Lu Chi

Lu Chi 

(Lu Shih-heng). Born in 261; died in 303. Chinese poet. The son of an important government official, Lu Chi was falsely accused of treason and executed. More than 200 of his poems have been preserved, including his yüeh-fu songs. His poetry is imbued with sadness and a sense of the transitoriness of human existence. Lu Chi was the first to extensively use parallel construction in verse (p’ai-ou-wu), which became one of the norms of classical Chinese poetry. His Ode to the Elegant Word is one of the first Chinese works on poetics to analyze the genres of ancient literature. Although he emphasized form and praised originality, Lu Chi criticized stylistic caprice and poetry without content.

WORKS

Lu Shih-heng shih chu. Peking, 1958.

REFERENCE

Alekseev, V. M. “Rimlianin Goratsii i kitaets Lu Tszi o poeticheskom masterstve.” Izv. AN SSSR. Otdelenie literatury i iazyka, 1944, vol. 3, issue 4.