Yu Xin was one of the founders of the Xu-Yu literary style together with Xu Ling, and the author of a famous fu.
[2] In 554, Yu Xin was sent as an ambassador to the Western Wei in Chang'an, a mission that did not meet with success.
On the way to his mission, he visited Wang Shao, now an official censor, who rejected further advances.
[3] Along with the poet and official Xu Ling and the fathers of both men, Yu is known for the Xu-Yu Style (徐庾体), which was known as "fancy and alluring".
[4] Perhaps his most famous poem is The Lament for the South (哀江南賦), which James Hightower has described as the highest development of the fu form of poetry.