The "desire to punish beautiful women" mentioned in Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" means "warning women".
Youwu:
"Youwu" literally means "special item". You means different and "prominent". According to the "Modern Chinese Dictionary", it means an outstanding person or object (mostly a beautiful woman). So here it refers to beautiful women.
Punishment:
The basic meaning of punishment: punishment; warning. So the message here is a warning.
Extended information:
About the author
Bai Juyi (772-846), a poet of the Tang Dynasty, was born in Xinzheng, Henan. The courtesy name is Lotte and the name is Xiangshan Jushi. He was originally from Taiyuan (now part of Shanxi). His sixth ancestor, Bai Jian, the fifth soldier of the Northern Qi Dynasty, moved to Hancheng, and his great-grandfather moved to Xiagui (now northeast of Weinan, Shaanxi). Zhenyuan Jinshi, awarded the title of Secretary Provincial Secretary. During the Yuanhe period, he served as Dr. Zuo Yiyi and Zuo Zanshan.
Later, he offended the powerful and was demoted to Jiangzhou Sima because of his request to severely arrest the murderer who assassinated Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng. In the early years of Changqing, he was appointed as the governor of Hangzhou, and in the early years of Baoli, he was appointed as the governor of Suzhou. Later, he became the minister of the Ministry of punishment. In literature, he advocated that "articles should be combined to suit the occasion, and songs and poems should be combined to suit the situation." He was an advocate of the New Yuefu Movement.
The language of his poems is popular. Together with Yuan Zhen, he is also called "Yuan Bai", and with Liu Yuxi, he is also called "Liu Bai". There is "Bai's Changqing Collection".
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