Poet Wang Guozhen, a household name across China, died Sunday morning at age 59.

"Time is so cruel. It is heaven that is jealous of a talent… How regretful it is that I only lived 60 years," was posted on the official Sina Weibo account for Wang's studio around nine a.m. on Sunday.

After the news came out, many poets and celebrities began to post on Sina Weibo, while millions of Wang's readers and fans across the nation also expressed regret over the departure of their idol through various social networks.

"[I] cannot believe that poet Wang Guozhen died at 2:10 this morning… He was a very modest man, and very much a gentleman," poet Dawei wrote on his Sina Weibo account Sunday morning.

Born in Beijing in 1956, Wang rose to fame around the 1980s and 1990s when he began to publish essays and poems in a number of popular magazines such as Youth Digest and China Youth. Love for his work continues today. Chinese President Xi Jinping even quoted two lines from Wang's poems during the APEC CEO Summit in 2013. 

A funeral date has yet to be announced.