Li Yu and Li Qingzhao, one is the king of the subjugated country, and the other is a talented woman of the past, but they are both graceful and first-rate masters in the history of Ci. They have many similarities. The ancients said: " Among men, Li is the queen, and among women, Li Yian." The two Lis are called together and are highly respected.
In my opinion, the biggest similarity between Li Yu and Li Qingzhao is that their life experiences and poetry creation can be divided into two periods, and more importantly, they were both in After experiencing the pain of losing his family and his country, he reached the pinnacle of the art of Ci and became a first-class master in the history of Ci.
Let’s look at Li Yu first.
Li Yu (937-978), originally named Congjia, with the courtesy name Chongguang and the nickname Zhongyin, was the sixth son of Li Jing, the central lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and was known as the empress of Li in history. In the second year of Jianlong of the Song Dynasty (961), Yu succeeded his father as the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty. He was entrusted to Zhengshuo of the Song Dynasty. In the eighth year of Kaibao (975), the city was broken and he was captured. He was taken to Bianjing and granted the title of Marquis of Violation. In the third year of Taiping and Xingguo's reign (978), Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty was given the medicine of Qianqi, but he died of poisoning.
Li Yu is good at calligraphy and painting, and has a good understanding of music and rhythm. In the early stage, he had a deep relationship with the great and small Zhou queens, and lived a luxurious life, which was often reflected in his chanting. As the king of the Southern Tang Dynasty, his life was quite luxurious, and the themes of his poems were narrow, which were nothing more than expressing palace life, love affairs between men and women, or the emotions of separation.
After the subjugation of the country, the lonely and desolate situation made his poems turn to writing about homesickness and the hatred of the subjugation of the country.
From the "red brocade lichen" empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty to the prisoner of the Song Dynasty who "cannot bear to look back on his motherland", the poet Li Yu's life experience in heaven and earth has declined, and in his heart, "leaving hatred is like spring grass, and can go further." The huge pain of "surviving" is something that most people cannot understand.
The style of Li Yu's early lyrics is beautiful and soft, and he still has the habit of "flower room". After the fall of the country, during his life of house arrest where he "washed his face with tears day and night", he wept his blood with one swan song after another, making the king of the subjugated country the "King of the South" in the world of poetry through the ages. These later poems mostly reflected the great pain of subjugation in the poet's heart, and sublimated the individual sorrow and separation in traditional poetry into the longing for the homeland. They are desolate and solemn, with profound artistic conception. They are what Su Xin calls " The "bold and unconstrained" faction laid the foundation.
The most famous one is "The Poppy": "When did the spring flowers and autumn moon come? How much do you know about the past? The east wind blew again last night in the small building. The motherland cannot bear to look back. In the moonlight, the carved railings and jade bricks should still be there, but Zhu Yan changes. How much sorrow can you have? It's like a river of spring water flowing eastward. "
This poem is Li Yu's last poem. After the song "Yu Meiren" was written, he got it. On the night of his birthday, July 7, he asked geishas to sing, drink and have fun, and play the harp, which made him famous. When Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty found out, he hated him for cutting off his love for his homeland and giving him poisonous wine and poison to death.
Perhaps they sympathize with Li Yu's experience, or perhaps they feel sorry for his talent, so some predecessors sighed: "To be a talented person is really peerless, but to be a king is pitiful." So some modern people hypothesize that history: What would happen to Li Yu if he was not the emperor? The implication is that it seems that Li Yu's artistic talent was wasted and destroyed just because he became emperor. It seems that if Li Yu had not been emperor, he would have left more outstanding works in the history of literature.
But if Li Yu really does not become the emperor, he may become a poet with abundant creations and a place in the history of literature, but he will never become a poet with the reputation of "Emperor of Ci" He is a first-class lyricist, and his lyrics will never become a masterpiece that will be popular and captivate people of all generations. Because artistic creation depends not only on genius and inspiration, but in a sense, it also depends on the richness of life experience and the depth of life experience. Among the poems he wrote before he became emperor, describing the luxurious life of the palace and the love between men and women, how many of them can be called "masterpieces" handed down from generation to generation? What other song can compare with his work of blood and tears that expresses the deep sorrow and pain after becoming the king of a subjugated country! The most accomplished lyrics that established his outstanding status in literary history were all created in the last two years of his life, such as "Poppy Poppies", "Midnight Song", "Wang Jiangnan", "Qing Ping Le", "Langtaosha", "Langtaosha Order", "Happy Meeting", etc., these lyrics are all works of blood and tears that express the pain of subjugation, and they are all related to his experience as an emperor.
It can be seen that it is precisely because of this tragic experience of "Emperor of the Country" that he can become the "Emperor of Ci" of the romantic generation, and he can leave many poems to future generations. Only in his short life was it possible for him to achieve great success in art with his blood-and-tears writings that shocked the world and made ghosts and gods weep. And this success and failure are obviously closely related to his destiny as emperor. It is really "the emperor who succeeds, the emperor who fails".
Wang Guowei's "Human Words" commented: "When the poets came to Li Houzhu, their vision began to expand, and their emotions became deeper, and they changed from the words of Ling Gong to the words of scholar-bureaucrats"; "The words of the later master, It’s true that he writes with blood.”
Just imagine, without the misfortune of imprisonment and the sorrow of deportation, how could he be “deeply moved” and “write with blood”? At best, it can only continue to write clichés like "The red sun is already three feet high, and the golden furnace is adding fragrance to the beasts." How can he become a great master who can connect the past and the future and pursue the Tang poetry?
Let’s look at Li Qingzhao again.
Li Qingzhao’s creative achievements are no less than those of any male poet. The literati of the Song Dynasty already had a deep admiration for Li Qingzhao.
Wang Zhuo said: "If there was a woman in this dynasty, (Li Qingzhao) would be the first in literary talent." (Volume 2 of Biji Manzhi) Many arrogant literati and poets in the past dynasties were even more fascinated by her outstanding talent. Wang Shizhen, the leader in literary circles in the Qing Dynasty, also proudly said: "There are two schools of Zhang Nanhu Ci: one is Wanyue, and the other is Bold. I call Wanyue with Yi'an as the ancestor, and Boldness with You'an as the leader. They are both from Jinan. , it is difficult to continue." Li Qingzhao is the master of the sect of graceful words. Other compliments abound.
Li Qingzhao established his lofty position in the history of ancient Chinese literature with his genius literary creation and infinite artistic charm. Wang Sengbao's "Lunci Quatrains" concluded: "Yi'an's talent and beauty are unparalleled, and talents of all generations have followed in his footsteps. Similar to Zen Buddhism, the Manjusri woman is focused on the body."
Li Qingzhao (1084- About 1151), a female poet in the Southern Song Dynasty. No. Yi'an Jushi, a native of Zhangqiu, Qizhou (now part of Shandong). His father, Li Gefei, was a famous scholar at that time, and his husband, Zhao Mingcheng, was an epigraphic expert. In his early days, he lived a prosperous life, and together with Mingcheng, he devoted himself to the collection and arrangement of calligraphy, painting and inscriptions. Later, when the Jin soldiers invaded the Central Plains, Li Qingzhao lived in the south. Mingcheng died of illness and was left alone.
Like Li Yu, the creation of Li Qingzhao's poems is also divided into two periods.
She was born into a noble family, and her parents were good at writing and speaking. She left her girlhood at the age of eighteen and married Zhao Mingcheng. This was considered the happiest period of her life. Many of her words described love, including describing a girl's first love and the life of a young woman, and some writing She misses the separation from her husband. From her words, "The crimson silk is thin, the water is crystal clear, the snow is greasy and fragrant, laughing and talking to Tanlang, tonight the gauze pillow is cool in the mat" ("Picking Mulberries") "The hibiscus on the embroidered curtain smiles, leaning against the precious duck leaning against the fragrant cheeks, You can only guess when your eyes are moving." ("Xi Xisha") "Looking back while leaning against the door, sniffing the green plums" and so on. This kind of description can always deeply highlight the girl's emotions and mood. This kind of life can be regarded as the most happy life.
Li Qingzhao's early words mainly showed her yearning and pursuit of happy love and her love for nature and life through the portrayal of life in the boudoir.
After the "Jingkang Incident", in addition to sharing the same exile experience as many scholar-bureaucrats at that time, Li Qingzhao also experienced a series of special unfortunate accidents in his life. First, her husband died of illness, and then she was considered to be a collaborator. Suffering from this many hardships, her mind and health were greatly threatened and destroyed. The fall of the country, the humiliation of the nation, the devastation of the souls, and the misfortune of the individual. This series of changes caused Li Qingzhao's later poetry to undergo tremendous changes in his thoughts and style. Therefore, her later works generally reflect what an intellectual sees, hears and thinks: the desire to fight against the Jin Dynasty, the longing for the hometown and the capital, and the sense of life experience. For example, the following poem:
The wind abides in the dust and the fragrance of the flowers is gone. I am tired of combing my hair day and night. Things are different and people are not the same. Everything stops. If you want to speak, you will shed tears first. I heard that the spring in Shuangxi is still good, so I plan to take a boat trip. I'm just afraid of the Shuanggai boat. Unable to carry, full of sorrow. ("Wuling Spring")
This poem was written in Jinhua in the spring of the fifth year of Shaoxing (1135) by Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty. When Jin soldiers invaded, she took refuge in Jinhua. She was already 51 years old at that time. There are various ways of writing lyric poems in my country, but generally speaking, they can be divided into those that express one's feelings directly and those that have twists and turns. But Li Qingzhao was unique in embodying this tradition in the Song Dynasty, and the artistic power revealed in her lyrical lyrics is rare. For example, the opening sentence of the above poem, "The wind abides in the dust and the fragrance of the flowers is gone." Just seven words describe for us a desolate environment where the ground is covered with red. The poet who lives in this environment is "tired of combing his hair day and night." This shows that in such a desolate environment, the poet's heart is full of sorrow, not just emptiness and boredom. In addition, the country was ruined and the family was destroyed, powerful enemies were at hand, her husband died, and she was left alone. "Things are different and people are different." "If you want to speak, shed tears first." This protagonist, who is full of worries and sorrows, is actually the author himself.
Looking at the life of Li Qingzhao, a poet of the generation, she was happy in the first half of her life and sad in the second half, like a watershed drawn as clear as water. Her lyrics should also be divided into two periods based on the trajectory of her life when she traveled to the south. In this way, we can more clearly see the various lyrical protagonist images expressed in Li Qingzhao's lyrical lyrics. She was very proud of her early life, and most of the characters in her poems were romantic, optimistic, and enthusiastic. Most of them are written about the lives and love lives of young girls and young women. The second half of the period was disappointing, and most of the characters in his poems also had a heavy sense of nostalgia and dilapidation. Most of them express the sadness of the country's collapse and the death of the family and the incompatibility between the individual and society.
The shadow of Li Qingzhao’s personal life and the background of that era are deeply imprinted in her works. It is no accident that she became the female poet with the highest literary achievement in Chinese history.
So while we are lamenting the loss of the country and family of Li Yu, and lamenting the misfortune of Li Qingzhao, we might as well make a hypothesis, assuming that the second half of the two great poets' lives were as smooth as the first half of their lives. In other words In other words, what would be the result if the later works of the two were removed? If that were true, I'm afraid there would be no "Emperor of Ci" or "Elegance of Elegance" in the history of literature.
This is really "the country's misfortune, the poet's luck, his words reflect the vicissitudes of life and the work begins."
In fact, it is not just Er Li. Looking at history, the more troubled the times, the more profound works can be produced.
Maybe this has become a rule? Therefore, how to define "lucky" and "unlucky"? People should applaud those masterpieces that were soaked in the suffering life, but if they deviate a little and think that the loss of the country, the loss of the family, and the loneliness made Li Houzhu and Li Yian successful, then it is really a kind of cruelty of bystanders!