The Art of Writing: Lu Chi's Wen Fu

by Lu Chi

Written in the third century, this is one of the earliest Chinese works about the use of language, preceded only by the Ta Hsueh (Great Learning) of Confucius. Written by Lu Chi, a soldier-poet, the Wen Fu , or The Art of Writing ( wen means “art”; fu is a poetic form), is intended for those who wish to engage the art of letters at its deepest levels. In sixteen sections, The Art of Writing discusses the joys and problems that face both writer and reader and provides basic insights about many techniques of writing. Beautifully and faithfully translated by award-winning poet, essayist, and Chinese scholar Sam Hamill, The Art of Writing deserves a place on every writer’s reference table.

Genres: Poetry, Writing, Nonfiction, China, Classics, Read For School, Spirituality

90 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Alex Pler · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Contemplando el fondo del alma, se indaga allí su misterio. Conservando íntegro el espíritu, emprendiendo uno solo la búsqueda".

Una de las primeras obras del mundo sobre el proceso creativo. Recomendación de una maestra de shodô y sumi-e, volveré a menudo a este libro.

[Eternauta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μια μετάφραση μετάφρασης λέει συνήθως περισσότερα για την τέχνη του μεταφραστή πάρα για το πρωτότυπο κείμενο, πόσω δε μάλλον όταν το τελευταίο έρχεται από τα βάθη του κινεζικού πολιτισμού, μακρινού και εξωτικού σε εμένα τουλάχιστον. Όπως υπέροχα το διατυπώνει ο Συμεών στην εισαγωγική του σημείωση: "λαχτάρησα μανιακώς να γράψω στην ελληνική γλώσσα αυτό που χάνεται όταν μεταφράζεις ποίηση"!

[Dylan Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread: November 2020
It has stayed lodged in my heart since writing that first review. For that alone, I'm bumping the rating to a 5.

Original Review:
So much said with so little. A wonderful little book I'm thankful to have in my hands and in my heart now.

[Sigve Wiedswang]

Lest i Dørumsgaards språkbunad. Storartet! Dørumsgaard var en enmannshær og one-man-band i å bringe fire tusen år med lyrikk fra fire vidt forskjellige sivilisasjoner inn i den norsk tilgjengelighet, og han er alltid solid. Lu Chi, for sin del, er på sublimt vis spent mellom sin samtid og det tidløse. En drøm i å en gang få lese dette i originalen.

[Eadweard · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Perhaps some day the secret of this most intricate art may be entirely mastered. In making an axe handle by cutting wood with an axe, the model is indeed near at hand. But the adaptability of the hand to the ever-changing circumstances and impulses in the process of creation is such as words can hardly explain."



"When the search succeeds, feeling, at first but a glimmer, will gradually gather into full luminosity, when all objects thus lit up glow as if each the other's light reflects. Drip-drops are distilled afresh from a sea of words since time out of mind, as quintessence that savors of all the aroma of the Six Arts."



"Thus the poet will have mustered what for a hundred generations awaited his brush, creating music that has waited unheard for a thousand ages."


"The poet's mind toils between substance and the void. Every detail in high and low relief he seeks to perfect, so that the form, although it may transcend the dictates of compasses and ruler, shall be the paragon of resemblance to all shapes and features imitated."

[Elly Sands · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book should be given to any student that is interested in creative writing. I applied the ideas for inspiration regarding my artwork. A lovely clear thinking poetry/prose book about writing. It was written in the third century but it fits perfectly in this century. Some things just last forever.

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Wen Fu
shows that to write well
is to awaken anew.

[evi]

casi que no leo este texto y terminó siendo mi lectura favorita de todo el curso jejej

[Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had this book on my shelf for at least four years. Every now and then I would take it out and try to read it and then put it down and go on to something else.

The original was written about 200 A.D., according to the preface by the translator, Sam Hamill. It was written in the style of prose poetry, but, (this, too, according to Mr. Hamill) not in what passes for prose poetry in English. The content seemed banal.

Here and there, I came across an interesting statement, e.g.,

"Perhaps it will one day be said/
that I have written something of substance"/

or,

"Out of non being, being is born,/
Out of silence, a writer produces a song."

After a while, while not fully appreciating the format, I got used to it. Once that happened, I did find some good advice about writing, which was the whole purpose for its being written.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book-length poem on craft is the best inspiration and writing manual ever. Greg Pape assigned it during my first semester of graduate school and it's one I return to again and again.

[Kristyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this very meditative.

"It sings in flute and strings
and every day is made newer"

[Lawerence Hess · Rating 5 out of 5]

It isn’t really clear within the book why Lu Chi wrote his book other than to help show the rules of writing he has found. Lu Chi did write in the book “For a way out, search the depths of the soul for a spirit” telling us that you have to dig deep to want to write again. Lu Chi wanted to publish this book to write down many speakers of language and the style of art whose words use “Thoughts rise from the heart on breezes, and language finds its speaker.” and was also scared he could’ve never finished writing it as “I worry that my inkwell may run dry, that right words cannot be found.” The work that he wants to pass down was very detailed and sprinkled with hidden meanings in the smallest roses. In “The Art of Writing” by Lu Chi translated by Sam Hamill it leaves plenty of room for the reader to reflect on their own life or world. Lu Chi often writes his lessons in poems with their meanings hidden deep inside the words that often leave space for the reflection to take place as you can only see their true meanings through taking that “step back” to understand it. In Lu Chi’s words “However each sentence branches and spreads, it grows from a well-placed phrase” symbolizing that reflecting on the sentences before and past are all holding a hidden meaning. This also can be seen really well with “all their real jewels, cannot fill the little cup, I make of fingers.” bring the reflection that they do not make enough good poems as even still the cup will always seemingly be empty. Lu Chi has shown several times in his book “The Art of Writing” that there will always be sentences that you would need to reflect on to understand their true meaning that is hidden behind the poems like they’re a wall of rain. In “The Art of Writing” by Lu Chi translated by Sam Hamill there is one audience that the book is both explicitly and implicitly is the reader. The book written by Lu Chi has the intention of teaching everyone who reads it about the art of writing which has been stated here in poems. The fact of the matter that Lu Chi tries to tell us repeatedly is “ideas seek harmonious existence, one among others, through language that is beautiful and true” because language needs to be shown to everyone instead of a few. The”enchanted by the poet’s voice, the crowd may shout hosannas” of praise to the words that seem new and complete. Lu Chi never tries to imply at any point that there is a hidden implicit audience.

[Ethan Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wen Fu (we could translate the title as "Essay on Letters" in much the same spirit as Pope's "Essay on Criticism") is a brief but profound discussion of literary creation. For its author, Lu Ji, letters are an object of almost religious reverence. Letters can clarify the most obscure thoughts, and they cannot be restrained by the barriers of space and time that human beings cannot cross. They are the medium of communication that binds together the East and the West, the future and the past.

Lu's attitude toward tradition is striking. For Lu, whom we may certainly call an original writer, the goal of literature is to combine real substance with clear and elegant form. In literature, each detail that in everyday life would pass us by confusedly can be clarified and given its proper place. So it is by means of literature that we understand ourselves and our world. The ancient masters understood how to accomplish this joining of form and substance. It is from them that we must learn. Love of originality should not blind us to the difficulty of the task or to the value of those few guides who can reliably accomplish it. The poet who has been educated by the ancients, should not claim too strident an originality. To paraphrase a somewhat different writer, publication dates are no guide to the age of a poem or a book. Many books are born already aged and decrepit, and many ancients are eternally young.

Lu's description of the process of making art draws on the wuwei ideas of the Daoists. In his account, feelings, desires, thoughts arise spontaneously in human mind. The task of the artist is to attend to these arising, carefully working them by means of the methods that one has learned from the ancients into finished compositions. Lu's emphasis is on revision and patient attention. The literary work must be cultivated gradually and persistently, and the writer should never be so complacent as to assume that it is already perfect.

[Brant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invaluable for any who write

"Consider the use of letters,
all principals demand them.
Though they travel a thousand miles or more,
nothing in this world can stop them.
They traverse
the thousands of years."

Especially true in this case. Whenever I hit a block, and I have problems actually getting back on the writing wagon, I always have this book setting of the top of my desk. Lu Chi's Wen Fu, written around 200 CE, is as pertinent and useful today as it would have been then.
Admittedly, this is a translation of the Chinese comma in any translation takes the style and thoughts of the translator but Sam Hamill did a fantastic job translating this into contemporary English. The Poetry of she comes across clearly and to the point offering us perspective on our words that few Riders are able to capture. Strunk and White's Elements of Style has its purpose as do a few of the floodery of poetry and writing guides currently on the market, but there's a tenacity and truth to these words that have lasted thousands of years. I only wish that I could say that I have memorized and put the advice to use in a meaningful way, but that's indeed for time and others to judge.
In this light, this book is indeed a jewel, especially by Chi's definition.

"Though the writers of my generation
produce in profusion,
all their real jewels cannot
fill the cup I make of my fingers"

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think you learn to write by reading how to write. In fact, it probably just screws you up even more than you were, as evidenced that you tried to figure out how to write by reading about it. The only book I've found the least bit helpful was Bird by Bird, a book I had to teach when I was an English teacher. That was good, if memory serves, because it was honest and practical. Write bit by bit and pretty soon you can have a whole book or a career or something. Like all the other books on the art of writing, this also does not help all that much. But, instead of a boring treatise on the subject, it's a poem on the subject, probably worth touching on from time to time to keep in mind how to feel about what you are writing. Like everything else in life, there's a balance and a feel about what is right and wrong that a writer has to know. "Where truth and virtue are threatened/I must surrender/even my favorite jewels," is a typical kind of teaching. I think a good English teacher would say, "You're in love with your words too much. Cut them out." He also says, "There are no new ideas, only those that rhyme with certain classics." Nice thoughts. Helpful thoughts. But I suspect Charles Bukowski was not reading this at his window in the post office. And he was probably better off that way.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny how something written in the third century can still feel relatable in the 21st.

Lu Chi’s (Lu Ji) written some solid writing advice that still holds up today. I liked The Terror best, because that’s what I’m feeling at the moment.

“I worry that my inkwell
May run dry

that right words
cannot be found.”

[VA Houser · Rating 5 out of 5]

A super quick read, but so powerful! And so think how many thousands of years old this work is, yet how poignant its message still is today, not just for writers, but for anyone who communicates through written word. Yet another classic that everyone in our time ought to take 30 minutes to read through.

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry about the craft of writing. It’s comforting to know that even in the third century, like the rest of us, a writer struggled to find the right words. I read this as a required text in a fiction class, and regularly use it in my own classes. I can’t say enough good about this book.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll never finish reading this slim 2,000 year-old volume because the advice about writing is too valuable to sit on a shelf. I share it with my writing group, my classes, and anyone who wants rigorous but gentle advice about writing.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Startling in its intensity, especially about the craft of writing. It connected the act of writing to the act of living in a way I was dimly aware of, but never clearly saw before now. Really beautiful.

[Lise · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was lovely

[Jessica Kormos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry about writing; it was comforting to realize that every writer throughout the ages has had the same bouts of inspiration and drought, and doubt.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise.
Powerful.
I bought a copy.

[mario]

no tiene nada que envidiarle a Horacio y al contrario Horacio sí tiene qué envidiar

[Alyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim at the Printer's Row Book Festival yesterday. It is a facinating translation of a Chinese poet from aproximately 690. The poems are lessons of what it means to put word to paper. Why we write, the problems we face and what should be avoided.

Great short inspriation for all types of artists.

[L. Gibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every writer should read this book, and not once or twice, but repeatedly throughout his or her writing life. It can be read in bits, be read out of order, be read for inspiration or motivation. This book enlightens and deepens one's understanding of the craft of writing. I cannot recommend this book enough.

[Nan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is good advice here. Giving things their proper names helps me appreciate The English Major more. Discipline is something I will never learn, and I am oh-so good at muddying the dark with the light.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfectly articulate piece on the infinite and inherent inarticulateness of the written word.

[David Sumner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I re-read every so often,
My copy is getting a bit tattered.

[Nancy]

Sounds like a book I should all to my "must read" list.