Lu Guimeng (陆龟蒙 ？–c. 881 CE), a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu, was a Late Tang dynasty writer and agronomist. After failing the imperial examinations, he retreated to a reclusive life in Puli, Songjiang. He formed a famous literary partnership with the poet Pi Rixiu, and the pair are often referred to collectively as "Pi-Lu." His poetry is known for its social satire and a style that is incisive yet subtly restrained. His inclusion in the Biographies of Talents of the Tangunderscores his significance. The modern writer Lu Xun famously praised his essays, noting that they provided "a sharp radiance piercing through a world of muddle". Lu Guimeng is regarded as a uniquely distinctive voice in the literary scene of the late Tang.
Major Works
Life
Born into the prestigious Lu clan of Wu Commandery (modern Suzhou), Lu Guimeng came from a lineage of high officials: his seventh-generation ancestor Lu Yuanfang served as chancellor under Empress Wu Zetian, and his fifth-generation ancestor Lu Xiangxian was chancellor during Emperor Ruizong’s reign. Though the family’s influence had declined, they maintained deep cultural roots. In his youth, Lu aspired to contribute to governance, studying classics and history with particular expertise in the Spring and Autumn Annals. After repeatedly failing the jinshi exams during the Xiantong era (860–874), he worked as an aide to prefects in Huzhou and Suzhou, where he witnessed firsthand the flaws of local administration.
In 869, he met Pi Rixiu in Suzhou, initiating the famous “Songling poetic exchange.” Together, they composed twenty Tai Lake Poems and hundreds of responsive verses set in the Suzhou region, compiled as The Songling Collection, which cemented Lu’s literary reputation. During the Huang Chao Rebellion (874–884), chaos swept Jiangnan, and Lu abandoned official pursuits entirely, retiring to Puli (modern Luzhi Town) in Suzhou. There, he cultivated tea fields at Guzhu and farmed for sustenance, styling himself “Master of Puli” or “Free Wanderer of Rivers and Lakes.”
He died around 881 and was buried in Puli, Wu County. During the Guanghua era (898–901), the poet Wei Zhuang successfully petitioned the court to posthumously honor Lu Guimeng and other scholars, and he was awarded the title of Right Rectifier of Omissions.
Literary Achievements
Poetry
Lu elevated farming into poetic expression, creating a distinctive “agrarian recluse” genre. In Thirty Poems of Self-consolation, he built a self-sufficient spiritual world through depictions of daily labor: “In spring rain, we transplant bamboo shoots; / Where autumn wind ripens, we pick bayberries.” His Ten Chants of the Woodcutter transformed activities like cutting wood into aesthetic subjects, forming a pragmatic style distinct from the nature poetry of Wang Wei and Meng Haoran.
His Songling exchange with Pi Rixiu reinvented social poetry. In paired poems like Tai Lake Stones—“Who can decipher these grotesque forms? / First seeming court officials standing upright”—they elevated rock appreciation to philosophical heights. These works transcended conventional poetic exchanges, becoming a “cultural geography” of the Wu region.
Prose
The essays in Lize Essay Series showcase his social critique. Stele of a Wild Temple exposes wasteful sacrifices: “Deities of clay and wood steal our people’s wine and offerings”; Transformation of a Moth uses a citrus moth’s metamorphosis—“fluttering wings turning to butterfly”—to allegorize bureaucratic corruption. This parabolic criticism继承 Liu Zongyuan’s Three Admonitions and influenced Su Shi’s Aizi’s Tales, forming a key link in Tang-Song satirical literature.
Though an agricultural manual, his Classic of the Plow embodies humanistic care. Precise descriptions of Jiangdong plow components (“share length 1.4 chi, width 6 cun”) not only preserve Tang farm tools but reflect his belief that “tools carry the Dao”—as stated in Preface for a Woodcutter of Xiaoji Mountain: “Sages create objects, the wise record them, common people use them.”
Poetics
In Autobiography of Master Puli, Lu proposed “in youth I mastered song-poems, striving to wrest authority from Nature itself,” emphasizing rigorous craft to achieve naturalness. Behind the潇洒 of Drunkenness with Pi Rixui at Spring Dusk—“Years carefree by lakes and rivers, / Drunk at old Huang’s tavern”—lay the persistence described in Laborious Verse: “Only upon completion comes a smile, / No regret despite poetic toil.” This dialectical pursuit directly influenced Mei Yaochen’s Northern Song concept of “creating境界 through simplicity.”
Agronomic Contributions
At 633 characters, Classic of the Plow is China’s earliest extant monograph on farm tools, constructing a complete knowledge system. It details the 11 components and functions of the Jiangdong plow (curved-shaft plow), enabling modern reconstructions of Tang farming technology. Crucially, it embodies technical philosophy: in Debunking ‘Elephant-Tilling and Bird-Weeding,’ Lu criticized mythological thinking, stressing rationalism in “farmers selecting soil for cultivation.”
The treatise founded East Asian agronomy: Song scholar Zeng Zhijin’s Illustrated Register of Farm Tools followed its format; 17th-century Japanese scholar Miyazaki Yasusada cited its plow data in Complete Book of Farming; British historian Francesca Bray analyzed its technical descriptions in Science and Civilisation in China.
Legacy
Evolution of a Cultural Symbol
Northern Song poet Su Shi admired: “Among late Tang poets, only Lu Guimeng’s themes stand transcendent,” and emulated his Chrysanthemum Ode in a later work. Southern Song poet Jiang Kui’s self-identification—“In three lives, I must have been Lu Tian sui”—solidified Lu’s status as a Jiangnan recluse icon.
Ming Suzhou scholars systematically reinvented his image: Shen Zhou’s painting Elegant Spirit of Puli depicted him fishing; Wen Zhengming frequently responded to his poems in Futian Collection. Qing scholar Zhu Yizun’s Song-era Lize Essay Series edition spurred textual studies by Qian-Jia school scholars.
Contemporary Reactivation of Material Heritage
Luzhi Town preserves Lu’s tomb and duck-fighting pool. The rebuilt White Lotus Temple (original Puli Temple) houses a stele inscribed with his chrysanthemum poem. In 2006, archaeological excavation of his Guzhu tea garden site uncovered Tang tea tools corroborating his poem Tea Stove: “No chimney, embracing light mist.”
His agronomic legacy endures: in 2021, China Agricultural Museum reconstructed a Tang curved-shaft plow using Classic of the Plow data; Illustrated Chronicles of Chinese Farm Tools digitized its specifications. Kyoto University holds a Japanese 1800 woodblock edition, evidencing transnational influence.
New Academic Dimensions
Recent multidisciplinary research includes: Fudan University using GIS to map geographic coordinates in Tai Lake Poems, reconstructing Tang Wu ecology; Supplemented Complete Tang Poems uncovering newly discovered exchanges with monk Jiaoran; Harvard Yenching Institute developing a digital humanities project on the Pi-Lu poetic network.
This Tang recluse who self-mockingly called “a free wanderer… one who roams untrammeled” in Biography of a Rivers-Lakes Wanderer left a legacy like Tai Lake stones—“grotesque forms waiting to be deciphered”—continuing to inspire cross-temporal cultural dialogue.
