The modern label of "aestheticism" was put on by Li Shangyin 50 years ago, but realism and class struggle were advocated at that time, so the poets along the way of aestheticism were either criticized or left out in the cold. We now take it for granted that Li Shangyin is an outstanding poet, and this concept has only been formed for more than 20 years.
People who love history often develop a historical concept, which makes them look at problems quite different from others. For example, when we talk about "descendants of dragons", many people think that this is a traditional concept for thousands of years, but in fact it is only 20 years old. From more than 20 years ago to ancient times, people didn't have so much understanding of the problem, and the image of the dragon was also very complicated and changeable. The same is true of Li Shangyin. Our understanding of him today is very different from that of our predecessors. From the late Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, Li Shangyin has always been the object of criticism in the mainstream society. Although he is occasionally flaunted, he will soon be submerged by the tide of the times. Especially in the Ming Dynasty, the literary world played the slogan "Poetry must flourish in the Tang Dynasty", and Li Shangyin had no status as a poet in the late Tang Dynasty.
Li Shangyin's poems were not really valued by the mainstream society until the Qing Dynasty, and then received a cold reception in New China for 30 years. We always say that certain poems have been popular for thousands of years, some of them are true, but many of them actually have a short history.
Why was Li Shangyin's poetry once neglected? There are many reasons: first, it is not Confucian orthodoxy, and the gentleman thinks that many of his works are too sad and addicted to the love between men and women, which is unhealthy; Secondly, according to the tradition of judging poetry by character, people think that Li Shangyin has a bad character and belongs to the kind of idle literati, so he despises his poems even more. Thirdly, some of Li Shangyin's poems are too avant-garde to be accepted by the mainstream society for a long time. To say the third point, this song "Jinse" is the most typical example.
In the late Qing dynasty, intellectuals had a period of crazy acceptance of western culture. Besides political philosophy and science and technology, western literary criticism and aesthetic theory are also used to reinterpret China's classical literature. The well-known Wang Guowei's Tales on Earth is such a typical work, some of which are not so famous now. For example, Liang Qichao also has a series of such articles, including Li Shangyin and Jin Se. Take it apart and let me explain it sentence by sentence. I can't even explain the meaning. But I just think it's beautiful and enjoyable to read. You know, beauty is multifaceted and contains mystery. ("The Emotion Expressed in China's Poems")
Su Shi once said that Jinse is a poem about things. There is a story in Notes of Song Dynasty: Even Huang Tingjian, who has always been famous for his erudition, couldn't understand the meaning of Jinse, so he went to consult Su Shi. Su Shi said: In ancient and modern music, it is said that the instrument of Jinse has fifty strings, and the music played has four tones of "appropriateness, resentment, clarity and harmony", which is the origin of the poem "Jinse".
Huang, who recorded this story, further explained Su Shi's statement: "Saint Zhuangzi daydreaming was bewitched by butterflies" means "fitness"; "Wang Chunxin's cuckoo crow" is "resentment"; "Mermaids shed pearl-like tears on the moon-green sea" means "clear"; "Blue fields are breathing their jade at the sun" means "harmony". That is to say, the first couplet "I don't know why I have fifty chords on a Jinse, each with its flower-like product as a youthful interval" mainly describes the appearance characteristics of Jinse, while the four sentences of Zhuan Lian and Xiang Lian respectively describe the four sound characteristics of Jinse's "appropriateness, resentment, purity and harmony". At this point, there are allusions and expert appraisal, and the meaning can make sense. It seems that the argument of poetry can be established. But the trouble lies in the two sentences in the couplet: "And a moment that should last forever has come and gone unconsciously", which seems to be out of place with the recited poem.
Before Su Shi, there was a speculation that "Jinse" might be the name of a person, who was the maid of Linghu Chu family. (Liu Ban's Poems of Zhongshan) There are many feuds and disputes between the Hu Ling family and Li Shangyin. I won't list them here. Looking at this guess, there is some truth: "Jinse" really looks like the name of a maid or a geisha, and this poem seems to be related to the love between men and women. But the weak evidence reflects the reader's dilemma: trying to figure out the meaning of this poem, summing up a central idea, and finally finding an explanation that even he may not believe.
This is the time for Hegel's dialectics to exert its explanatory power. Huai people say it is "positive" and praise things as "negative". After a period of war, there should be a "combination". Xu Yanzhou put forward a compromise view quite timely: "Linghu Chu's maid" is true, and "appropriateness, resentment, purity and harmony" is also true. If Linghu Chu's maid can play a decent, resentful, clear and harmonious tune with a golden harp, the problem will be solved! (Xu Yanzhou's poetry) Although it lacks sufficient basis, it can be called a self-consistent explanation. The killing of dragons in Ming Dynasty is more interesting. It is said that Linghu Chu has a famous concubine brocade, who is good at playing the drums and the piano. "Comfortable, resentful, clear and harmonious" is wonderful. (Quoted from "The General Review of the Tang Poetry Selection Meeting")
Yuan Haowen wrote a set of quatrains in On Poetry, and his evaluation of Li Shangyin is as follows:
Wang's longing for love is crying in the cuckoo, and a beautiful woman, Jinse, is complaining about China's New Year.
Poets always love Quincy, but hate that no one writes about Jian Zheng.