This seminar is a close reading of one of Shangguan Yi’s few surviving works, ‘Eight Songs on Imperial Request (in Two Parts)’, Ba yong ying zhi er shou 八詠應制二首. By expanding the poem’s allusive content, investigating Shangguan Yi’s innovations on the ‘Eight Songs’ generic model, and correlating this information with the historical record, I will attempt to reconstruct a plausible context for the poem’s production. I will make the case that Ba yong ying zhi is both frankly erotic and a serious response to a specific political event, a crisis of legitimacy that both required, and transformed, the poetic depiction of the Wushan goddess.