Lu You

Timeline

1. 1125–1162Shanyin · Shaoxing PrefectureBorn into a prominent Shanyin family, he sat the Ministry of Rites examination in the 29th year of Shaoxing (1159) but was excluded by Qin Hui for advocating resistance against Jin. Summoned to court after Emperor Xiaozong's accession, he served as an editor of the Privy Council and submitted memorials on recovery plans, displaying his lifelong aspiration to resist Jin.
2. 1163–1170Chengdu Prefecture · Circuit of Chengdu PrefectureDuring the Qiandao era he joined the staffs of Wang Yan and Yu Yunwen, Pacification Commissioners of Sichuan, experiencing frontier defense firsthand and turning ever more bold in his poetry. Later transferred to Fujian, Jiangxi and elsewhere, his career rising and falling while his resolve to resist Jin never changed.
3. 1171–1180Shanyin · Shaoxing PrefectureAround the early Chunxi era he resigned and returned to his Shanyin home near Jinghu, amusing himself daily with verse. Over those ten years his output was abundant, mostly pastoral scenes carrying his aspiration for recovery; he socialized and exchanged poems with Fan Chengda, Yang Wanli and others, representing a high point of Southern Song poetry.
4. 1181–1210Shanyin · Shaoxing PrefectureStill living in Shanyin in old age, his brush grew vigorous; he died in the third year of Jiading (1210), his deathbed poem Shi'er, 'when the royal army pacifies the Central Plains in the north,' surviving to this day. Skilled in poetry, ci and prose throughout his life, his ci were few but refined, and his poetic fame was greatest.