In 1968, I completed a PhD dissertation on the Han dynasty fu poet and thinker Yang Xiong 揚雄 (53 BCE–18 CE). At that time I translated and made detailed studies of all of Yang Xiong's fu except one. This is a poem on Yang Xiong's natal region, Shu 蜀 (modern Sichuan), which circulated under the title “Shu du fu” 蜀都賦 (Fu on the Shu capital). Although I had originally planned to include a translation and analysis of this fu in my dissertation, as I began to study it, I discovered the piece was fraught with serious textual problems. I was not even certain how to punctuate many of the lines. I also could not decide whether it had been written by Yang Xiong. Thus, I gave rather cursory treatment to the “Shu du fu.” Here is what I wrote about it in my dissertation:

There is not much internal evidence to prove or disprove Yang Xiong's authorship. It is possible that Zuo Si made use of Yang Xiong's fu in writing his own fu on the Shu capital, for there are a number of phrases in Zuo's poem that appear to echo Yang's fu. Similarities do not prove too much, however, since it is virtually impossible to determine which work is quoting from which. It is also conceivable that the fu ascribed to Yang Xiong is based on the Zuo piece.

I am inclined in this case to respect the traditional attribution to Yang Xiong. The style of this poem is crude, suggesting the hand of a novice. Since this would have been one of Yang's first attempts at writing a fu, one might expect the piece to exhibit amateurish qualities. I also consider the third century attribution by Liu Gui a reliable testimony to Yang Xiong's authorship. In another section of my dissertation, I provide a brief discussion of the “Shu du fu”:

“The Fu on the Shu Capital” begins with a topographia which not only identifies Chengdu's location in the Chinese empire, but establishes its position in relation to the cosmos.