Lü Liuliang (; 1629–3 October 1683) was a

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

poet and author from

Tongxiang Tongxiang City () is a county-level city, part of Jiaxing, in northern Zhejiang Province, China, bordering Jiangsu province to the north. It had a population of 1,029,754 as of the 2020 census even though its built-up (''or metro'') area is sm ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

province. He was born under the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

but died under the

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) an ...

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

Career

In 1647 one of his nephews was executed for anti-Qing activity. Lü took active part in the anti-Manchu military movement that followed the fall of the Ming in 1644. After the failure of the Ming loyalist movement, he became a hermit and a physician. He refused to serve the new dynasty, despite frequent requests, because he argued that upholding the difference between Hua and barbarians was more important than respecting the righteous bond between minister and sovereign. Lü Liuliang wrote a famous anti-Qing

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meaning ...

. "The light breeze, however delicate, does not blow on me; the bright moon has never stopped casting its light on us." (清風雖細難吹我，明月何嘗不照人?) In this poem, the "light breeze" (''qing feng'' 清風) contains the character for "Qing" (as in the dynasty), and "bright moon" (''ming yue'' 明月) the character for "Ming". He also wrote many

eight-legged essay The eight-legged essay () was a style of essay in imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. The eight-legged essay was needed for those candidates in these civil service tests to show their merits for government service, ...

s. Lü is also one of the most prominent cases in Chinese history of literary inquisition. After Lü's death, an official named Zeng Jing was inspired by his anti-Qing writing to attempt to overthrow the

Yongzheng Emperor The Yongzheng Emperor (13 December 1678 – 8 October 1735), also known by his temple name Emperor Shizong of Qing, born Yinzhen, was the fourth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the third Qing emperor to rule over China proper. He reigned from ...

. As a result, in 1733, Lü's corpse and that of one of his sons were exhumed and mutilated, another son was executed, his grandsons were exiled and female relatives enslaved, and all of his writings were banned. Two of his followers were treated similarly. He is a character in

Jin Yong Louis Cha Leung-yung (; 10 March 1924 – 30 October 2018), better known by his pen name Jin Yong (), pronounced "Gum Yoong" in Cantonese, was a Chinese wuxia ("martial arts and chivalry") novelist and essayist who co-founded the Hong Kong da ...

's ''wuxia'' novel ''

The Deer and the Cauldron ''The Deer and the Cauldron'', also known as ''The Duke of Mount Deer'', is a comic historical novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha), the longest of his novels and the last to be published but chronologically it is the eighth novel. It was initially pub ...

''.

Notes

References

* Liu, Lydia (2004)
''The Clash of Empires''
': The Invention of China in Modern World Making''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. , .

External links

Works by Lü Liuliang at the Chinese Text Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lu, Liuliang 1629 births 1683 deaths 17th-century Chinese philosophers Chinese Confucianists Qing dynasty philosophers Ming dynasty people Qing dynasty poets Writers from Jiaxing Philosophers from Zhejiang Poets from Zhejiang People from Tongxiang 17th-century Chinese physicians Posthumous executions

Career

Notes

References

Further reading

External links