Poetry of Loss and the Early Medieval Chinese Court of the Warlord Cao Cao (155–220)

Upon the fall of the Han empire, the warlord Cao Cao (155–220) established a new political domain. The Cao court became known for its accomplished writers, including the warlord himself and two of his sons, Cao Pi (187–226) and Cao Zhi (192–232). Afflicted by sibling rivalry and an epidemic, these poets distinguished themselves by writing about frustration, sorrow, and death. Yet, as observed in Poetry of Loss, the poets drew on experiences of loss to reinvent the court, its collective memory, a