Writers › Writer / Poet
Lu Ji
Western Jin poet and critic, grandson of the Wu general Lu Xun, who wrote the Rhapsody on Literature and was executed after a lost battle in the War of the Eight Princes
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Shiheng
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Lu Ji, courtesy name Shiheng, came from Huating near Wu; his grandfather Lu Xun and father Lu Kang were leading ministers of the Wu state. After Wu fell in 280 he studied at home for nearly ten years and wrote On the Fall of a State (Bianwang lun). Late in the Taikang era he and his brother Lu Yun went to Luoyang, where Zhang Hua said the real prize of conquering Wu was these two talents. In the War of the Eight Princes he joined Sima Ying, Prince of Chengdu, who in 303 sent him against Sima Yi, Prince of Changsha. After a heavy defeat at Luyuan, the eunuch Meng Jiu and Lu Zhi accused him of disloyalty, and he was executed in his forty-third year, lamenting that he would never again hear the cranes of Huating. His Rhapsody on Literature (Wenfu) treats composition and genre, Zhong Rong's Grading of Poets ranks him in the top class, and the Pingfu Letter in the Palace Museum is attributed to his hand.
Life and times
- 261 CEBorn
Three Kingdoms
Jin - 303 CEDied
Works
Literature · Poetry14- Imitating 'A High Tower in the Northwest'JinLu Ji's imitation of an old poem: a listener below a tower longs to fly off with the player
- Imitating 'The East City Wall Stands High'JinLu Ji's imitation of an old poem: from the passing seasons to a Luoyang singer's song
- Imitating 'Orchids Grow in the Spring Sun'JinLu Ji's imitation of an old poem: a tree true through frost, a lover true to one far away
- Imitating 'Far, Far the Herd Boy Star'JinLu Ji's imitation of an old poem: the Weaving Maid gazes across the Milky Way, unable to cross
- Imitating 'Green, Green the Riverbank Grass'JinLu Ji's imitation of an old poem: a weaver by the river alone while her husband roams
+9 more
- Imitating 'In the Courtyard a Rare Tree'JinLu Ji's imitation of an old poem: grass grows lush, and still the loved one does not come home
- Imitating 'Crossing the River to Pick Lotus'JinLu Ji's imitation of an old poem: picking flowers in the hills for a love beyond the mountains
- Written for Gu Yanxian, to His WifeJinLu Ji writes for a friend and his wife: dust of the capital, and a wife's long wait at home
- Written for Lady Zhou, to Her Husband the Cavalry GeneralJinLu Ji writes in a wife's voice: weaving a jacket, following his letters, too lonely to eat
- A Song of Beauties on a Spring OutingJinLu Ji's yuefu on the beauties of a late-spring outing by the Luo: their looks, song and dance
- Former Song in Slow MeasureJinLu Ji's yuefu of immortals: a feast of spirits in the sky that ends in blessings on the throne
- Song by the Pond: The River LovageJinLu Ji's yuefu: a river plant moved to a palace pool, and a woman's fear of fading favour
- Imitating "On and On, Going On and On"JinLu Ji imitates an old parting poem: a wife wasting away for a traveller at the sky's edge
- Imitating "How Bright the Moon"JinLu Ji's moonlight that fills the room yet cannot fill a hand, for an official far from home
- Literature · Sayings2
- All Things Gathered at the Tip of the BrushJinLine from Lu Ji's Rhapsody on Literature: heaven and earth caught in the writer's brush
- Enclosing Heaven and Earth Within Form: Lu Ji's Rhapsody on WritingJinLine from Lu Ji's Rhapsody on Literature: writing can hold heaven and earth
- Literature · Criticism1
- Rhapsody on Literature · ExcerptJinLu Ji's Western Jin rhapsody on how literature is conceived, the first full theory of creation
Treasures · Brushwork1- Lu Ji, Pingfu TieWestern Jin dynastyA get-well note from seventeen centuries ago
Family tree
- Direct kin
