Poetry Achievements Li Shangyin is usually regarded as the most outstanding poet in the late Tang Dynasty. His poetic style was deeply influenced by Li He, and his syntax, composition and structure were influenced by Du Fu and Han Yu. Many critics believe that among the outstanding poets of the Tang Dynasty, his importance is second only to Du Fu, Li Bai, Wang Wei and others. In terms of the uniqueness of his poetic style, he is as good as any other poet. However, there are relatively many allusions and it seems to be obscure. Those who appreciate Li Shangyin's poetry and those who criticize him all focus on his distinctive personal style. Many poets in later generations imitated Li Shangyin's style, but none of them was recognized.
2 poems by Li Shangyin
According to the compilation and research of Liu Xuekai and Yu Shucheng, there are 594 poems handed down by Li Shangyin, of which 381 have been basically determined at the time of their writing, 213 Cannot be assigned to a specific year. In addition, there are about a dozen poems suspected to be Li Shangyin's, but the evidence is insufficient.
Judging from the themes of chanting, Li Shangyin's poems can be divided into several categories:
Politics and chanting history. As an intellectual who cared about politics, Li Shangyin wrote a large number of poems in this area, about a hundred of which have survived. Among them, "Han Stele", "Traveling to the Western Suburbs to Compose One Hundred Rhymes", "Following the Master to the East", "Two Poems with Feelings", etc. are some of the more important works. Li Shangyin's early political poems refer to the current situation, with a harsh, sad and angry tone, but also contain a sense of self-expectation, which can well reflect his mentality at the time. In poems about political and social content, borrowing historical themes to reflect opinions on contemporary society is a characteristic of Li Shangyin's poetry. "Fuping Shaohou", "Two Songs of the Northern Qi Dynasty", "Maoling", etc. are among the representatives.
Express feelings and chant things. Li Shangyin's official career was bumpy throughout his life, and his ambitions could not be realized, so he used poetry to relieve his depression and uneasiness. "An Ding Tower", "Spring's Feelings", "Le Youyuan" and "Du Gongbu Leaving the Banquet in Shuzhong" are some of the more widely circulated poems. It is worth noting that many of the seven-character poems in works of this type are considered to be important successors of Du Fu's poetic style.
Emotional poetry. Works that chant inner feelings, including most of his untitled poems, are the most distinctive part of Li Shangyin's poetry, and have also received the most attention from later generations. "Jin Se", "Yantai Poems", "Three Poems on Bicheng", "Chongguo Saint Maiden Temple", etc. maintain a similar style to the untitled poems. "Five Poems on Willow Branches", "Night Rain Sends to the North", "Going to Eastern Sichuan after Mourning and Arriving at Sanguan to Encounter Snow", etc., reflect another style of artistic conception of Li Shangyin's emotional poems.
Entertainment and communication. Among Li Shangyin's poems for communication, there are several poems written to Linghu Gu ("Farewell to Linghu Buque", "Send to Linghu Lang", "Repay Linghu to Lang Zhongmei", "Send to Linghu the Scholar", "The Bachelor of Meng Linghu" and "Linghu Sheren said that I played with the moon in Xiye last night because of the play" are particularly interesting, providing direct evidence to explain his relationship with Linghu Gu.
Li Shangyin: Jinse
Li's poems incorporate the strengths of his predecessors, inherit the melancholy and frustration of Du Fu's Qilu, integrate the gorgeousness of Qi Liang's poems, and learn the ghostly fantasy of Li He's poems, forming his Affectionate, lingering, beautiful and exquisite style. Li Shi is also good at using allusions and using appropriate historical analogies to express hidden and unspeakable meanings. [13] Li Shangyin's poem "Return to the East" is very popular. After reading this poem, we can see that Li Shangyin's return to seek teachers and learn from immortals is just an excuse. The so-called learning of Taoism is just a way to relieve his inner injustice and lament his misfortune. , and even more indignant in the face of all the debauchery and immorality of the government and lamenting the decline of the Tang Dynasty step by step.
Influence of Poetry
Portrait of Li Shangyin
Shi Zhecun believes that although the social significance of Li Shangyin's poems is not as good as that of Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi, Li Shangyin is the most important influence on future generations. Influential poet, because there are more people who like Li Shangyin's poems than those who like Li, Du, and Bai's poems. In "Three Hundred Tang Poems" compiled by Sun Zhu of the Qing Dynasty, 32 poems by Li Shangyin were included, ranking fourth after Du Fu (38 poems), Wang Wei (29 poems), and Li Bai (27 poems). This anthology of Tang poems is well-known in China, which shows Li Shangyin's huge influence among ordinary people.
In the late Tang Dynasty, Han Xie, Wu Rong and Tang Yanqian had begun to consciously study Li Shangyin's poetry style. In the Song Dynasty, there were even more poets who studied Li Shangyin. According to Ye Xie: "There are seven outstanding people in the Song Dynasty, probably sixty-seven who learn from Du Fu, and even thirty-four who learn from Li Shangyin." ("Original Poetry") In the early Northern Song Dynasty, Yang Yi, Liu Jun, Qian Weiyan and others followed the patriarchal Li Shangyin, and often They sang harmoniously with each other, pursuing gorgeous rhetoric and neat contrasts, and published a "Xikun Sing Collection", which is called Xikun style. He was quite influential at the time, but he did not learn the essence of Li Shangyin's poetry, and his achievements were very limited. His influence also disappeared as Ouyang Xiu and others entered the literary world. In addition, Wang Anshi also spoke highly of Li Shangyin and believed that some of his poems "cannot be surpassed by Lao Du" ("Cai Kuanfu Poetry Talk"). Wang Anshi's own poetry style was also obviously influenced by Li Shangyin.
Poets of the Ming Dynasty, from the Qizi to Chen Zilong, Qian Qianyi and Wu Weiye, were all influenced by Li Shangyin. People who liked to write erotic poems in the Ming and Qing dynasties especially studied Li Shangyin's untitled poems, such as "Collection of Doubtful Clouds" and "Collection of Doubtful Rain" by late Ming poet Wang Yanhong (Note: Whether "Collection of Doubtful Clouds" is a collection of Wang Yanhong's works, academic There is considerable controversy in the industry). The erotic poems in the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School novels during the Republic of China were also influenced by him.
For information about Li Shangyin’s influence on later generations, please refer to Wu Diaogong’s “Li Shangyin’s Influence on the Poetry Circle of the Northern Song Dynasty”, “Li Shangyin’s Beautiful Aftermath in the Qing Dynasty”, Wang Yuxiang’s “Li Shangyin’s Influence on Su Manshu’s Poems”, and Wang Zhaoyang Papers such as "On the Influence of Li Shangyin's Poems on the Formation of the Unique Style of Ci" and Liu Xuekai's "Li Shangyin's Poems and Graceful Ci of Tang and Song Dynasties".