Lu Lun

Life

From the end of the Tianbao era to the beginning of the Dali era, Lu Lun repeatedly sat for the presented-scholar examination without passing; when the An–Shi Rebellion began, he took refuge in Poyang, Jiangxi, where he became a friend of Ji Zhongfu. In the early Dali era, Wang Jin and Yuan Zai recommended him; in Dali 6 (771) he became assistant magistrate of Wenxiang, later serving as a Jixian Academy scholar, a Palace Library proofreader, a household-office aide in Shanzhou, and magistrate of Mixian in Henan.

In early Jianzhong (780), he became magistrate of Zhaoying. During the Zhu Ci rebellion in the winter of Jianzhong 4, he was briefly caught by the rebels. The following year Hun Jian appointed him a staff judge; after the rebellion was suppressed, Lu followed Hun Jian to Hezhong and eventually held the honorary title of langzhong in the Ministry of Revenue. In Xingyuan 1 (784), he also served as a judge in the Fengtian headquarters of the Deputy Marshal and as an aide in the transport commissioner’s office.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth years of Zhenyuan (797–798), his maternal uncle, Wei Qumou, praised his talent before Emperor Dezong. The emperor summoned him to the inner palace to compose a poem in response to an imperial poem and promoted him over the usual ranks to langzhong in the Ministry of Revenue; Lu Lun died soon afterward at Hezhong.

Family

His father was Lu Zhihan (717–757). He had five sons—Lu Hongzheng (d. 850), Lu Jianneng (d. 835), Lu Jianci (d. 850), Lu Hongzhi (d. 853), and Lu Jianqiu (788–864)—as well as two grandsons, Lu Rubi and Lu Siye.

Poetry and works

Lu Lun was already renowned for his poetry and was counted with Ji Zhongfu, Han Hong, Qian Qi, Sikong Shu, Miao Fa, Cui Tong, Geng Wei, Xiahou Shen, and Li Duan as one of the Dali Ten Talents. His poems largely consist of farewells, poems of exchange, and pieces written for banquets and excursions; his military poems tend toward an impassioned tone. He excelled at narrative and handled many forms: his old-style song-poems can be vigorous, while his regulated verse is polished and brisk.

Among the works singled out are the six poems in 《和張僕射塞下曲》 and 《臘日觀咸寧王部曲娑勒擒豹歌》; 《晚次鄂州》, 《長安春望》, and 《送李端》 are identified as major Dali-era poems. Hu Zhenheng praised the openness and startling brilliance of his verse but found his old-style poetry less forceful; Wang Shizhen called him “the crown of the Dali Ten Talents.”

His poetry collections include 《盧戶部詩集》 and 《盧綸詩集》. The ten-scroll 《盧綸詩集》 was lost; surviving ten-scroll versions are incomplete, while a three-scroll version circulated. The Complete Tang Poems includes five scrolls of his verse, and Liu Chutang produced a collated edition, 《盧綸詩集校注》.