Lu You - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Names Chinese name Personal names in Chinese culture follow a number of conventions different from those of personal names in Western cultures. Most noticeably, a Chinese name is written with the family name first and the given name next, therefore "John-Paul Smith" as a Chinese name would be "Smith John-Paul"...
Xìng 姓 Chinese surname Chinese family names have been historically used by Han Chinese and Sinicized Chinese ethnic groups in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames, family names and clan names , existed.The colloquial expressions laobaixing... :	Lù 陸
Míng 名 Chinese given name Chinese given names are generally made up of one or two characters, and are written after the family name, therefore "John-Paul Smith" as a Chinese name would be read "Smith John-Paul". Chinese names can consist of any character and contain almost any meaning... :	Yóu 游
Zì 字:	Wùguàn 務觀
Hào 號 Chinese style name A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name , is a given name to be used later in life. After 20 years of age, the zì is assigned in place of one's given name as a symbol of adulthood and respect... :	Fàngwēng 放翁

Lu You , was a Chinese poet of the Southern Song dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

Early life and marriage

Lu You was born on a boat floating in the Wei River early on a rainy morning, October 17, 1125 (Chinese calendar

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. It is not exclusive to China, but followed by many other Asian cultures as well...

). At the time of his birth, China was divided and the once-glorious Song dynasty

Song Dynasty

in the northern part of the country had been invaded by the Jin/"Golden" Tartars or Jurchen people (女真), a foreign nation. The southern part of China continued to hold out as the Southern Song dynasty for another 150 years, but during Lu You's entire life, the country was threatened by invasion from the north. He is known for his many patriotic poems.

One year after his birth, the troops of the Jin Dynasty conquered the capital of the Northern Song dynasty; his family fled to the south. Lu You's family included government officials, and he received a good education. He was brought up to be patriotic, and grew up determined to expel the foreign Jurchen from the North and bring about the reunification of China under the Song dynasty.

Lu You grew up with his cousin Tang Wan (唐琬), who was quiet but loved literature. They fell deeply in love and were married when he was 20. But they had no children, and his mother did not like Tang Wan. Though they had lived happily together, his mother forced them to divorce in order to make Lu You concentrate on studying to fulfill his aspiration of saving the Song dynasty. In traditional Chinese culture, children were required to obey their parents. Lu You loved his mother and reluctantly divorced Tang Wan. She later married a nobleman named Zhao Shi Cheng, and he married a woman from the Wang clan (her personal name eludes most researchers).

Lu You was sad after his first marriage broke up. One spring day, at age 31, eight years after their divorce, he passed by Shen's Garden and by chance encountered Tang Wan and her husband. Tang Wan asked her husband to let her send a cup of wine to Lu You. When her hands passed the wine to him, he saw her eyes brimmed with tears. His heart was broken, and he drank the cup of bitter wine to the bottom. He turned away and on the spot wrote the poem “Phoenix Pin” on the wall of Shen's Garden. After this meeting with Tang Wan, Lu You went to the North to struggle against the foreign Jin Dynasty, before returning to southern Shu (today’s Sichuan

Sichuan

' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...

) to pursue his dream of unifying China.

When Tang Wan read Lu You's poem in the garden, she immediately wrote one in the same form in response. Less than a year later, she died. In the year before Lu You’s death, at age 85, he wrote another poem called “Shen's Garden” to commemorate Tang Wan, his first love. A traditional yue opera was written about Lu You and Tang Wan, and their love story is very famous in China.

Official career

At age 12, Lu You was already an excellent writer, had mastered the skill of sword fighting, and had delved deeply into war strategy. At age 19, he took the civil service examination, but did not pass. Ten years later, he took it again; this time he not only passed it, he was the first winner in the Lin An region. But this triumph brought him trouble. Qin Sun, the grandson of the powerful Qin Hui

Qin Hui (Song Dynasty)

Qin Hui or Qin Kuai was a Chancellor of the Song Dynasty in China, who is widely regarded as a traitor of the Han race for his part in the political execution of General Yue Fei...

(a notorious aristocratic traitor in the Song Dynasty), had also taken the exam. Lu You's win threatened Qin Sun's position, as Lu You was now likely to take first place in the next year's national examination. In fact, not only Lu You, but all the potential winners of the next year's nationwide competition were excluded, along with even some of the examination officers.

After Qin Hui's death, Lu You started his official career in government. Because he avidly insisted on fighting against the Jin Dynasty and did not follow the mainstream official lethargy on the subject, he was dismissed from his job. In 1172, he was hired to do strategic planning in the military. Military life opened his eyes and mind; he hoped to fulfill his aspiration of bringing a divided China back together. He wrote many unrestrained poems to express his passionate patriotism. But the Song Dynasty was by now corrupt and indolent; most officers just wanted to make a nice living; Lu You had no opportunity to deploy his talent.
"Entering upon a public career by virtue of his father's services, he fell into disfavour with Ch'in Kuei

Qin Hui (Song Dynasty)

Qin Hui or Qin Kuai was a Chancellor of the Song Dynasty in China, who is widely regarded as a traitor of the Han race for his part in the political execution of General Yue Fei...

; but after the latter's death he received an appointment, and in 1163 the Emperor Hsiao Tsung

Emperor Xiaozong of Song

Emperor Xiaozong was the eleventh emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the second emperor of the Southern Song. His personal name was Zhao Shen. He reigned from 1162 to 1189. His temple name means "Filial Ancestor"....

made him a Compiler for the Privy Council and conferred upon him the honorary degree of chin shih

Imperial examination

The Imperial examination was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of...

."

He was unsuccessful in his official career: he adopted a patriotic irredentist

Irredentism

Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...

stance, advocating the expulsion of the Jurchen (女真) from northern China, but this position was out of tune with the times. In 1175, Fan Chengda asked him to join his party. They shared literary interests, and now behaved casually in official society. Lu You felt there was no place for him in official life, and started to become self-indulgent, enjoying drinking to forget his lack of success in his personal life and career pursuit. He gave himself the style name/ hao

Chinese style name

A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name , is a given name to be used later in life. After 20 years of age, the zì is assigned in place of one's given name as a symbol of adulthood and respect...

"Liberated Old Man" (放翁), and was sarcastic about himself in his poems.

After several promotions and demotions, Lu You retired in 1190 to live in seclusion in his hometown Shaoxing

Shaoxing

Shaoxing is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. Located on the south bank of the Qiantang River estuary, it borders Ningbo to the east, Taizhou to the southeast, Jinhua to the southwest, and Hangzhou to the west. It was once known as "越"...

(紹興), then a rural area. He spent the last twenty years of his life there. Lu You enjoy good health and liked eating pearl barley

Pearl barley

Pearl barley is barley processed to remove its hull and bran. Barley must have its fibrous outer hull removed before it can be eaten; pearl barley is taken a step further, polished to remove the nutritious bran layer....

and tree-ear mushrooms

Auricularia auricula-judae

Auricularia auricula-judae, known as the Jew's ear, jelly ear or by a number of other common names, is a species of edible Auriculariales fungus found worldwide. The fruiting body is distinguished by its noticeably ear-like shape and brown colouration; it grows upon wood, especially elder...

. This habit kept his vision and hearing keen until death. During his retirement, he still ardently supported fighting against the Jin Dynasty, but without success. His wife died in 1197. On December 29, 1209 (Chinese calendar

Chinese calendar

), he died at age 86. His great regret was knowing that northern China was still in the control of the foreigners.

Style

Lu You wrote about eleven thousand poems, in both the shi
Shi (poetry)
Shi is the Chinese word for "poetry" or "poem", anciently associated with Chinese poetry. In modern times, shi can and has been used as an umbrella term to mean poetry in any form or language, whether or not Chinese; but, it may imply or be used to refer certain classical forms of poetry, for...

(詩) and ci
Ci (poetry)
Ci is a kind of lyric Classical Chinese poetry using a poetic meter based upon certain patterns of fixed-rhythm formal types. For speakers of English, the word "ci" is pronounced somewhat like "tsuh"...

(詞) forms, plus a number of prose

Prose

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...

works. In his poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

he continues to articulate the beliefs which cost him his official career, calling for reconquest of the north. Watson identifies these works as part of the legacy of Du Fu

Du Fu

Du Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty.Along with Li Bai , he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations...

(杜甫). Watson compares a second body of work, poems on country life and growing old, to those of Bai Juyi (白居易) and Tao Qian

Tao Qian

Tao Qian , better known as Tao Yuanming , was a Chinese poet. Born in modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi, he was one of the most influential pre-Tang Dynasty Chinese poets....

(陶潛).

His style can be divided into three periods.

First Period

The first Period of Lu You’s works is from his teenage years to age 46. This period, although the longest, contains the fewest of his works, about two hundred poems, because he himself destroyed his early works.

Second Period

Second Period runs from age 46 to 54, including more than 2400 shi and ci. During this period, Lu You joined the military and was affected by that experience.

Third Period

The third Period runs from the time Lu You retired to his home town until his death. He did not have time to edit his work, and 6500 poems survive from this period. His work in this period includes peaceful pastoral images as well as desolation and bleakness.

Though his style changed throughout his life, his work is always full of patriotism. This is the most important feature of his poetry, and the major reason they have been valued for almost a thousand years.

Poems

Lu You wrote many poems. One of his most famous is "To My Son" (示儿). This is how it goes:

To My Son (示儿)

死去原知万事空，

但悲不见九州同。

王师北定中原日，

家祭无忘告乃翁。

All turns to dust in my dying eyes,

only hatred is that a unified land is not seen.

When the day of the emperor's troops sweeping the North comes,

you must not forget to tell me at my tombstone.

He composed this last poem when he was near death.

What this poem means is that he does not mind not being able to take anything with him when he dies (死去原知万事空), but he is upset to see that China is still not united as a nation (但悲不见九州同). He is telling his son that if this day ever comes (王师北定中原日), his family must not forget to go to his grave and tell him there (家祭无忘告乃翁。).

Rainstorm on Nov. 4 (十一月四日风雨大作)

僵卧孤村不自哀，

尚思为国戍轮台。

夜阑卧听风吹雨，

铁马冰河入梦来。

I slept stiff and alone in a lonely village without feeling self-pity.

I am still thinking of fighting for my country.

Deep into the night I lie down and hear the wind blowing the rain.

The armored horses and the ice river came into my dream.

This poem was written when Lu was old and retired, but it shines with his patriotism and vivid depiction of the fighting scenes in the North.

Phoenix Hairpin (钗头凤)

红酥手，黄縢酒，

满城春色宫墙柳。

东风恶，欢情薄，

一怀愁绪，几年离索，

错，错，错。

春如旧，人空瘦，

泪痕红浥鲛绡透。

桃花落，闲池阁，

山盟虽在，锦书难托，

莫，莫，莫。

Pink soft hands, yellow rippling wine,

The town is filled with Spring, willows by palace walls.

The east wind is biting, happiness is thin,

heart full of sorrow, so many years apart.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!

Spring is as of old; the person is empty and thin.

Traces of tears show through the sheer silk.

Peach blossoms falling, glimmering pond freezing,

The huge oath remains, the brocade book is hard to hold.

Don't, Don't, Don't!

Note: The words "wrong" and "don't" rhyme in Chinese.

This poem is about his real love story (see his marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

). In this poem, "Biting east wind" is a metaphor for traditional Chinese view about women. This view broke up his first marriage. "Brocade book", or "glorious/bright book," is another metaphor for his ambition of unifying China. But he doesn't seem to be successful in either of them (marriage and career). He also uses antithesis, which is very popular in Chinese poetry. It matches both sound and sense in two poetic lines, like "a heart of sorrow" pairing with "years apart" and "paramount promise" pairing "brocade book". The sounds match perfectly in Chinese. This poem falls in the first period of his works.

Plum Blossom (卜算子-咏梅)

驿外断桥边

寂寞开无主

已是黄昏独自愁

更著风和雨

无意苦争春

一任群芳妒

零落成泥碾作尘

只有香如故

Near the broken bridge outside the fortress,

I go, lonely and disoriented.

It is dusk and I am alone and anxious,

especially when the wind and rain start to blow.

I do not mean to fight for Springtime,

I would rather be alone and envied by the crowd.

I will fall down, become earth, be crushed to dust.

My glory will be same as before.

External links

Lu You Poems

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