Lu You

Timeline

1. 1125–1162Shanyin · Shanyin CountyOf the Lu clan of Shanyin, displaced by family misfortune in 1129 and returned home in 1132. Passed the jinshi examination in 1154 but was excluded by Qin Hui for advocating resistance against Jin. After Emperor Xiaozong's accession in 1162 he was employed, submitting works such as the Xianbei Shengxun and forcefully arguing for recovery plans, his poetry bold and impassioned.
2. 1163–1189Chengdu · Chengdu PrefectureJoined the staff of the Sichuan Pacification Commissioner in 1172, traveling the famous mountains and rivers of Shu, his poetic output surging. Later served as prefect in several places; impeached repeatedly in the 1180s over various matters, dismissed from office in 1189, his poetic reputation already rivalling that of Fan Chengda and Yang Wanli.
3. 1190–1209Shanyin · Shanyin CountyDismissed and returned to Shanyin in 1190; briefly recalled as a Hanlin Academy editor-in-chief at Baomo Pavilion in 1192, then retired again. In the 1190s he wrote poetry and books around Jinghu and Lanting in his hometown, joined the compilation of the Liangchao Shilu in 1203, and died in 1209; his deathbed poem Shi'er still yearned for the day the royal army would pacify the Central Plains in the north.