Wen fu , translated as "Essay on Literature, " "The Poetic Exposition on Literature" or "Rhymeprose on Literature, " is an important work in the history of fu poetry itself written in the Fu poetic form by the poet, general, and statesman Lu Ji (261-303), which expounds the philosophical basis of poetry and its rhetorical forms.  Achilles Fang wrote that it is considered "one of the most articulate treatises on Chinese poetics. The extent of its influence in Chinese literary history is equaled only by that of the sixth-century The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons of Liu Xie. It is called a "hymn of praise for the craft and art of writing and a specific, prescriptive handbook for the writer."