Lu You

Lu You
Statue of Lu You on Nanji Hill, Jiaocheng District, Ningde, Fujian
Traditional Chinese	陸游
Simplified Chinese	陆游
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lù Yóu Wade–Giles Lu4 Yu2 IPA [lû jǒu] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Luhk Yàuh Jyutping Luk6 Jau4 Southern Min Tâi-lô Lio̍k Iû Middle Chinese Middle Chinese Ljuwk Yuw
Wuguan (courtesy name)
Traditional Chinese	務觀
Simplified Chinese	务观
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wùguàn
Fangweng (art name)
Chinese	放翁
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Fàngwēng

Lu You (simplified Chinese: 陆游; traditional Chinese: 陸游/陸遊; 1125–1209) was a prominent poet of China's Southern Song Dynasty(南宋).

Lu You was born on a boat floating in the Wei River early on a rainy morning, October 17, 1125 (Chinese calendar). At the time of his birth, China was divided and the once-glorious Song dynasty in the northern part of the country had been invaded by the Jurchens(女真) of the Jin dynasty(金) in the Jin–Song wars(金宋戰爭). The southern part of China continued to hold out as the Southern Song dynasty for another 150 years, but during Lu You's entire life, the country was threatened by invasion from the north. He is known for his many patriotic poems.

One year after his birth, the troops of the Jin dynasty conquered the capital of the Northern Song dynasty; his family fled to the south. Lu You's family included government officials, and he received a good education. He was brought up to be patriotic, and grew up determined to expel the foreign Jurchen from the North and bring about the reunification of China under the Song dynasty.

Lu You grew up with his cousin Tang Wan (唐琬), who was quiet but loved literature. They fell deeply in love and were married when he was 20. But they had no children, and his mother did not like Tang Wan. Though they had lived happily together, his mother forced them to divorce in order to make Lu You concentrate on studying to fulfill his aspiration of saving the Song dynasty. In traditional Chinese culture, children were required to obey their parents. Lu You loved his mother and reluctantly divorced Tang Wan. She later married a nobleman named Zhao Shicheng (趙士程), and he married a woman from the Wang clan (her personal name eludes most researchers).

Lu You was sad after his first marriage broke up. One spring day, at age 31, eight years after their divorce, he passed by Shen's Garden(沈園) and by chance encountered Tang Wan and her husband. Tang Wan asked her husband to let her send a cup of wine to Lu You. When her hands passed the wine to him, he saw her eyes brimmed with tears. His heart was broken, and he drank the cup of bitter wine to the bottom. He turned away and on the spot wrote the poem "Phoenix Pin"(Chai Tou Feng, 釵頭鳳) on the wall of Shen's Garden. After this meeting with Tang Wan, Lu You went to the North to struggle against the foreign Jin dynasty, before returning to southern Shu (蜀, today's Sichuan) to pursue his dream of unifying China.