As the king of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Li Yu's life can be described as very bleak, and his evaluations have been varied throughout the ages, and many people have said that Li Yu has nothing to praise except poetry.
This appraisal was also affirmed by Chairman Mao, who once commented that Li Yu was "versatile," but had no choice but to "not grasp politics and finally destroy the country." ”
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in response to Chairman Mao's evaluation of Li Yu, many people echoed it, believing that Li Yu was indeed useless in politics, and it was no wonder that the Southern Tang Dynasty perished at his hands, but Chairman Mao put forward a more comprehensive view of these remarks: "Li Yu is also the last king who died in Jinling, and it is inevitable that he will be reprimanded and criticized by future generations, but it must also be viewed dialectically." ”
Regarding the "dialectical view" here, Chairman Mao not only gave a more detailed explanation, but also gave an answer in his own poetry creation.
Same euphoria
As a subjugated monarch, the reason why Li Yu has been praised by the world for thousands of years is that he has touched countless people's poems over the past thousand years, and Chairman Mao has also given a high evaluation of Li Yu's words.
Chairman Mao himself was not only a politician, but also a very outstanding poet, and he often borrowed and integrated Li Yu's style in his poems.
Li Yu is a gentle lyricist, and most of his well-known works are euphemisms that express the sorrow and hatred of the subjugation of the country, while most of Chairman Mao's lyrics reflect his open-mindedness and boldness as a great man, and belong to the extravagant faction. But Chairman Mao also emulated Li Yu's style.
And the most representative of them is "Yu Meiren Pillow" with Li Yu's name.
Among them, "Xiaolai's hundred thoughts are all gray, and there are left shadows" is particularly similar to Li Yu's "The Homeland Can't Look Back at the Moon and Mingzhong" in particular.
Chairman Mao wrote this "Yu Meiren" in 1921, when he had just married his lover Yang Kaihui, but the newlywed Yan'er could not get together and had to go to a different place to engage in revolutionary activities.
The deep thought of his wife Yang Kaihui made Chairman Mao feel sad, remembering the "Yu Meiren" written by the depressed Southern Tang Dynasty, so he wrote this poem with a pen.
The name of the word "Yu Meiren" is very powerful, it was originally a Tang Dynasty teaching song, referring to the love of Xiang Yu and Yu Ji, and also integrated the feelings of Xiang Yu and Yu Ji who loved each other but could not stay together due to the defeat of the war and could only go to Huangquan together.
This sets a sad and emotional tone for the name of the word "Yu Meiren", and also draws a framework for the creative direction of future generations.
Therefore, in Chairman Mao's "Yu Meiren Pillow", "beauty" on the one hand refers to his newly married wife Yang Kaihui, who cannot be reunited, and on the other hand, refers to the feelings and ambitions of his home and country in his heart.
On the other hand, Li Yu's "When is the Spring Flower and Autumn Moon of Yu Meiren" expresses feelings that are different from Chairman Mao's.
At that time, Li Yu's Southern Tang Dynasty had been destroyed by the Song Dynasty, and Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, did not kill him because he saw him honestly and obediently, but put him under house arrest in a luxurious palace and imprisoned him in disguise.
This situation of not being free and sending people under the fence made Li Yu gush out infinite sorrow in his heart, and he could only express his emotions through poetry.
Later, after Emperor Taizong of Song took power, he was imprisoned as before.
One day in 978 AD, the former Southern Tang dynasty courtiers came to Li Yu's palace to celebrate his birthday, and the former civil and military officials now had only these few people left, Li Yu had mixed feelings for a while, and the sorrows of the homeland suddenly appeared.
These made the pain in Li Yu's heart unbearable, so he wrote this poem "When is The Spring Flower and Autumn Moon of Yu Meiren", and this Yu Meiren has become one of the most widely circulated works of Li Yu in later generations.
Although this poem brought Li Yu the praise of "ancient word man", it also brought him the disaster of killing at that time.
Zhao Guangyi felt very angry when he saw this poem, knowing that the fate of the kings who had perished in all the dynasties was either corpses in the wilderness or forced to commit suicide, and he offered Li Yu good food and drink, and he actually dared to remember his homeland and write lyrics?
So Zhao Guangyi killed Li Yu in a fit of rage, and Li Yu finally didn't have to live in humiliation anymore.
The "beauty" in Chairman Mao's "Yu Meiren" refers to his wife Yang Kaihui, and Li Yu's "beauty" is the "homeland."
At this point, the emotions of the two songs are very close, and both are missing home in a different place.
On a deeper level of emotion, there is a big difference between the two words, the authors of the two words are the top leaders of the country, and Chairman Mao's sentiment is more focused on the expectations of the country's bright prospects and his own ambitions; and Li Yu's poem more reflects the hatred of the subjugation of the country.
Therefore, although "Yu Meiren On the Pillow" is Chairman Mao's euphemistic lyrics imitating Li Yu, it still expresses his feelings of the flamboyant lyricist.
Whenever talking about these "poets and emperors," Chairman Mao always had to mention a word after sighing: "old coarse," and Chairman Mao said that there were many ancient people like Li Yu who were good at writing about the sentimental sentiments of the euphemistic faction, but most of them could not make achievements in politics, and "old rough" like Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Bang, who were basically illiterate, often ended up becoming a big thing.
Different extravagant factions
Another work by Li Yu that has been praised for thousands of years is "Waves and Sands: Rain Babbling Outside the Curtain".
Among them, "I don't know if I am a guest in my dreams, and I am greedy and happy" has moved countless people to tears.
This poem was written at the turning point when Li Yu had just fallen into a country in the Southern Tang Dynasty, when he had become a prisoner of the order from the king of a country, and at that time, Li Yu was shrouded in the humiliation of the subjugation of the country all the time, so he began to have a dreamlike hazy feeling.
The spring rain, the warmth and cold of early spring, the babbling water and the falling flowers, which should have been a scene full of tenderness and hope, became like weeping in Li Yu's pen, like a homeland that can never be returned.
The word "guest" in the word is used very eloquently, and at first it refers to "Chu Ke", because Qu Yuan was wandering in Chu land and lonely, so there was such a saying, and later it can directly refer to "passer-by".
In just a few words, this poem vividly writes the parting and parting in the heart of a king of a fallen country.
When Chairman Mao read this poem, he sighed alone and felt extremely sorry for Li Yu's literary style and the era and identity he was born into, so he planned to write a poem "Waves and Sands" as well, but he wanted to use this word to write the grandeur and heroism of the bold faction.
In the spring of 1954, Chairman Mao looked at the rolling waves in Beidaihe, and the heroic momentum stirring in his heart made him write a poem "Langtaosha Beidaihe" with his pen.
Among them, the last two sentences, "Xiao Ser Autumn Wind is now again, changing the human world" express the arrogance in people's hearts.
Also in "Waves and Sands," Chairman Mao's song sweeps away the sentimental sound, and the phrase "the past is more than a thousand years" jumps out of the page as a majestic and atmospheric great man.
At that time, shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China, everything in New China was thriving in a better direction, and Chairman Mao looked at the magnificent Beidaihe River, and for a moment remembered Cao Cao, the Emperor of Weiwu, who had once "bordered jieshi in the east to view the sea", and lamented that the thousand years of time had passed in a flash, the waves were still so turbulent, but the people standing here had changed.
Chairman Mao now thinks of Cao Cao instead of Li Yu for a reason.
It is said that "articles hate destiny", famous poets and lyricists in the history of the mainland, most of their excellent works were written when their fate was not smooth, so it is difficult for a person to achieve both political and literary achievements, and what we call Li Yu is a typical example.
But there are two special cases as we know them, namely Chairman Mao and Cao Cao.
Therefore, when Chairman Mao stood on the bank of the Beidai River, it was logical that he would compare himself to Cao Cao.
After writing this poem "Langtaosha Beidaihe", chairman Mao's staff chatted about the reason why he used the word "Langtaosha", that is, Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, also wrote a very famous song of Langtaosha.
Chairman Mao first said that Li Yu's waves and sands, whether it is language, writing or artistic conception, are superior works, but the style is really too sentimental.
So he deliberately did the opposite, writing a bold and heroic "Waves and Sands", which can also be regarded as an innovation and improvement of ancient literary forms.
It can be seen from here that Chairman Mao, while bearing in mind his homeland and the world, read poetry and books, and also had his own unique insight into literature.
Political talent and the heart of a child
Therefore, Li Yu's lyrics, on the one hand, are superior works of literary style, feelings and writing, on the other hand, they are inevitably too sentimental in style, and they are regarded as "dialectics".
However, chairman Mao's "dialectical view" is not only a dialectical view of the literary value of Li Yu's works, but also a dialectical view of Li Yu's political deeds as an emperor and the characteristics of Li Yu as a person.
How should we look at it dialectically?
The first question to consider is whether Li Yu is really as useless in politics as most people say.
The Song Dynasty poet Lu You once commented on Li Yu: "The Later Lord's talent is pure filial piety... Focus on loving the people as an emergency, endowing the service, and enriching the people's strength. ”
Chairman Mao's appraisal of Li Yu's political aspects has also effectively achieved "dialectical viewing."
When many people criticized Li Yu's political achievements in front of Chairman Mao as useless, Chairman Mao told them a story.
After Li Yu's Southern Tang dynasty was overthrown by the Song Dynasty, Zhao Guangyi also felt that Li Yu, the king of the fallen country, was really incompetent, so he asked pan Shenxiu, the former Minister of Southern Tang, was this Li Yu really so incompetent and unbearable?
Pan Shenxiu did not give a direct answer, but asked Zhao Guangyi, if Li Yu is really a completely incompetent person, can this stormy Southern Tang still persist for fifteen years?
Zhao Guangyi felt very reasonable after listening to Pan Shenxiu's answer, and re-evaluated Li Yu in his heart.
After telling this story, Chairman Mao expressed his approval of Pan Shenxiu's statement in the story, and he told everyone present that when Li Yu took over the Southern Tang Dynasty, the imperial court was already a mess and was in danger of collapse at any time.
And the Southern Tang had been supported by Li Yu for another fifteen years, so Li Yu was not at least not an incompetent person, if not a Ming Jun.
In the end, Chairman Mao gave his own evaluation of Li Yu's political ability: "It makes sense."
And Li Yu's "justified" political ability reflects the characteristics of Li Yu: a pure heart.
Li Yu, who grew up in the court, did not have Chairman Mao's military career of Jin Ge and iron horses, still less Chairman Mao's lofty ambition to save the country and save the people, he could only see the people in front of him who he loved, which greatly limited his political vision, but gave him an unparalleled heart of a child.
As an emperor, Li Yu had a deep affection for his first concubine, Da Zhou Hou, and with his talent, he adapted Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei's "Neon Dress Feather Song" together with Da Zhou Hou.
After the death of Da Zhou Hou, Li Yu mourned at the funeral of Da Zhou Hou to the point of being bone-crushing, weak and difficult to support, and he was supported by someone on crutches to walk, and he also wrote a long poem for Da Zhou Hou who wept blood and mourned, "Yi Zhao Hui Zhou Hou Yi", signed "Widow Fu Yu".
This affection for his lover is the embodiment of his childlike heart.
epilogue
Chairman Mao's evaluation of Li Yu was objective and comprehensive, and he not only regretted Li Yu's neglect of politics and eventually subjugated the country, but also admired Li Yu's unique works.
Therefore, Chairman Mao took its essence and removed its dross, and not only wrote a good word, but also made great achievements in politics.