The poetry of the Jian'an 建安 (196–220) era is often praised for its authentic depiction of individual character. But the danger of offending the patrons of the court, the Cao family, must have limited the ability of these writers to express their thoughts and emotions directly. Thus it seems likely that Jian'an poets might often have chosen to be reticent about their actual opinions, conveying their intentions instead through understatement or even irony. This essay is an experiment in identifying an ironic element in the works of one of the finest poets of Jian'an, Liu Zhen 劉楨 (?–217). One clue to Liu's ironical distance from the court around him is in an anecdote preserved in the Shishuo xinyu. Two of Liu's best poems also contain internal conflicts that seem to demand interpretation, not as lyrical self-expression, but something more complex and indeterminate. The traditional critical concept of “wind and bone,” frequently applied retrospectively to Jian'an poets, contains an inherent tension that supports this approach. The sword of Damocles hanging over the writers of Jian'an means that their writings were produced in consciousness of the possible death sentence they might incur for impropriety. Another suggestive source for the interpretation of Liu Zhen is a stele inscription he wrote for a friend who had remained independent of politics. The political context of Jian'an and its reflection in literary irony is well represented by the figure of the “empty vessel,” which occurs in a number of historical and literary contexts during this period.