Fu Xuan

Fu Xuan was a poet of the Western Jin Dynasty. An impoverished orphan, he became rich due to his literary fame. He also once wrote an essay praising the Chinese mechanical engineers Ma Jun and Zhang Heng, where he lamented on the fact that extraordinary talents of natural geniuses were often ignored or neglected by those in charge .

Poetry

Fu Xuan's poems, primarily in the ''yuefu'' style, are noted for their powerful and empathetic portrayals of women. Translations of several of his sixty-odd extant poems can be found in the book ''New Songs from a Jade Terrace'' by Anne Birrell .

One of the more famous poets by Fu Xuan is "Woman" which goes as follows:

How sad it is to be a woman!!

Nothing on earth is held so cheap.

Boy stand leaning at the door

Like Gods fallen out of Heaven.

Their hearts brave the Four Oceans,

The wind and dust of a thousand miles.

No one is glad when a girl is born:

By her the family sets no store.

When she grows up, she hides in her room

Afraid to look at a man in the face.

No one cries when she leaves her home --

Sudden as clouds when the rain stops.

She bows her head and composes her face,

Her teeth are pressed on her red lips:

She bows and kneels countless times.

She must humble herself even to the servants.

His love is distant as the stars in Heaven,

Yet the sunflower bends towards the sun.

Their hearts are more sundered than water and fire--

A hundred evils are heaped upon her.

Her face will follow the years changes:

Her lord will find new pleasures.

They that were once like the substance and shadow

Are now as far from Hu as from Ch'in

Yet Hu and Ch'in shall sooner meet

That they whose parting is like Ts'an and Ch'en