Lu You left a poem on his deathbed

When Emperor Xiaozong first came to the throne, he was determined to change his policy of humiliating and seeking peace, and was eager to do something great to restore the Central Plains. In 1163 A.D., he appointed Zhang Jun (pronounced jùn), a well-respected veteran general, as his Privy Counsellor.

Zhang Jun decided to send troops to the north and asked the court to issue an imperial edict calling on the people of the Central Plains to rise against the war and cooperate with the Song army to recover the lost territories. At that time, there was an editor in the Privy Council, Lu You, who was very talented in writing, so Zhang Jun sent Lu You to draft this imperial edict.

Lu, You was a famous patriotic poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, a native of Shanyin, Zhejiang Province, who was young when the Northern Song Dynasty was falling. The Jin soldiers in Jiangnan robbed, killed, and plundered, Lu You had tasted enough national suffering since childhood, and also saw and heard many singable and tearful deeds of the soldiers and people in Jiangnan fighting against the Jin soldiers, in his young mind, grew a deep affection for the motherland and the nation.

As a teenager, Lu You was able to write excellent essays due to his diligent study. When he was twenty-nine years old, he took part in the examination of the two Zhejiang regions and was taken as first place. It happened that the grandson of the treacherous minister Qin Hui, Qin Ocarina (pronounced xūn), also took the exam. He hinted to the examiner before the exam that he wanted Qin Ocarina to get first place. The examiner did not buy his account, but was still impartial, letting Lu You won first place.

This incident made Qin Hui very annoyed. The next year, Lu You went to the capital Lin'an to take the examination. The examiner found Lu You's literary talent and again wanted him to top the list. Qin Hui learned of this incident, angrier, brutally ordered the examiner to disqualify Lu You from the examination, but also to pursue the responsibility of the two Zhejiang region examiners. After that, Qin Jun held a grudge against Lu You, not allowing him to participate in the court work. Until the death of Qin Hui, he went to Lin'an to serve as the Privy Council's editorial officer.

Lu You enthusiastically supported the Northern Expedition. However, Zhang Jun, who was the commander-in-chief, lacked the ability to command. The two main generals under Zhang Jun were also suspicious of each other and had friction. The Song army did not take long to send troops, but they were defeated at Fuli (north of present-day Suxian County, Anhui Province), and the whole Song army was routed.

When the Northern Expedition failed, the minister who always advocated for peace attacked Zhang Jun in front of Song Emperor Xiaozong and said that Zhang Jun's use of the army was encouraged by Lu You. Later, Zhang Joon was ostracized from the court, and Lu You was dismissed and went back home to Shangyin.

Song Xiaozong, under the threat of the Jin soldiers, anti-Jin resolve also wavered. The next year, he made a humiliating peace treaty with the Jin Dynasty, and after that, he never dared to mention the Northern Expedition.

Almost ten years later, Wang Yan, the general in charge of the military in the Sichuan-Shaanxi region, heard of Lu You's reputation and invited him to Hanzhong to be his staff. As Hanzhong was close to the front line of the Jin resistance, Lu You thought that if he went there, he might have a chance to participate in the battle against Jin and contribute to the recovery of the lost land, so he gladly accepted the appointment. When he arrived there, he used to ride to the edge of Dasan Pass to observe the area occupied by Jin. In Wang Yan Yamen, he often saw with his own eyes the common people in the area occupied by the Jin army, risking the danger to send military information to the Song army. These scenes made him full of hope for Jin's future.