ABSTRACT
Lu Chao-lin plays elsewhere with the theme of the solitary bird. The prototype of poems featuring the allegorical identification of solitary bird with upright courtier is the ch’ang section of the poem “Unreeling my Thoughts” from the anonymous group of “Chiu chang” verses in the Ch’u tzu. The kite’s misfortune has confined it now to a smaller circuit, near human habitation, than it was wont to roam (lines 27–30) and with common companions—“crowing cocks” and “flocking magpies”. Without ambition and confidence, born of long immersion in and deepening mastery of the living river of textual tradition, flowing on from more than a millennium past, one could not hope to succeed. There is no information extant regarding Lu Chao-lin’s father or grandfather, which suggests descent from a minor branch of the clan.
