopher Li Zhi. His travels resulted in his publishing a poetry compilation Jietuo ji.
The resulting work is Xiaobi tangji.