The clouds think of the clothes, the flowers think of the appearance, the spring breeze blows the threshold and the dew is rich. It means: when I see the brilliant clouds, I think of the gorgeous clothes of (Yang Guifei); when I see the beauty of the peonies, I think of (Yang Guifei)’s appearance. The brilliance is dazzling. These two poems use clouds to represent clothes and flowers to represent people, both of which are used to describe Yang Guifei's stunning appearance.
"The clouds think of clothes, the flowers think of faces, the spring breeze blows on the threshold, and the dew is rich" comes from Li Bai's "Qing Ping Tiao·Part 1".
Li Bai (701-762), also known as Taibai, also known as Qinglian Jushi, also known as "Exiled Immortal", was a great romantic poet in the Tang Dynasty. He was hailed as the "Poetry Immortal" by later generations. Du Fu is collectively known as "Li Du". In order to distinguish him from the other two poets Li Shangyin and Du Mu, who are known as "Little Li Du", Du Fu and Li Bai are also collectively known as "Big Li Du". According to the "New Book of Tang", Li Bai was the ninth grandson of Emperor Xingsheng (Liang Wuzhao King Li Hao) and the same clan as the kings of Li and Tang Dynasties. He is cheerful and generous, loves drinking, writing poetry, and making friends.
Li Bai was deeply influenced by Huang Lao Liezhuang's thoughts. There is "Collection of Li Taibai" handed down to the world. Most of his poems were written when he was drunk. His representative works include "Wang Lushan Waterfall", "The Road is Difficult" and "The Road to Shu is Difficult". "About to Enter the Wine", "Mingtang Fu", "Early Departure from Baidi City" and many other poems.
Li Bai’s achievements in Yuefu, song lines and quatrains are the highest. His song lines completely break all the inherent formats of poetry creation, with nothing to rely on, and various brushwork techniques, reaching a magical realm of unpredictable and swaying at will. Li Bai's quatrains are natural, lively, elegant and unrestrained, and can express endless emotions in concise and clear language. Among the poets of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei and Meng Haoran were good at the Five Jue, and Wang Changling and other Qi Jue wrote very well. Li Bai was the only one who was good at both the Five Jue and the Seven Jue and reached the same extreme level.
Li Bai's poems are majestic and elegant, with extremely high artistic achievements. He eulogized the mountains, rivers and beautiful natural scenery of the motherland, with a majestic and unrestrained style, handsome and fresh, full of romantic spirit, and achieved the unity of content and art. He was called the "Exiled Immortal" by He Zhizhang, and most of his poems mainly described landscapes and expressed inner emotions.
Li Bai's poems have the artistic charm of "the pen falls in the storm, and the poem becomes the weeping ghosts and gods", which is also the most distinctive artistic feature of his poems. Li Bai's poems are rich in self-expression and have a strong subjective lyrical color, and the expression of emotions has an overwhelming momentum. He and Du Fu are both called "Big Li Du" (Li Shangyin and Du Mu are called "Little Li Du").
Li Bai's poems often use imagination, exaggeration, metaphor, personification and other techniques to create magical, magnificent and moving artistic conceptions. This is why Li Bai's romantic poems give people a heroic, unrestrained, elegant and fairy-like feeling. Here's why.
Li Bai's poems have had a profound impact on future generations. Famous poets such as Han Yu, Meng Jiao, and Li He in the mid-Tang Dynasty, Su Shi, Lu You, and Xin Qiji in the Song Dynasty, and Gao Qi, Yang Shen, and Gong Zizhen in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were all greatly influenced by Li Bai's poetry.