Lin Bu
Lin Bu, formerly romanized as Lin Pu and also known by his posthumous name as Lin Hejing, was a Chinese poet and hermit during the Song dynasty">Northern Song dynasty">Song dynasty.
Life
One of the most famous verse masters of his era, Lin Bu was born in 967, a time when Hangzhou was still the capital of the independent kingdom of Wuyue. This was absorbed by Song in 978. Lin lived as a recluse on Gushan in West Lake from about the age of 40 until his death in 1028. At the time, the lake was outside Hangzhou's walls and he supposedly never deigned to enter them. He was never, however, a strict hermit: he had servants and met and talked constantly with nearby scholars, Buddhist monks, and other guests. He was famed for his skill at Chinese chess and the guqin, as well as writing. If visitors arrived while he was boating on the lake, he would be summoned back by seeing one of his cranes released by his staff. His supposed grave has been restored on Gushan Island, along with a commemorative pavilion called the "Crane Releasing Pavilion".His descendant Lin Hong later imitated his lifestyle, retiring to a hermitage on Gushan as well in the 13th century.
Works
His works and theatrical solitude won him nationwide fame, and he was offered prestigious government posts, although he refused all civic duties in pursuit of his poetry. Long after he died, Lin's eccentric attitude and his works retained a vivid place in Song cultural imagination and later works. His supposed claim that the plum blossom was his wife and the cranes he raised were his sons became a standard motif in Chinese poetry concerning seclusion from the world.Lin is well known for his romantic poems. The most famous and influential was a couplet from the two-verse "Small Plum in a Mountain Garden", also known as "How Plum Flowers Embarrass a Garden".
It was prized as a vivid instance of appreciating quiet subtle beauty in mundane things; allusions to it became a way of signalling other writers' own similar sophistication.
Another example of his work is "Everlasting Longing" :
He is traditionally associated with the guqin piece "Moon atop a Plum Tree", believed to resemble his "Small Plum in a Mountain Garden". In Japan, the melodies "Plum Blossoms" and "Flying Snow Crystal Intonation" traditionally employ lyrics drawn from Lin Bu's poetry.