Zuǒ Sī 左思
Style name Tàichōng 太沖. Native of Línzī 臨淄 in Qí 齊 (modern Shandong). Western Jin poet and rhapsodist. CBDB id 134913 (no dates recorded; lifedates ca. 250–305 follow Jìnshū 晉書 juǎn 92 and modern scholarly consensus).
Zuǒ Sī came from a family of literary attainment: his sister Zuǒ Fēn 左棻 became a consort of Emperor Wu of Jin 晉武帝 and was herself a notable poet. According to his Jìnshū biography, Zuǒ Sī was unprepossessing in appearance and was initially met with skepticism when he announced his project to write rhapsodies on the Three Capitals (Luoyang, Chengdu, and Jianye/Nanjing). He spent approximately ten years composing the 〈三都賦〉 (Sāndū fù), gathering endorsements from Huáng Fùmì 皇甫謐 and Zhāng Huá 張華 before publication. The work’s success was so immediate and extraordinary that copyists depleted the paper supply in Luoyang — giving rise to the proverbial Luòyáng zhǐ guì 洛陽紙貴 (“paper in Luoyang became expensive”). He also compiled a Lièfǔ zhuàn 列女傳 (Biographies of Famous Women) for his sister’s edification.
His 〈詠史〉 (Yǒng shǐ) series of eight poems is among the most influential works in the Chinese poetic tradition. Unlike earlier uses of the genre to paraphrase historical events, Zuǒ Sī’s poems use historical exemplars to express the frustration of talented men of non-aristocratic background excluded from advancement by the nine-rank system (jiǔpǐn zhōngzhèng 九品中正) that entrenched inherited aristocratic privilege in Western Jin. The poems move between historical allusion and sharply personal voice. His literary remains are gathered in KR4b0081.