Among the poets of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shangyin can be said to be a poet who encountered ups and downs and had an extremely lonely and desolate life experience. He was trapped in the partisanship between Niu and Li all his life and was depressed and frustrated. When he was nine years old, his father Li Si passed away and his family was in extremely difficult circumstances. He studied with his cousin at home. He was awarded Jinshi at the age of twenty-five, but due to party struggles thereafter, he was caught between the struggles between the two parties throughout his life. He spent most of his rough life as an aide and died of depression at the age of forty-six. The relationship between Li Shangyin and the Niu-Li Party began with Linghu Chu's appreciation of him. At about sixteen o'clock, Li Shangyin was appreciated by Linghu Chu for his talent. He once said that "Fan Nansheng wrote Cai Lun and Sheng Lun at the age of sixteen, and his ancient texts were published among the public." This attracted Linghu Chu's attention. Linghu Chu was one of the upper echelons of the Niu Party. He admired Li Shangyin's talents and introduced him to his shogunate (at that time, Ling Huchu was the governor of the Tianping Army, where the government is now in Dongping, Shandong). In fact, he treated him like a son. . Since official documents at that time were all written in parallel script, Linghu Chubian personally instructed Li Shangyin and his son Linghu Zuo to learn parallel script. Li Shangyin's good parallel prose is inseparable from Linghuchu's guidance. In the second year of Kaicheng reign of Emperor Wenzong of Tang Dynasty (837), Li Shangyin was twenty-five years old and went to Beijing to take the examination. The examiner this year was Gao Kai, and Linghu Zhuan was Zuo Buque at that time. Due to Linghu Zhuan's recommendation, he passed the examination. In other words, since Li Shangyin received the favor from Linghu Chu and his son, he should be regarded as a member of the Niu Party. However, in the second year after passing the Jinshi examination, Linghuchu passed away, and Li Shangyin's livelihood became a problem. At this time, Wang Maoyuan, who was the military governor of Jingyuan, hired Li Shangyin as his staff. Wang Maoyuan had a little daughter who was very beautiful and talented. Wang Maoyuan intended to marry his daughter to him, so Li Shangyin joined Wang Maoyuan's shogunate. Since Wang Maoyuan was considered to be an upper-level figure in the Li Party, Li Shangyin was considered to be "taking advantage of others" and could not be forgiven by the Niu Party. Since then, the Niu Party has been in power for a longer time, so Li Shangyin suffered. Linghu was originally his good friend, but he could never forgive him. Linghu Qi later became a great official and became prime minister, but he was always squeezed out and attacked. Li Shangyin fell into an unlucky life and died of depression, which was all related to this. Among ancient poets, Li Shangyin's poems are famous, but at the same time, his reputation has not been very good in the past. Critics in the feudal society regarded him as an incompetent literati because he "took the bull by the horns" and scolded him as "cunning and incompetent", "a betrayal of kindness", and so on. After liberation, Li Shangyin's evaluation was not high, and he was regarded as a representative of "formalism" and "aestheticism" poets. After the new era, with the emancipation of ideas in the academic world, the evaluation of Li Shangyin became more objective and fair. The research on his people and poems has also been in-depth. In this regard, Mr. Fu Xuancong, Zhou Jianguo, Liu Xuekai, Yu Shucheng and others have made particularly great contributions. In fact, Li Shangyin was a poet with a sense of justice, high political enthusiasm, keen views on national affairs, and bold and sharp criticism of political reality. In his early years, he had a poem "An Ding Tower", which wrote: "I will always remember the rivers and lakes with white hair, and I want to return to heaven and earth in a small boat." This shows that he is a poet with lofty ambitions. In addition, his poems such as "Crying Liu Fan" all show his political integrity. He opposed the separatist rule of vassal towns and paid attention to social reality. He also used the form of epic poems to use the past to satirize the present, criticize reality, and so on. All this shows that Li Shangyin was a poet with ideals and ambitions in politics, integrity and insights in personality. 3. About Li Shangyin’s works. There are more than 600 poems by Li Shangyin in existence, including "Collected Poems of Yuxisheng" and his articles are called "Collected Works of Fan Nan". He was successful in both poetry and prose, but his poetry had the greatest influence. His more than 600 poems cover a wide range of contents and fall into the following categories. The first is political poetry that reflects social reality. A representative example is "A Hundred Rhymes in the Western Suburbs", which is said to be a follower of Du Fu's "Northern Expedition". In addition, poems such as "Two Poems with Feelings" and "Two Poems with Heavy Thoughts" are all poems that can express his views and attitudes towards real politics. The second is to chant epic poems. Li Shangyin wrote many and good epic poems, most of which exposed and satirized the arrogance and ignorance of the supreme ruler and the contradictions within the feudal ruling class through history. Such as "Longchi", "Yaochi", "Yongshi", "Mawei", "Qi Gong Ci", "Sui Gong", etc. The third is a work of chanting things. Such as "The Flowing Oriole", "Cicada", etc. The fourth is an untitled poem. This is the most creative, artistically perfect, and most influential category among Li Shangyin's poems. This kind of poem has implicit meaning and hazy poetic meaning, so it has attracted the interest of countless readers and researchers. Generally speaking, some of the untitled poems may have political sustenance, and some may be about one's own love. Why Li Shangyin wrote untitled poems is probably because he had something to hide. Ancient Chinese poetry had no title in the era of the Book of Songs. It was a product of poetry creation that had not yet been personalized. After the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, with the rise of literati creation, poems also had titles, and titles became an integral part of the content of poems. But Li Shangyin began to write untitled poems again, which can be said to be one of his creations. 4. About the artistic characteristics of Li Shangyin’s poetry. The predecessors commented that he is "affectionate and deep", "comprehensive", "deep in sustenance and elegantly worded", deep and gorgeous", etc. Generally speaking, his poems are meticulous in conception and sustenance in terms of expression techniques. Its poems are characterized by profoundness, clear language, precise allusion, and strict rhythm. First, they have the following characteristics: subjectivity.
He always gives his soul to the scenery, things or historical figures he sings about, giving the object a strong symbolic color, integrating it with the author to a large extent, and even becoming the incarnation of the author. Second, his poems show a strong sentimental tendency. It can be said that the sentimental tone is the main theme throughout his poems. The third is to make good use of allusions, with exquisite dialogue and clear language. The use of allusions can enrich the connotation of poetry, make it richer and more thought-provoking, and deepen the theme of poetry. Li Shangyin's use of allusions is very outstanding and very precise. The formation of the characteristics of his poems that are "brilliant" and "comprehensive" is related to this. However, he uses too many allusions, which sometimes makes the poetry obscure and difficult to understand. Therefore, Yuan Haowen of the Jin Dynasty once said with emotion: "The emperor's spring heart is entrusted to the cuckoo, and the beautiful woman resents her youth. Poets always love Xikun, but they only hate that no one writes Zheng Jian." This is the situation he is talking about.