The Life Journey of He Zhu, the Plum-Rain Poet

He Zhu (1052-1125), styled Fanghui, the 'Old Man Left by Qinghu Lake,' came of a military house, was famously ugly and famously proud, and served thirty years in petty posts. His 'Eastern Hill Lyrics' hold both the swagger of 'Six Prefectures Song' and the mist of the 'Green Jade Table' — 'a plain of misted grass, a city of willow-fluff, plum-yellow rain' — which won him his lifetime name: He the Plum-Seed.

Timeline of the Journey

• 1052 · 卫州 — Born in Weizhou of a clan of officers; a boy of books and swordsmanship both — 'the young traveler of the eastern hill.'
• 1069 · 开封 — A guardsman's commission in Kaifeng at seventeen, then cold posts at Licheng and Cizhou: too blunt to please. 'A cart like a chicken's perch, a horse like a dog.'
• 1082 · 徐州 — Supervisor of coin at Xuzhou, the post cold, promotion hopeless: 'no bee or butterfly courts its fragrance; the red robes fallen, a heart turned bitter.'
• 1087 · 和州 — Patrol inspector at Hezhou — chasing bandits by night, the post too small for his sword; back in the capital by 1091, recommended by Su Shi's circle into the civil ranks.
• 1105 · 太平州 — Vice-prefect of Taipingzhou — Dangtu, where Li Bai ended; chasing the immortal's shadow down the river.
• 1109 · 苏州 — Retired to Suzhou and Hengtang, 'Old Man of Qinghu,' a room by the water and two hundred and eighty ci to finish.
• 1115 · 常州 — A stretch of years at Changzhou, older, darker: 'the partridge sky' for the wife who never came back in his dreams.
• 1125 · 常州 — Died at seventy-four in a Changzhou temple, buried with his wife at Yixing. The sword never drawn for the state, the words immortal.

'One plain of misted grass, a city full of willow catkins, plum-yellowing rain.' A swordsman who never got his war wrote the most-misted retreat in Song lyric — and got a nickname that outlived every office he held.