He was brought up to be patriotic, and grew up determined to expel the foreign Jurchen from the North and bring about the reunification of China under the Song dynasty.

Lu You grew up with his cousin Tang Wan (唐琬, courtesy name Huixian 蕙仙, 1128-1156), who was quiet but loved literature.

Though they had lived happily together, his mother forced them to divorce in order to make Lu You concentrate on studying to fulfill his aspiration of saving the Song dynasty.

One spring day, at age 31, eight years after their divorce, he passed by Shen's Garden (沈園)[3] and by chance encountered Tang Wan and her husband.

He turned away and on the spot wrote the poem "Phoenix Hairpin" (Chai Tou Feng, 釵頭鳳) on the wall of Shen's Garden.

[4] After this meeting with Tang Wan, Lu You went to the North to struggle against the foreign Jin dynasty, before returning to southern Shu (蜀, today's Sichuan) to pursue his dream of unifying China.

In the year before Lu You's death, at age 85, he wrote another poem called “Shen's Garden” to commemorate Tang Wan, his first love.

A traditional Yue opera was written about Lu You and Tang Wan,[5] and their love story is very famous in China.

At age 12, Lu You was already an excellent writer, had mastered the skill of sword fighting, and had delved deeply into war strategy.

Because he avidly insisted on fighting against the Jin dynasty and did not follow the mainstream official lethargy on the subject, he was dismissed from his job.

Military life opened his eyes and mind; he hoped to fulfill his aspiration of bringing a divided China back together.

But the Song Dynasty was by now corrupt and indolent; most officers just wanted to make a nice living; Lu You had no opportunity to deploy his talent.

"Entering upon a public career by virtue of his father's services, he fell into disfavour with Qin Hui; but after the latter's death he received an appointment, and in 1163 the Emperor Xiaozong(孝宗) made him a Compiler for the Privy Council and conferred upon him the honorary degree of Jinshi(進士).

"[6] He was unsuccessful in his official career: he adopted a patriotic irredentist stance, advocating the expulsion of the Jurchen from northern China, but this position was out of tune with the times.

After several promotions and demotions, Lu You retired in 1190 to live in seclusion in his hometown Shaoxing (紹興, now in Zhejiang province), then a rural area.

Watson compares a second body of work, poems on country life and growing old, to those of Bai Juyi (白居易) and Tao Qian (陶潛).

This poem was written when Lu was old and retired, but it shines with his patriotism and vivid depiction of the fighting scenes in the North.

紅酥手，黃藤酒， 滿城春色宮墻柳。 東風惡，歡情薄， 一杯愁緒，幾年離索，錯，錯，錯。 萅如舊，人空瘦， 淚痕紅浥鮫綃透。 桃花落，閒池閣， 山盟雖在，錦書難托，莫，莫，莫。 Pink soft hands, yellow rippling wine, The town is filled with Spring, willows by palace walls.

Peach blossoms falling, glimmering pond freezing, The huge oath remains, the brocade book is hard to hold.

驛外斷橋邊 寂寞開無主 已是黃昏獨自愁 更著風和雨 無意苦爭春 一任群芳妒 零落成泥碾作塵 只有香如故 Near the broken bridge outside the fortress, I go, lonely and disoriented.