Lu You, a Poet of Unique Accomplishments

Lu You (1125-1210), a great poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), is a distinct poet in the history of Chinese literature. He lived 85 years. Of the famous poets of the past, no one else lived longer. He composed more than 10,000 poems in his lifetime; no other poet wrote more. And most legendarily, among other things, the poet killed three tigers within a year.

Life of Disappointment

He was born in a stormy night on a boat in 1125, two years before the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) collapsed. His father was a government official with a large private library. Thanks to the large collection of precious books, the junior grew up with a fine education by reading all the books at home. Moreover, Lu You grew up with the ambition to recover the lost land. Though the 29-year-old scholar came out the first in a preliminary examination of Zhejiang, he was dismissed for his military stance to recover the lost land. When the prime minister passed away and a new emperor came to the throne, Lu You was appointed high positions at the court. But he was largely treated as a poet. His career as a government official spanned 45 years. It started when he was 34 and ended when he was 79. During this long career Lu took twenty-three official posts and three other concurrent posts, all being low-ranking ones. And he was dismissed four times. His ambition to repulse the invaders and get back the lost land was tragically thwarted.

Killed Three Tigers within One Year

In 1172, he was appointed to a military post. He came to the frontier. The troopers trained hard. Lu You participated in all the military drills. It was during this period that he shot a tiger with an arrow. He towed the dead animal back to the barrack when hundreds of people rushed out to see the hero and the game and cheered. In a hunt in the autumn in the same year, he killed a tiger with a spear. Toward the end of the year, he killed a baby tiger with a sword. All the three exploits were narrated in his poems. In ancient China when killing a tiger was regarded as the most heroic exploit. Lu You was the only poet who killed three tigers within a year in the history of China. Though killing a tiger sounds atrocious and unforgivable today for tigers are endangered species, the ferocious animals roamed everywhere in ancient times. Ancients were most willing to kill the man-eating animals.

A Celebrated Poet

Lu You and Su Dongpo are regarded as the Big Two Poets of the Song Dynasty. And some scholars place him as one of the six major poets of ancient China. Lu You had three designs for his life when he was young. He yearned to be a Taoist and found a way to be immortal; he wanted to be a military commander for honors on the frontier; and he wished to be a great essayist. He never dreamed of being a poet. But he lived in a time when everything he desired to achieve for his life went to nothing and he became a celebrated poet by accident. By his own proud count, he wrote 10,000 poems in six decades. About 9,700 poems of his have survived the time, making him the most prolific among all-time major poets. His poems can be classified into five categories: love poems, nature poems, country life poems, philosophical poems; and patriotic poems. Many lines from his poems are best known quotations.

Qian Zhongshu, a modern man of letters, observed that Lu’s life and poetry abounded with a passionate sense of patriotism.

Lu You passed away at the age of 85 in early 1210 with the bitter regret of being unable to see the recovery of the lost land. In 2010, I visited Shenyuan Garden in Shaoxing where he visited several times during his lifetime and a residence in Hai’er Lane where he lived at the age of 62. In the spring of 1115, the 31-year-old Lu You ran into his former wife Tang Wan during his visit to Shenyuan Garden. He wrote a famous poem in memory of the encounter and his regret over their marriage dismantled by his tyrannical mother. In 1199, 44 years after the unexpected encounter with his beloved woman, Lu You visited Shenyuan Garden again. He wrote two poems in commemoration of his divorced wife. Today, the garden has been expanded. A Lu You memorial in the garden is an important venue for patriotism education for youngsters.

When Lu You was appointed to a prefecture post at the age of 62, he lived for about a month at a house in Hai’er Lane in downtown Hangzhou, waiting for an interview with the emperor before taking up his post. During his stay at the lane, he wrote a famous poem. The house is no more. But a house of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) across the site is now preserved as Lu You memorial. As a venue for patriotism education, it is open to the general public.

On April 28, 2009, Comrade Jiang Zemin visited the memorial. Wang Qiwei, an advisor to the memorial, worked as a tour guide and answered a lot of professional questions posted by Jiang.