Fu Yi

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.