MUZIChinese Matrix
Writers › Writer / Poet
Eastern Han rhapsodist from Maoling whose Wu Fu, voiced through Song Yu, is the classic Han portrayal of dance to the drum.
Mural of the cultural record “Han–Wei Music and Dance”, which this person is tied to.
Also known as Zi Wuzhong
Fu Yi, styled Wuzhong, came from Maoling in Fufeng. As a young man he wrote the poem Dizhi and the satirical Qi Ji. Under Emperor Zhang he was summoned to the Lantai imperial library, made a gentleman of the court and set to collate texts with Ban Gu and Jia Kui; his ten Odes to Xianzong made his name at court. He later served on the staffs of Ma Fang and Dou Xian, becoming Dou's adjutant when Dou was Grand General, and died young. Of his twenty-eight surviving pieces the best known is the Wu Fu, framed as a dialogue between King Xiang of Chu and Song Yu, which describes banquet dancers stepping to the drum with long sleeves flying; the Treatise on Music of the Jin Shu says the rhapsodies of Fu Yi and Zhang Heng depict the drum dance.
HanBirth date unknown; died c. 90 CE; active under Emperors Zhang and He of the Eastern Han
Literature · Rhapsodies1In the Jianchu years Emperor Suzong summoned men of letters and made Fu Yi a clerk of the Orchid Terrace and then a gentleman, to collate books with Ban Gu and Jia Kui. The general Ma Fang asked for him as army major, and in 89 Dou Xian asked for him as chief secretary; when Dou Xian became grand general he made Fu Yi his major.
In the Yongping years Fu Yi studied the classics at Pingling and wrote the Dizhi Poem. Following the Qingmiao hymn he presented ten pieces of the Xianzong Hymn, and, because the emperor was not earnest in seeking worthy men and many scholars lived in hiding, wrote the Seven Provocations as a remonstrance. He died young, leaving twenty-eight pieces of poems, rhapsodies, eulogies, hymns, prayers, the Seven Provocations and linked pearls.
