Writers › Writer / Poet
Lu Qianyi
Later Shu military governor and lyricist whose 'Linjiangxian' on a desolate palace garden is read as a lament for a fallen state
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.
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Lu Qianyi lived under the Later Shu; according to the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms (Shiguo chunqiu), he passed the jinshi examination and rose to military governor of Yongtai, with the honorary ranks of grand commandant and grand guardian. Tradition groups him with Ouyang Jiong, Han Zong, Yan Xuan and Mao Wenxi as the Five Ghosts who wrote song lyrics for the ruler Meng Chang. Among the Flowers includes six of his lyrics, and his 'Linjiangxian', which opens on a deserted garden behind locked gates where lotus flowers weep in the dark, has usually been read as mourning a lost kingdom. Later lyric criticism says he refused office after the fall of his state, a claim not found in the official histories.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; Later Shu period