Career

Early life and marriage

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 Song dynasty in the northern part of the country had been invaded by the Jurchens of the Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song wars. 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 "Fonqhwang Hairpinin" (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.

When Tang Wan read Lu You's poem in the garden, she immediately wrote one in the same form in response. Less than a year later, she died. In the year before Lu You's death, at age 85, he wrote another poem called 「Shen's Garden」 to commemorate Tang Wan, his first love. A traditional Yue opera was written about Lu You and Tang Wan, and their love story is very famous in China.

Official career

At age 12, Lu You was already an excellent writer, had mastered the skill of sword fighting, and had delved deeply into war strategy. At age 19, he took the civil service examination, but did not pass. Ten years later, he took it again; this time he not only passed it, he was the first winner in the Lin An region. But this triumph brought him trouble. Qin Sun, the grandson of the powerful Qin Hui (秦檜, a notorious aristocratic traitor in the Song Dynasty), had also taken the exam. Lu You's win threatened Qin Sun's position, as Lu You was now likely to take first place in the next year's national examination. In fact, not only Lu You, but all the potential winners of the next year's nationwide competition were excluded, along with even some of the examination officers.

After Qin Hui's death, Lu You started his official career in government. Because he avidly insisted on fighting against the Jin dynasty and did not follow the mainstream official lethargy on the subject, he was dismissed from his job. In 1172, he was hired to do strategic planning in the military. Military life opened his eyes and mind; he hoped to fulfill his aspiration of bringing a divided China back together. He wrote many unrestrained poems to express his passionate patriotism. But the Song Dynasty was by now corrupt and indolent; most officers just wanted to make a nice living; Lu You had no opportunity to deploy his talent."Entering upon a public career by virtue of his father's services, he fell into disfavour with Qin Hui; but after the latter's death he received an appointment, and in 1163 the Emperor Xiaozong(孝宗) made him a Compiler for the Privy Council and conferred upon him the honorary degree of Jinshi(進士)."

He was unsuccessful in his official career: he adopted a patriotic irredentist stance, advocating the expulsion of the Jurchen from northern China, but this position was out of tune with the times. In 1175, Fan Chengda(范成大) asked him to join his party. They shared literary interests, and now behaved casually in official society. Lu You felt there was no place for him in official life, and started to become self-indulgent, enjoying drinking to forget his lack of success in his personal life and career pursuit. He gave himself the art name "Fangweng" (放翁), meaning "Liberated Old Man", and was sarcastic about himself in his poems.

After several promotions and demotions, Lu You retired in 1190 to live in seclusion in his hometown Shaoxing (紹興, now in Zhejiang province), then a rural area. He spent the last twenty years of his life there. Lu You enjoyed good health and liked eating pearl barley and tree-ear mushrooms. This habit kept his vision and hearing keen until death. During his retirement, he still ardently supported fighting against the Jin dynasty, but without success. His wife died in 1197. On December 29, 1209 (Chinese calendar), he died at age 86. His great regret was knowing that northern China was still in the control of the foreigners.

Style

Lu You wrote about eleven thousand poems, in both the shi (詩) and ci (詞) forms, plus a number of prose works, which made him the poet who ranks the top in the list of numbers of the poems left before 15C. In his poetry he continues to articulate the beliefs which cost him his official career, calling for reconquest of the north. Watson identifies these works as part of the legacy of Du Fu (杜甫). Watson compares a second body of work, poems on country life and growing old, to those of Bai Juyi (白居易) and Tao Qian (陶潛).

His style can be divided into three periods.

First Period

The first Period of Lu You's works is from his teenage years to age 46. This period, although the longest, contains the fewest of his works, about two hundred poems, because he himself destroyed his early works in his later years.

Second Period

Second Period runs from age 46 to 54, including more than 2400 shi and ci. During this period, Lu You joined the military and was affected by that experience.

Third Period

The third Period runs from the time Lu You retired to his home town until his death. He did not have time to edit his work, and 6500 poems survive from this period. His work in this period includes peaceful pastoral images as well as desolation and bleakness.

Though his style changed throughout his life, his work is always full of patriotism. This is the most important feature of his poetry, and the major reason they have been valued for almost a thousand years.

Books

• 《劍南詩稿》(Jian Nan Shi Gao, the draft of poems when holding a sword in the southern borders)

• 《渭南文集》(Wei Nan Wen Ji, the collection of proses in the south of the Wei River)

• 《放翁逸稿》(Fang Weng Yi Gao, the lost drafts of the Liberated Old Man)

• 《南唐書》(Nan Tang Shu, Book of Southern Tang)

• 《老學庵筆記》(Lao Xue An Bi Ji, the notebook from the House of a Person Who Studies When He Is Old)

• 《放翁家訓》(Fang Weng Jia Xun, family precepts from the Liberated Old Man)

• 《家世舊文》(Jia Shi Jiu Wen, an old prose about the history of my family)

Poems

Lu You wrote many poems. One of his most famous is "To My Son" (示兒, Shi Er). This is how it goes:

• To My Son (示兒)

死去元知萬事空，

但悲不見九州同。

王師北定中原日，

家祭無忘告乃翁。

All turns to dust in my dying eyes,

only hatred is that a unified land is not seen.

When the day of the emperor's troops sweeping the North comes,

you must not forget to tell me at my tombstone.

He composed this last poem when he was near death.

What this poem means is that he does not mind not being able to take anything with him when he dies, but he is upset to see that China is still not united as a nation. He is telling his son that if this day ever comes, his family must not forget to go to his grave and tell him there.

• Rainstorm on the Eleventh month 4th (十一月四日風雨大作)

僵臥孤邨不自哀，

尚思爲國戍輪台。

夜闌臥聽風吹雨，

鐵馬冰河入夢來。

I slept stiff and alone in a lonely village without feeling self-pity.

I am still thinking of fighting for my country.

Deep into the night I lie down and hear the wind blowing the rain.

The armored horses and the ice river came into my dream.

This poem was written when Lu was old and retired, but it shines with his patriotism and vivid depiction of the fighting scenes in the North.

• Fonqhwang Hairpin (釵頭鳳)

紅酥手，黃藤酒，

滿城春色宮墻柳。

東風惡，歡情薄，

一杯愁緒，幾年離索，錯，錯，錯。

萅如舊，人空瘦，

淚痕紅浥鮫綃透。

桃花落，閒池閣，

山盟雖在，錦書難托，莫，莫，莫。

''Pink soft hands, yellow rippling wine,

The town is filled with Spring, willows by palace walls.

The east wind is biting, happiness is thin,

heart full of sorrow, so many years apart.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!

Spring is as of old; the person is empty and thin.

Traces of tears show through the sheer silk.

Peach blossoms falling, glimmering pond freezing,

The huge oath remains, the brocade book is hard to hold.

Don't, Don't, Don't!''

Note: The words "wrong" and "don't" rhyme in Chinese.

This poem is about his real love story (see his marriage). In this poem, "Biting east wind" is a metaphor for traditional Chinese view about women. This view broke up his first marriage. "Brocade book", or "glorious/bright book," is another metaphor for his ambition of unifying China. But he doesn't seem to be successful in either of them (marriage and career). He also uses antithesis, which is very popular in Chinese poetry. It matches both sound and sense in two poetic lines, like "a heart of sorrow" pairing with "years apart" and "paramount promise" pairing "brocade book". The sounds match perfectly in Chinese. This poem falls in the first period of his works.

• Plum Blossom (卜算子-咏楳)

驛外斷橋邊

寂寞開無主

已是黃昏獨自愁

更著風和雨

無意苦爭春

一任群芳妒

零落成泥碾作塵

只有香如故

''Near the broken bridge outside the fortress,

I go, lonely and disoriented.

It is dusk and I am alone and anxious,

especially when the wind and rain start to blow.

I do not mean to fight for Springtime,

I would rather be alone and envied by the crowd.

I will fall down, become earth, be crushed to dust.

My glory will be same as before.''

生平

陸游出身于一個由「貧居苦學而仕進」的世宦家庭。陸游的高祖是宋仁宗時太傅陸軫，祖父陸佃，父親陸宰。出生時正值宋朝腐敗不振、屢遭金國（女真族）侵略的年代。出生次年，金兵攻陷北宋首都汴京，他於襁褓中即隨家人顛沛流離，因受社會及家庭環境影響，自幼即立志殺胡（金兵）救國。

家庭雖帶給陸游良好的文化薰陶，尤其是愛國教育。他20歲時與唐琬結婚，夫妻感情甚篤，可是其母卻不喜歡唐氏，硬逼他們夫妻離散，唐氏改嫁趙士程，陸游亦另娶小他兩歲的王氏為妻。離婚後陸游非常傷痛，紹興二十五年（1155年）31歲遊經沈園時，偶見唐琬夫婦，陸游在沈園牆上寫了《釵頭鳳》詞以寄深情，此後屢次賦詩懷念，直至75歲時還寫了有名的愛情詩《沈園》。唐氏讀了陸游的釵頭鳳後悲痛欲絕，和了一首釵頭鳳，不久便去世了。

陸游「年十二能詩文」，學劍，並鑽研兵書。29歲赴臨安省試，名列第一。次年參加禮部複試，因名次居於主和派權臣秦檜的孫子之前，又因不忘國恥「喜論恢復」，要求「賦之事宜先富室，徵稅事宜覆大商」，為秦檜所黜。檜死，紹興二十八年出任福州寧德縣主簿，紹興三十年，召入敕令所，為刪定官。孝宗即帝位，賜進士出身。後因力勸張浚北伐，發生部下將領不合的情況，再加上主和派阻饒，朝廷立即動搖，而陸游亦被冠上「交結臺諫，鼓唱是非，例說張浚用兵」之罪名而遭免職。六年，起通判夔州。

乾道八年（1172年）主戰將領王炎聘陸游至幕府襄理軍務，使陸游的生活發生很大的變化。軍旅生活使他的懷抱不禁為之一開，寫出了許多熱情奔放的愛國詩篇。「飛霜掠面寒壓指，一寸丹心唯報國」可說是他這一時期生活和心情的寫照。雖然陸游滿懷報國赤誠，但因朝廷無意進取，他復國的壯志一直無法得到伸展的機會。

淳熙二年（1175年），范成大聘陸游為幕僚，為成都路安撫司參議官。陸與范年歲相近，且素有詩文之交，因此不甚拘守官場禮數，以致引起同僚譏諷；又因復國抱負和個人功名長久無法伸展，故稍稍放縱輕佻，被同僚指責為「不拘禮法，恃酒頹放」。於是陸游索性自號「放翁」，並在詩中自我嘲解。

淳熙四年（1177）六月，范成大奉召入京，陸游從成都送他到眉州（今四川眉山），分別時寫《送范舍人還朝》這首詩，希望范成大于朝見皇帝及碰到朝中舊友時，能提出北伐的建議。

淳熙五年（1178），提舉福建路常平茶鹽。

淳熙六年（1179），改提舉江南西路。

淳熙十三年，知嚴州。

淳熙十五年，擔任軍器少監。

之後歷經多次升降官職，在光宗紹熙元年（1190年）之後的二十餘年，長期蟄伏在山陰老家農村，家居時「眼明身健何妨老，飯白茶甘不覺貧。」因為養生有術，嗜食薏仁和木耳，晚年身體依然強健。美中不足的是飽受齒疾之苦，故好食枸杞粥。慶元五年（1199年），陸游曾為韓侂胄寫《南園記》，據稱韓侂胄命四夫人擘阮琴起舞。在勉勵韓侂胄勿忘抗金中興。期間雖仍有向朝廷提出抗胡作戰的主張，但始終遭受非議。最後在嘉定二年（1209年）十二月二十九日除夕（陽曆為1210年1月26日）陸游抱著未見國土收復的遺恨，即與世長辭，享壽八十五歲。

詩詞

陸游一生力主北伐，雖然屢受主和派排擠打擊，但是他的愛國情操至死不渝，作為一位愛國詩人，滿腔救國熱忱，「他看到一幅畫馬，碰見幾朵鮮花，聽了一聲雁唳，喝幾杯酒，索幾行草書，都會惹起報國仇、雪國恥的心事，血液沸騰起來」。也與尤袤、楊萬里、范成大並稱「南宋四大詩人」。死前曾作《示兒》一絕：「死去原知萬事空，但悲不見九州同。王師北定中原日，家祭毋忘告乃翁。」，堪稱是最能表現陸游創作精神的代表作。

陸游的詩產量極多，至老仍然創作不懈，但難免「詞句蹈襲，語意復出」。實際上創作了一萬多首，經他自己刪除淘汰之後仍有九千三百多首。

詩大致可分為三期：

• 第一期為少年到中年（46歲），時期最長但留存作品最少，約200首，因陸游將自己早期「但欲工藻繪」的作品刪除淘汰的關係。

• 第二期為46-54歲，詩約2400多首。此時期因深入軍旅生活，詩風變為豪放壯闊，愛國思想也更加提升。此一時期詩歌創作的成熟和豐富，奠定了他作為一代文宗的崇高地位。

• 第三期為蟄居家鄉到逝世，現存詩6500首。數量之所以較多是由於他晚年未暇淘汰的緣故。此時期與農民接觸較多，再加上宦海沉浮，飽經憂患，且年事已高，因此風格轉為清曠淡遠的田園風格和蒼涼的人生感慨。

雖然詩風前後轉變了三次，但陸游的詩中一直充滿強烈的愛國情感，這也是他最大的特色與傳頌千古的原因。其他也有較為平淡、清麗、甚至是奇譎的作品（詩集中有數百首記夢的詩），不過那是少數。

《關山月》、《書憤》、《金錯刀》、《農家嘆》、《黃州》、《長歌行》等，均為其代表作。

另也工於詞，纖麗處似於秦觀，雄快處似於蘇軾，超爽處更肖辛棄疾。以《訴衷情》（當年萬里覓封侯）、《卜算子》（驛外斷橋邊）等最為著名。

他的文學理論也具有相當影響力，主張詩文為發洩人心鬱悶的利器，又主張養氣以求工。

家庭

著作

• 《劍南詩稿》85卷

• 《渭南文集》50卷

• 《放翁逸稿》2卷

• 《放翁詞》一卷。

• 《南唐書》18卷

• 《老學庵筆記》10卷等。

其他尚有：

• 《示兒》

• 《家世舊文》等。

注釋

影視形象

• 電視歌仔戲《釵頭鳳》（1989年）：由黃香蓮飾演陸游

參考書目

• 《宋史》卷三九五

• 高津孝：〈陸游評價的系譜──愛國詩人與國家主義〉。