Many people say that Li Shangyin's poems are beautiful, but it seems that there are also many people who condemn them. From the end of the Tang Dynasty, Li Fu denounced Li as an unwritten man who was "immoral and heartless", calling him "a country without a word and a prize without fiber", to Huang Ziyun's Poem in the Qing Dynasty, denouncing him as "300 sinners". These criticisms are generally directed at his poems, which are full of fragrance and amorous feelings between men and women, so-called "doing good" and "humiliating". Wang Shizhen, an Amin poet, denounced "the prodigal son of Yishan, thin and talented" in On the Whole Tang Poetry, and his disdain was beyond words. Shen Deqian refused to accept Li Zhi's untitled poems in A Collection of Tang Poems, probably to exclude his "eroticism". At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, there appeared a small wave of imitating Li Shangyin's style, and his evaluation was also one after another, with mixed comments. In the past 50 years, the field of Tang poetry research has also shown an interesting phenomenon of alternating praise and criticism. In 1950s and 1960s, due to the specific political and cultural pattern and critical standards at that time, the evaluation of Li was relatively low. The History of China Literature, a 55-grade red book of Peking University, almost totally denies Li Shangyin, calling him an "anti-realism" poet and his poems "a reaction to the New Yuefu Movement". Some people in the mainstream academic circles who realize the benefits of Li's poems can only say diplomatically: "Of course, it is not entirely without something worthy of recognition. If we put him in a proper position and evaluate him realistically ... "(See On Li Yishan and His Poems, Literary Heritage,1958,218). However, in the early 1970s, Li Shangyin was highly praised for his poems showing the ideological tendency of respecting the law and opposing Confucianism. He was called a "progressive poet", called his works "poetic legalist politics" and said that his untitled poems "exposed the Restoration School". (Note: See Li Shangyin's Untitled Poems of Tong Xin and the Debate between Confucianism and Legalism in Late Tang Dynasty. , and published education revolution newsletter 1975 1, jilin normal university journal 1976 2, etc. ) Liang Xiao's "On Li Shangyin's Untitled Poems" (Historical Research No.2, 1975) also talked about Li Zainiu's "loneliness and anger" in the struggle between Li Er (that is, the dispute between Confucianism and Legalism). Since the new period, there are still many people who study Li Shangyin politically, and most of them combine his poems full of political allegories to form a hot spot.
As we know, many of Li Shangyin's undisguised political poems, such as Sui Shidong, Two Poems with Love, Heavy Feelings, Shou An Gongzhu's Surrender, etc., all show sharp political sharpness. His poems such as Duke Hou of Chen, Martial Arts, Southern Dynasties and Jing M.Guo are full of strong realistic critical significance. Shout for Liu @ (12), Shout for Liu, Human Desire, Hannan Book, etc. In particular, "Going to the Western Suburb with Hundred Rhymes" is a blatant criticism of current politics and expresses its own political views. Most of his epics have strong political allegory, such as Jiasheng, Ode to History, Han Palace, Mausoleum, Sui Palace, Two Poems of Northern Qi Dynasty, Longchi, Huaqing Palace, Fu Hou, Qigong Ci and Ma Wei. Even if some of his poems do not fall into the theme of political history, the style and atmosphere shown in his poems are still filled with strong political and historical atmosphere. Therefore, Wang Anshi, a great statesman, admires Li Shangyin's spirit of mind, saying that his poems are full of life feelings and political ideals, such as "going aboard when you want to go back to heaven and earth" and "being a guest in the river and sea for three years, you have endured hardships and battles". When Zhu wrote the preface to his poem, he also praised him for worrying about the country and the people, which was deeply pinned on him. The so-called "the voice of the wind, the legacy of the Song Dynasty", the so-called "can smile at each other with Qujiang old people". Zhu Yizun's "On Quiet Poems" also said that Li's political poems and epic poems "are both flattering words, which are a legacy and can promote Shaoling".
There is a problem here. Li was affirmed, praised and valued because he replaced explicit language with inflectional language and Zhuang language with rambling language, expressing political feelings and giving him the heavy responsibility of political criticism. Therefore, a large number of his "untitled" poems are covered with the tradition of vanilla beauty, which is attributed to the sustenance of political feelings and even the sigh of the monarch and the minister. How many platforms are there in Yao's works? Yu, song and dance pavilions, many jade hibiscus, dancing ducks, many sweet-scented osmanthus plum piles, green calyx Duran, Zhuang Shengdie and cuckoo have all become political code words, expressing political loyalty and anger, leaving traces of official ruin. Zhu He's Notes on Poems on the Mountain and modern Ye Congqi's "reconciliation" generally follow this path. -although Li shangyin is in a political whirlpool, the wind and rain are sinister, but the "times" make him afraid to speak out. However, we have read many political poems and poems before him, either expressing our feelings directly or satirizing the present by using the past. Words are also very extreme and mean, and it seems that I have never seen any taboos. The ups and downs of his life and career are mostly due to the embarrassing survival between Niu and Li, that is, not because of the words (poems) of political feelings, but because of the steep interpersonal relationship. The Niudang called him "treacherous and treacherous" and "cunning and ignorant of the world", which mostly referred to the attack of personality integrity. If his "untitled" poems are really about politics, even if they are avoiding suspicious cronies or Hu Ling.
Personal grudges really don't need to be hidden so obscure and profound, out of the lust of the demon, to the point of compassion. Therefore, I have always suspected that most of his untitled poems have nothing to do with politics. At most, it is related to the abnormal frustration or embarrassment of life mixed with career difficulties, the mood is very dangerous, and the personality is a bit withdrawn and angry. One of his poems "freehand brushwork" (that is, "Yan Yan all the way across the forest") is almost untitled, which is typical of this artistic conception, especially the two sentences "One day stays one night to shine on the lace, and the clouds are overcast from the city", which is a sense of sadness for the world and a kind of compassion for others. The so-called "sustenance" also falls on this level to a great extent-a large number of his untitled poems are either deep and obscure, affectionate or profound, and the word "deep" is obviously not on the political theme of vanilla beauty.