Sima Xiangru
Of all the authors from the golden age of "grand "fu" composition, Sima Xiangru is generally considered to be the greatest. A native of Chengdu, he was traditionally said to have been summoned to the imperial court after Emperor Wu happened to personally read his "Fu" of Sir Vacuous" ("Zǐxū fù" ), though this is almost certainly a story added later. After arriving in the capital around 136 BC, Sima Xiangru expanded his ""Fu" of Sir Vacuous" into his "magnum opus", ""Fu" on the Imperial Park" ("Shànglín fù" ), generally considered the most famous "fu" of all. This work, whose original title was probably ""Fu" on the Excursion Hunt of the Son of Heaven" ("Tiānzǐ yóuliè fù" ), is a grand celebration of the Emperor's personal hunting park east of Chang'an, and is famed for its rich number of rare and difficult words and characters. If not for the survival of Chinese scholar Guo Pu's early 4th century AD annotations to ""Fu" on the Imperial Park", much of its ancient and esoteric terminology would now be unintelligible. The following portion of the rhymed list of names of minerals, precious stones, and flora and fauna from the first half of the ""Fu" on the Imperial Park" exemplifies much of the cataloging and rare terminology characteristic of grand "fu":