"A play for gentlemen who watch flowers": Liu Yuxi's poem satirizes the nouveau riche of the court at that time through the trivial life of people watching flowers at Xuandu, a Taoist temple in Chang'an. This poem shows that the poem describes people going to Xuandu to watch the peach blossoms, but in essence it is a satire on the powerful at that time. Thousands of peach blossoms are a metaphor for the new rich who have become politically successful due to speculation in the past ten years; flower-seekers are a metaphor for those who follow the trend, climb high and become rich. They run to rich families for wealth and wealth, just like enjoying the peach blossoms in the purple world. The last sentence pointed out that these powerful people were just promoted after I was excluded. The contempt and irony in this poem are pungent, so the "Old Book of Tang Dynasty: The Biography of Liu Yuxi" says that the language is "sarcastic", and the "New Book of Tang Dynasty: The Biography of Liu Yuxi" says it is "the language is sarcastic and angry".
The poem "Revisiting Xuandu Temple" is a continuation of the previous one. On the surface, it only describes the rise and fall of the peach blossoms in Xuandu Temple. In fact, it is a rehash of old things, like a challenge to the powerful. Peach blossoms are more valuable than newcomers, and peach-growing Taoists refer to those in power who fight against the reform movement. But they have "scattered" after the tree fell, and the people who were excluded came back again. It's really unpredictable. The poet shows unyieldingness and optimism. Therefore, "Old Book of Tang·Biography of Liu Yuxi" says: "When the ruler heard the preface to poetry, he was unhappy." "New Book of Tang·Biography of Liu Yuxi" did not quote the poem, but quoted words such as "Rabbit Kui" and "Oats" in the preface, which made him particularly dissatisfied.
This poem is a criticism of Liu Yuxi's two poems "The Opera is Presented to Gentlemen Watching Flowers" and "Revisiting the View of Xuandu" and the grievances of the poems. When Yuan Haowen discussed poetry, he advocated gentleness and sincerity, and clearly opposed the explicit expression of harsh resentments. Among his many taboos in poetry, there are formal commandments such as "no cunning criticism", "no jealousy of concubines, no slander by enemies". He believes that even if there is "an air of hurt, slander, hatred and injustice" that "cannot hide itself", "the deeper the blame, the more euphemistic the purpose, the deeper the resentment, the slower the speech" ("Yang Shuneng Xiaoheng Collection") lead").
In this poem, Yuan Haowen actually inherited the views of his predecessors and criticized "Revisiting the View of Xuandu" and its preface for being inappropriate. Yuan Haowen believes that it is not harmful to say that Liu Yuxi's poem "The Gentlemen Watching the Flowers from the Play" is a work from the play, but the poem "Revisiting Xuandu Temple" is too harsh, especially the preface to the poem. As the saying goes, "When I revisit Xuandu, there is not a single tree left, only Tu Kui and Oats are shaking in the spring breeze." To denounce all those in power as Tu Kui and Oats is too broad a blow and too derogatory, and it is unavoidable to be mean. The first two sentences summarize the background of Liu Yuxi's creation of "Revisiting the View of Xuandu". "After the Rebellion" refers to the turbulent situation during the fourteen years after Liu Yuxi was demoted, including the changes in imperial power, the eunuchs' exclusive power, and the separatism of feudal towns. "The Lost Base" refers to the period before Liu Yuxi's poem. The scene of decline mentioned in the Xiaoxu, "There is no more tree left", refers to the poem "The Flower-Viewing Gentlemen". These two poems believe that everything at that time was only worthy of sadness, and there should be no more resentful words. The last two sentences are the key to the whole poem. The sentence "Liu Lang" borrows the words of Liu's poem "Liu Lang came to visit him before", saying that Liu Yuxi is also a mortal. The sentence "Wandering in vain" picks out the preface of the poem "Revisiting Xuandu Guan" as the focus of criticism. "Wu" means "wrong", which is consistent with the word "Wu" in "Wu Lian is a scholar waiting for Lu Lian" ("On Thirty Poems"). The two sentences are connected together, which means that Liu Yuxi is also a mortal and cannot be exempted from vulgarity, but he mistakenly accuses everyone of being like rabbits, sunflowers and oats in the east wind and ridicules them. It can be seen that this poem focuses on criticizing "Revisiting Xuandu Temple", especially the inappropriate resentment in the preface.