Chinese poet Wang Guozhen, who was quoted by President Xi Jinping in his public speech, passed away in Beijing on Sunday.

Wang, whose poems became a sensation in the 1990s, died of liver cancer at the age of 59.

His passing has brought him back into focus across the country's traditional and social media, with people mourning and also debating his place among China's contemporary poets.

"There's no mountain higher than a man, and no road longer than his feet," Xi had quoted from one of Wang's poems during a speech at the 2013 APEC CEOs' summit in Indonesia, to emphasize China's determination on economic reform.

Born on June 22, 1956, Wang grew up in a neighborhood of government officials' families in Beijing and was fond of literature. However, his education was interrupted by the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), and he ended up spending some seven years in a factory after completing middle school. Like many others from his generation, caught in turbulent times, Wang thought he might always work as a laborer.

In 1978, the second year after the country resumed the national college entrance exam, Wang, then 22, was admitted to the Chinese department at Jinan University in Guangzhou, and started to write poems.

Wang's first published poem was A Day at School for the newspaper China Youth Daily in 1979, and he received 2 yuan as remuneration, which inspired him to send his works to other publications. Although more of his poems were rejected, he continued to write furiously in the 1980s, and his poems gradually became popular among students.