司马相如　Sīmǎ Xiàngrú (circa 179-118 BC)

The Poet Who Eloped

Sima Xiangru was a great writer and the creator of Fu, a literary form combining rhyming poetry and prose during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD).

Born in Chengdu, now the capital of Sichuan Province in southwest China, he was also a guqin (zither) master and famous for eloping with the daughter of a rich man.

As Qu Yuan (circa 340-278 BC), a great patriotic poet, was known as the master of Chuci, Sima Xiangru was known as the master of Hanfu, a prose-poem. Both Chuci and Hanfu represent the transition from the traditional genre of poetry to the form of rhymed prose.

Fu features ornate diction, extravagant style and a combination of rhymed and non-rhymed prose.

“Master Nil” (Zixu Fu) and “Imperial Park” (Changlin Fu) are the two representative masterpieces of Sima’s Fu creations. Both are rendered in the form of dialogues.

In “Master Nil,” three fictitious characters discuss the power struggle between rival states, social phenomena and human nature — couched in comments about the hunts and hunting preserves of their rulers.

In “Imperial Park,” Sima portrays the prosperity, abundant natural resources and grand palaces of the great empire and promotes the notion of a unified nation. He also depicts the hedonistic lifestyle of the emperors.

These two masterpieces were later simulated by numerous Fu writers.

Today, however, most Chinese know the name Sima Xiangru not for his unrivaled gift in writing Fu, but for his romance with Zhuo Wenjun, the beautiful daughter of a rich family.

After a stint in the imperial court as a minor official, Sima returned to his hometown in destitution. However, because of his reputation as a prominent Fu writer and a skilled guqin player, Sima was invited to a banquet hosted by a rich man called Zhuo Wangsun.

At the banquet, everyone was attracted by Sima’s distinguished appearance and dignified manner. Later, he played the guqin and his consummate skill won not only the favor of everyone, but also plucked the heartstrings of the host’s daughter, Zhuo Wenjun. She had been secretly watching the banquet from behind a screen since women were not allowed to be present at such occasions.

The beautiful and amorous young woman was newly widowed and she fell in love with Sima at first sight. That night, they eloped and soon got married.

To make a living, the couple opened a small eatery. Every day the scholar worked as a waiter and washed dishes while the wife sweated in the kitchen.

At first, the young woman’s father was enraged and ashamed by his daughter’s elopement. Later, when he learned that the young couple had degraded themselves by doing manual labor to eke out a living, he decided to help.

Thanks to money from his wife’s family, Sima spent more time writing. Though he was said to be a prolific writer, most of his writings had been lost by the time he died.

Nevertheless, his romance with Zhuo Wenjun has been retold for generations in poetry, songs, folktales, operas and paintings.