Rediscovering Ying Qu and His Poetic Relationship to Tao Qian (clik ...

Ying Qu and His Poetic Relationship to Tao Qian 41
his close association with the social elite, and his long years in office
( almost until his death in 252) would hardly make him an outsider or a
recluse in the way that we normally regard Tao Qian.
Both Ying Qu and Ying Yang served in the court of Cao Cao (155–
220) and formed close ties to the Cao family. Two famous texts by the
Caos document these cherished relationships: Cao Pi (Emperor Wen;
187–226) included Ying Yang in his Dianlun lunwen 典 論 論 文 as one
of the most prominent writers of the time;13 and Cao Zhi (192–232)
addressed his two famous “Song Yingshi” 送 應 氏 poems to the Ying
brothers, where Cao wrote about seeing the burned capital of Luoyang
and reminisced on the gatherings with his old friends.14 Ying Qu
later served Cao Pi as attendant gentleman (shilang 侍 郎 ) and cavalier
attendant-in-ordinary (sanji changshi 散 騎 常 侍 ).15 He rose to the position
of palace attendant (shizhong) in 239, during his fifties, and served
as chief clerk (changshi 長 史 ) under Cao Shuang 曹 爽 (d. 249) during
Cao Fang’s 曹 芳 (232–274) reign.16 Working late into his life, Ying Qu
was reappointed as palace attendant at the age of sixty-one sui, in 250.
The story surrounding Ying Qu’s death has come to illustrate the accuracy
of the predictions of the famous fortune-teller Zhu Jianping 朱 建
平 : it was during one of Cao Pi’s banquets that Zhu foretold that a year
prior to Ying Qu’s death, Ying would see a white dog that no one else
would see, and that Ying would meet with misfortune a year later at sixty-two
sui. Indeed, as the story goes, at the age of sixty-one sui, Ying Qu
saw a white dog and asked those present whether they had seen it; none
had.17 In 252, he passed away at the age of sixty-three sui. Ying Qu was
awarded the posthumous title of chief minister for the palace garrison
(weiwei 衛 尉 ).
Ying Qu was also a renowned calligrapher whose name appeared
in calligraphy manuals along with the best-known masters: the Tangdynasty
manuals Fashu yaolu 法 書 要 錄 and Muosou 墨 藪 put his calligraphy
in the third rank, a category reserved for calligraphers of
nian 中 古 文 學 繫 年 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1985), 2:304, 396, 437, 471, 526,
539, 550, 559, 563.
13
Wenxuan, 52.4b.
14
Wenxuan, 20.20b–21a.
15
Wenxuan, 21.14a; Wei zhi, Sanguo zhi, 21.8b; Lu Kanru, 2:427, 471.
16
Wei zhi, Sanguo zhi, 21.8b–9a; Lu Kanru, 2:526, 539.
17
“Zhu Jianping zhuan,” Wei zhi, Sanguo zhi, 29.12b–13b.