Late-Yuán / early-Míng poet of Western (Sèmù 色目) descent — that is, of one of the West-Asian peoples integrated into the Yuán empire — settled at Wǔchāng 武昌. He used Hènián (“Crane Years”) as both name and zì (following the example of Mèng Hàorán’s use of Hàorán as both). Sobriquet Hǎicháo 海巢 (from his exile to Mǐng on the Sìmíng coast). His family had achieved hereditary military distinction; his eldest brother was the Yuán qiānshì dūyuánshuài of Zhèdōng Jíyǎ Módíyīn 吉雅摩迪音 (also written 吉雅謨丁), and another brother was Ālǐshā 阿里沙, hànlín yìngfèng. Dīng himself refused all office, lived as a yìmín in retreat after the dynastic transition (first in Sìmíng, then back at Wǔchāng), and was famed for filial piety — both Wū Sīdào 烏斯道 and Dài Liáng 戴良 wrote his zhuàn, comparing him to the Hàn-period yìshì Shēntú Pán 申屠蟠. He lived almost ninety years (1335–1424), well into the Yǒnglè reign. His Hènián shī jí / Hǎicháo jí 鶴年詩集 / 海巢集 (KR4d0557) is the surviving witness; his prose has not come down. He is biographically attached at the end of Dài Liáng’s 戴良 entry in the Míng shǐ wényuàn zhuàn.
He stands as a major node in the study of West-Asian-origin Yuán shī poets — a group treated explicitly by Dài Liáng’s preface to this collection, which names Guàn Yúnshí 貫雲石 (Guàn Suānzhāi), Mǎ Bóyōng 馬伯庸 (Mǎ Zǔcháng), Sà Tiānxī 薩天錫 (Sà Dūlá), Yú Tíngxīn 余廷心 (Yú Què) etc. as Dīng’s nearest predecessors.