Writing is a tool used by human beings to transmit information, spread knowledge, exchange emotions, and express attitudes, which can be regarded as neutral and harmless in itself, but if it is not used properly, it is easy to cause disasters, and even lead to the disaster of killing.
Throughout the ages, those who have caused misfortune because of literature have been tired and tired. Today we will introduce a famous public case in the history of literature that was killed by a close relative because of occasional good sentences.
There was a poet in the Tang Dynasty named Liu Xiyi, who was the nephew of the great poet Song Zhiwen. It is said that this Liu Xiyi was quick-witted, but in the end he was killed by Song Zhiqing (one said to be sent by Song Zhiqing) because he had painstakingly meditated on two good verses of poetry but refused to give way to his uncle Song Zhiqing.
The first time I read this story was in Wang Chen's Tang Yulin, and its original text was:
Liu Xiyi's poem said: "The flowers are similar from year to year, but the people are different from year to year. His uncle, song zhiqing, loved these two sentences bitterly, knew that they had not shown them, and pleaded with these two sentences, but promised not to cooperate. He was angry and killed with an earthen sac. Liu Yuxi said: "Song Sheng must not die, the heavens will repay!" ”
The public case about Liu Xiyi's death in the "Tang Yulin" is based on the "Tales of Liu Guests" written by Wei Xuan of the Tang Dynasty. Wei Xuan recorded in the "Tales of Liu Guests", Liu Xiyi meditated and deliberated on two poems: "The flowers are similar every year, and the years are different". At that time, the literati of the Tang Dynasty had a good atmosphere of poetry, especially poetry was the favorite of the literati, and they often racked their brains to ponder good sentences. Du Fu's "good sentences for human nature, words are not surprising and endless" is a true portrayal of the literati's creative life; the bitter poet Jia Dao, who tasted his own words of "two sentences and three years, one groan and two tears", also left behind the ancient good story of "monk pushing" or "monk knocking" on the door under the moon.
However, Liu Xiyi's two poems that he had painstakingly come up with were favored by his uncle Song Zhiqing - in order to steal for himself, Song Zhiqing even did not hesitate to kill him.
According to relevant records, after Song Zhiqing heard this verse from his nephew, he "bitterly loved these two sentences, knowing that they did not show people", and bitterly begged his nephew to give this good sentence to himself, Liu Xiyi began to hinder his nephew's love face and once agreed to Song's request, and later repented. So Song Zhiwen was blinded by jealousy and irritation, and in a fit of anger, he was fierce and used an earthen bag to crush his nephew alive. Because Song Zhiqing was inflamed and possessed by people, and had the bad deeds of selling friends and seeking glory, people were convinced that Song Zhiqing had crushed his nephew because of Suo Jia's sentence.
There are also different theories in the history of literature about whether Song Zhiqing really killed his nephew because he wanted to rob two poems. Although Song Zhiqing was a literary talent, especially a poet, and was called "Shen Song" together with Shen Qi, the Tang people often despised his character very much, and called him "Tianbao" for repeated villains such as Song Zhiqing who were eventually degraded by Tang Xuanzong. Liu Yuxi even directly pointed this retribution to the human tragedy of the Song clan taking poetry and killing his nephew.
But when you think about it carefully, you always feel that there are some subjective likes and dislikes of people in it.
Regarding Liu Xiyi's death, the Tang people have discussed it a lot, not only in the "Liu Guest Jia Sayings" and "Tang Yulin", but also in the "Tang Xinyu" and so on. Unlike the Tales of Liu Guests and the Tang Yulin, the Tang Xinyu written by Liu Su during the Yuan He period was relatively cautious about whether to kill his nephew Liu Xiyi. Although the book mentions that Liu Xiyi's death was an abnormal accidental death, it does not directly assert that Liu Xiyi's death was caused by Song Zhiqing, but only said that "(Liu Xiyi) was killed by adultery"
In order to objectively record and not to omit the rumors at that time, the book added the sentence "Or Yun Song's Question harm". In the "New Sayings of the Tang Dynasty", Liu Su also described Liu Xiyi's creative process in detail, the so-called "(Liu Xiyi) once plucked the pipa, tasted the "White Head Weng Yong", said: 'This year the flowers fall color change, next year the flowers bloom again who is there?' He repented of himself, saying, "My poem is like a curse, but what is the difference between it and Shi Chong's "white head and the same destination"? It is a cloud of words: "The flowers are similar from year to year, but the people are different from year to year." And sighed: "This sentence seems to be a repetition of the truth, but death and life have a destiny, will it be repeated from this!" The result was a slur, and he was killed in less than a year.
The late Tang Dynasty Mengdi's "Benshi Poems and The Sixth Punishment" basically follows liu Su's "Tang New Language", but the attitude is more cautious, and when liu Xiyi's death is mentioned, it does not mention the song question, let alone associate Liu Xiyi's death with the song question.
In the Song and Yuan dynasties, Liu Xiyi's death appeared new theories and became more confusing. Or Yun Songzhi asked to kill Liu Xiyi because of another poem called "Luoyang Chapter", which can be seen in Ji Yougong's "Chronicle of Tang Poetry". In the "Biography of Tang Caizi", the Yuanren Xin Wenfang still takes Liu Xiyi's claim that he was killed by Song Zhiqing because of the verse "The flowers are similar every year, and the years are different", but the murder mentioned is "the question angers himself, so that the slave is crushed by the soil bag". In this way, the basic elements of criminal homicide cases, such as the black hand behind the murder, the direct murderer, the means of killing and the tools of the crime, and the scene of the crime, are complete.
However, some people also questioned the case of Song Zhiqing's murder of Liu Xiyi and raised new doubts. When Wei Tai of the Song Dynasty wrote the "Poetry of Linhan Hermitage", which involved the public case of Liu Xiyi's death, he questioned: "The concentration of my views on the question is of all benefits, and the sentence of Xiyi is extremely unappreciable, and I do not know how to crush and kill it, and I really die in vain." That is to say, in Wei Tai's view, Song Zhiqing's poetry is higher than Liu Xiyi's, and Liu Xiyi's two poems are not the best sentences in Wei Tai's eyes, how can he kill people for this?
Literature is a very subjective color, expressing the author's life experience and individual feelings, Zhang San thinks it is good, Li Si or thinks it is not erer. Liu Xiyi's verses, Wei Tai did not see its good, but since the Tang Dynasty is indeed a thousand years of poetry that people have recited.
Having said that, Song Zhiqing asked whether he really killed Liu Xiyi because of this or not, there is still no evidence to prove it. The world is vast and the dust and smoke are faint, and today, the public case about Song Zhiqing's murder of Liu Xiyi may become a suspense case that can never be solved. But the danger of words is evident here, even if Liu Xiyi was not killed by Song Zhiqing or someone else for this verse, at least Liu Xiyi himself was already aware of the gloom and slaughter in his poems. During the Tang and Song dynasties, many people also agreed that Liu Xiyi was a slur because of the ominous atmosphere in the poem, and it was not so important as to who killed him.
bibliography:
Chang Ping: "The Copyright Case of Song Zhiqing and The Authorship", Wenshi Zhe, No. 6, 2003
Lian Yu: "Liu Xiyi and Song Zhi's Question", Journal of Literature and History, No. 2, 2014
Sun Jianyong, "The Murder Behind the Similarity of Flowers every Year", Literature and History Expo, No. 5, 2017