Praising a Ruler at a Dangerous Time: Two Poems by Lu Yun for Sima Ying

Abstract Through close contextual and intertextual analysis of poems that the literatus Lu Yun composed for the Jin dynasty's de facto ruler in the early fourth century, a most chaotic and brutal period of China's political history, this essay demonstrates the remarkable creativity involved in the writing of highly formal and seemingly conventional verse. It examines in particular Lu's skillful manipulation of allusions to the Shi jing (Classic of Songs) and other classics of antiquity. Contrary to the notion of panegyric poetry as a routine performance that aimed only to present a pompous facade, my analysis suggests that allusions can signify the poet's excruciating effort to negotiate a way out of a delicate or even, treacherous situation.