Fen Zuo

Background

Zuo Fen was born in 252 in Shangdong province. She was born in a family of Confucian scholars of fairly low status. Zuo Fen was a daughter of Zuo Yong. Her mother died young, leaving Zuo Fen and an elder brother, Zuo Si in the care of their father.

Career

In 272, Zuo Fen was selected to become a minor consort for Emperor Wu. Empress Yang was entrusted with the task of selecting the finalists and it is said that she chose the less attractive women, as she did not want any competition for the emperor’s affections. Zuo Fen was selected during this general search, not for her beauty, but, according to her official biography, because Emperor Wu heard that she was learned and skilled at composing literary works. She was appointed Lady of Cultivated Deportment (xiuyi) and later promoted to Honored Concubine (guipin). She was treated with respect because of her talent and was allowed to reside in a separate part of the palace because of her weak constitution.

As the emperor’s writer-in-residence, from time to time she was asked to write compositions on assigned themes or topics. When she first arrived in the palace, the emperor asked her to write a rhapsody (fu) on a sad subject. Recently separated from her family as she was, she wrote about her own feelings in Rhapsody on Separation (Li si fu). She was also assigned to compose the eulogies for ancient Chinese women included in Biographies of Eminent Women (Lienu zhuan). More important than these, however, were the two elegies she wrote on the deaths of Empress Yang and Princess Wannian, both of whom had been very dear to the emperor. Naturally, it was imperative that these elegies be well written and that the feelings she expressed not be her own but those of the emperor. Her skill is evident in that she was able to express poignantly the emotions of another and to have them ring true.

When her brother Zuo Si moved to the capital, Luoyang, he can't see Zuo Fen face to face because of strict regulations of the palace. Zuo Fen reflected her sadness in Rhapsody on Separation. She also wrote two poems in reply to her brother’s Two Poems of Mournful Separation to My Sister. Her poems, entitled In Reply to My Brother’s Poems of Separation (Da xiong gan li shi), reveal her loneliness, her yearning for her brother, and her fervent wish to see him again. Zuo Fen died in 300, probably in the extended upheaval known as the War of the Eight Princes.

Achievements

• Zuo Fen was one of the famous characters of Chinese literature. She wrote beautiful rhapsodies about real feelings, composing works with more than one level of meaning.

Views

Zuo Fen was versatile in her choice of genres. She wrote rhapsodies, elegies (lei), eulogies (song), and four- and five-syllable shi poems. Since most of her compositions were written at the command of the emperor, the language used is formal and sometimes even archaic.

Personality

Zuo Fen was known among her contemporaries for her talent and learning.

Connections

Zuo Fen was a concubine of Emperor Wu of Jin. She had no children.

Father:

Zuo Ying

Zuo Ying was an imperial censor.

Brother:

Zuo Si

Zuo Si was a Chinese writer and poet who lived in the Western Jin dynasty.

husband:

Sima Yan

Sima Yan was the grandson of Sima Yi and son of Sima Zhao.

References

• Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 B.C.E. - 618 C.E This new volume of the "Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women" spans more than 2,000 years from antiquity to the early seventh century. It recovers the stories of more than 200 women, nearly all of them unknown in the West.
  1998
• Written at Imperial Command: Panegyric Poetry in Early Medieval China Explores both the literary features and historical context of poetry written for imperial rulers during China’s early medieval period. This is the first book-length study of panegyric poetry―yingzhao shi or poetry presented to imperial rulers―in the Chinese tradition.
  2008
• Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism
  1999