Lu Chi

Lu Chi was from a powerful family that found itself out of favor when the kingdom of Wu, which it had helped found in 229, fell to the Chin. After remaining in retirement at his family's estate in Hua-t'ing (in modern Kiangsu Province) for more than 10 years, Lu Chi reluctantly returned to toon meer government in the service of the new dynasty, but he was eventually tempted to join a plot against the emperor in 301 and barely escaped execution. A year later, he again took up arms against the regime in another ill-fated coup attempt---this one led by a prince of the ruling house. Ironically, Lu Chi's troops performed so badly in an attack on the capital that the prince doubted his loyalty and had him executed as a traitor, along with his sons and a brother. More than 100 of Lu Chi's poems survive, but it is for one piece of rhapsodic fu that he is remembered. This long prose-poem presents in 131 parallel couplets a systematic analysis of literature itself---initial motivation, the joys and frustrations of the writing process, the requirements of various genres, and the relation of form to content, common literary shortcomings, the ultimate mystery of inspiration, and, finally, literature's uses. This single work exerted a profound influence on all subsequent Chinese literary criticism. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder