Tang poetry is one of the precious cultural heritages of the Chinese nation and a shining classic in the treasure house of Chinese culture. It has many forms, mainly five-character and seven-character . If
is distinguished by time period, it can be divided into early Tang, prosperous Tang, middle Tang and late Tang.
In each time period, there are outstanding representative poets, such as Wang Bo and Luo Binwang in the early Tang Dynasty, Li Bai and Du Fu in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi and Li He in the middle Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi and Li He : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : , Li Shangyin in the late Tang Dynasty, Du Mu , etc.
It can be said that it was these literati who supported the wonderful blue sky in the history and culture of the Tang Dynasty, and what we are going to talk about this time is that Bai Juyi and Li Shangyin, two Tang Dynasty poets of the same era.
In 772 AD, Bai Juyi was born in Xinzheng, Henan. He was a great realist poet of the Tang Dynasty and was also known as one of the three great poets of the Tang Dynasty.
Bai Juyi's poetry has a wide range of themes, diverse forms, easy to understand language, and has a high weight in the history of literature. Especially those poems that depict the sufferings of the world have always been praised by future generations. With the charm of poetry, Bai Juyi has occupied two major qualities. The nickname is Poetry Demon and Poetry King .
In 813 AD, Li Shangyin was born in Qinyang, Henan. He was a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty and was collectively known as "Little Li and Du" with Du Mu. He is one of the few poets in the Tang Dynasty who deliberately pursued the beauty of poetry. His poetry conception, especially the love poems he wrote, is even more unique.
In addition, Li Shangyin is also good at writing historical poems, and is good at learning from historical stories to criticize current affairs. He is nicknamed: Poetry Soul.
Since ancient times, it has been said that literati are inferior to each other, but it is obvious that this does not apply to Bai Juyi and Li Shangyin . They are also very talented, but they do not have any respect for each other. According to age, Bai Juyi is 41 years older than Li Shangyin, but Bai Juyi He appreciates Li Shangyin very much.
In his later years, he expressed his greatest wish, which was to be Li Shangyin's son . This was undoubtedly speechless. An old man said to a young man, I want to be your son, it's strange to think about it. .
So why did Bai Juyi say such words, and how did Li Shangyin respond?
Bai Juyi's Demon
Bai Juyi has been studying very hard since childhood and is extremely smart. In order to study, he has sores in his mouth and calluses in his hands. When he was young, his hair turned white and he really responded to himself. last name.
Ancient literati valued academic research and became an official, and Bai Juyi was naturally no exception. With his outstanding talent, Bai Juyi also became an official in the capital.
Bai Juyi during his tenure, he felt that he was appreciated by Tang Xianzong because of his preference for literature, so he was determined to be an excellent censor like Wei Zheng in order to repay the emperor's kindness.
So during this period, Bai Juyi frequently wrote books and wrote a large number of poems that reflect the current situation in society to make up for the current affairs, and even pointed out the mistakes of Emperor Xianzong of Tang in person many times.
This made Emperor Xianzong of Tang very uncomfortable. Thinking about it, Emperor Xianzong of Tang was not as beautiful as his ancestors Emperor Taizong of Tang . Emperor Taizong of Tang said many times when facing Wei Zheng's direct advice: I must kill this country guy if I have the chance: I must kill this country guy if I have a chance. , the discomfort of Emperor Xianzong of Tang can be imagined.
Later Emperor Xianzong of Tang really couldn't listen to Bai Juyi's nagging, so he found an excuse to demote him from the capital . Although Bai Juyi's career had ups and downs, he was eventually excluded from the core.
People always get old, and Bai Juyi is no exception. Bai Juyi's life in his later years is indeed very leisurely, and he is poor and he is alone. This is Bai Juyi's philosophy of life.
In his spare time, Bai Juyi’s favorite is to read other people’s excellent works of poetry, but seems to be few poets who can catch his eye in front of this great writer, of course Li Shangyin is an exception.
Not only did he impress Bai Juyi with his poems, but he also made Bai Juyi sigh, hoping that after reincarnation, he could be Li Shangyin's son, and said that this was his greatest wish in his life.
Li Shangyin's soul
Among the many poets of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shangyin's talent is obvious to all. Although his family is poor, he has always had ambitions. However, Li Shangyin was born in the late Tang Dynasty. In the declining Tang Dynasty, Li Shangyin was destined not to be like Li Bai. Be chic.
Li Shangyin lost his father at the age of ten. As the eldest son in the family, he understood the difficulty of his mother very well, so he copied books for others to supplement the family's income.
When he grew up, he set his ambition to become an official in the court. After all, this is the most convenient way to improve the family environment, but the heavens are not good. Although Li Shangyin is very talented, no one in the court finally lets him go. The career path was very difficult.
After many failures, he finally passed the Jinshi exam, but he did not expect that this was not the beginning of his beautiful life, and fate was tormenting him as always.
In the first year after Li Shangyin became an official, he promoted his Linghu Chu and died. In that interpersonal officialdom, Li Shangyin had a difficult journey. Fortunately, Li Shangyin was appreciated by the governor of Jingyuan Jie Wang Maoyuan again. and married his daughter.
However, it was this marriage that made him fall into the whirlpool of Niu Li’s party struggles and could not get out. It turned out that Wang Maoyuan and Li Deyu have a good relationship and are members of the Li party. Linghu Chu, who once promoted Li Shangyin, once promoted Li Shangyin, The political component of the Niu Party also belongs to the Niu Party.
This made Li Shangyin in a dilemma. The Li party members refused to recognize him. The Niu party members felt that he had betrayed his benefactor. Li Shangyin was not interested in party struggles, but he could never break free from the shackles.
It is precisely because of his miserable career and difficult fate that Li Shangyin's poems have soul , which deeply impressed Bai Juyi, who was several times older than him.
The literati are in harmony between the two
Bai Juyi admires Li Shangyin very much, but Bai Juyi in his later years did not have much political energy, so even if he wanted to promote Li Shangyin, he seemed pale and powerless.
But this did not affect Bai Juyi's praise of Li Shangyin. After all, he was willing to tell others that his greatest wish was to be Li Shangyin's son as an elder.
As a younger generation, Li Shangyin will naturally hear about Bai Juyi. Coincidentally, not long after Bai Juyi's death, Li Shangyin was happy to have a noble son.
Li Shangyin looked at this son and naturally thought of Bai Juyi, so he named the son "Bai Lao" .
But this son made Li Shangyin very helpless. His qualifications were mediocre and even a little dull. Not to mention that he could become a great master of his generation in literary talent, it was difficult for ordinary people to compare with.
Later, Li Shangyin had a second son. This son was very smart and satisfactory, so he also said to others:
If Bai Juyi was really reincarnated and reincarnated as my son, then he must be my second son.
In the eyes of many people, Bai Juyi wanted to be Li Shangyin's son, and Li Shangyin really responded to this, and even named his eldest son after Old Bai, thinking that this was Li Shangyin's contempt and trampling on Bai Juyi's dignity.
In fact, at that time, this was not a kind of contempt, but rather a kind of nostalgia and admiration for his predecessors. If Li Shangyin did not respond to Bai Juyi's appreciation, that would be his contempt.
It can be said that although Bai Juyi and Li Shangyin were poets of the Tang Dynasty in different periods, their pursuit of literature is the same in their hearts. They did not make any moves of literati, but instead showed future generations what literati respected each other. , What is the mind of a literati?
This is the respectable thing about these great poets.
References: "Old Book of Tang"/"New Book of Tang" etc.
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