Li Dongjun
Li Yu (15 August 937 – 13 August 978) of the Southern Tang Dynasty) was famous for posterity with his beautiful words. Li Dongjun, a scholar and professor emeritus of the School of History of Nankai University, regards Song Huizong as the person who knows Li Yu best in his new book "Into Song Painting". On the occasion of Li Yu's birth in 1085, in this video we invite Li Dongjun to talk about Song Huizong and Li Yu.
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Li Dongjun on Emperor Huizong of Song and Li Yu (07:23)
You said in "Into Song Paintings" that Song Huizong was the one who knew Li Yu best, why?
This is actually a very interesting problem, just tell the story.
When Song Huizong's father, Song Shenzong, was reviewing Li Yu's portrait, someone reported to him that his mother was pregnant and about to give birth. Then, Emperor Huizong of Song was born. I didn't expect that after he was born, the whole court would argue that he was Li Yu's reincarnation. These discussions have always grown around him, and his personality is particularly similar to Li Yu. He also likes art and painting, and he likes everything Li Yu likes. In addition, after the death of his brother Song Zhezong, the brothers wanted to compete for the throne, and he was one of them. At that time, some people said that "I don't look like a human king", saying that he was like Li Yu, who only knew how to paint and so on, and could not be a man.
Emperor Huizong of Song
There is also a sense of destiny. Both of them were the last lords, and when Emperor Huizong of Song reached the Xuanhe period, that sense of doom had come out, and he could certainly understand Li Yu. The two people also have a special sense of destiny, and they are both artists, and they still have a pure heart in their hearts. The Xuanhe Pictorial Notation (compiled by the official authorities during the reign of Emperor Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty) collected the works of many painters and artists, and he also collected the works of Li Yu, and then when Li Yu wrote a preface to him in the section, he said "Jiangnan Pseudo Lord" - he called Li Yu "Jiangnan Pseudo Lord", and then said that Li Yu was "windy tiger and cloud dragon" and "domineering strategy", saying that Li Yu was a person with very outstanding talents and could not be underestimated. Therefore, he scolded him and admired him at the same time.
Xuanhe Pictorial Notation
The other one, as the post-master fan, Li Yu is also his predecessor. Even from the artist's point of view, both people are artists, related, just different generations.
Li Yu's words "Meet and Greet", "A Few Sorrows" and "Yu Meiren" were sung by Teresa Teng, what do you think his words embody the essence of classical Chinese traditional culture?
In fact, after reading Wang Guowei's "Human Words", you can understand it. Wang Guowei's evaluation of Li Yu's words in "Words on Earth" is particularly high, deep affection, full of sympathy, and with the tragic sense of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. He said: "Nietzsche said: 'All literature, the one who loves to write in blood.' 'After the word of the Lord, the so-called book of blood is also. So what are the two points in his evaluation of Li Yuzi? He believes that Li Yu's words are written in blood, and at the same time they use true temperament to write words. True temperament and bloodiness are summed up in one word: innocence.
Li yu
Why write words with innocence? Wang Guowei divides Chinese lyricists into two categories in "Human Words and Sayings", one is a subjective lyricist and the other is an objective lyricist. Objectivity the word man writes some external things, and the subjective word man writes his subjectivity. He believed that the poet of subjectivity could not read much. Everyone's depreciation of Li Yu means that he grew up in the hands of women, and the empress and empress dowager raised him in the palm of his hand, how can such a person govern the country? But such a person can write good words, he is not polluted by society, not polluted by the court, all his words are to express his inner true disposition, true blood. So the essence of his words is here- true temperament, bloodiness and innocence, which is the essence of classical Chinese poetry. If you want to understand classical Chinese poetry, you should enter it from this perspective. Of course, from another perspective of objectivity, it is to read the works of Wen Tianxiang and Su Dongpo in accordance with the guidance of Wang Guowei, and there is a kind of family and country feeling in their works, and the embrace of the scholar and the world.
Teresa Teng sang Li Yu's words, and this popularity was very widespread. I think Teresa's interpretation is still too euphemistic. From the performance of Song Ci, Song Ci itself has two factions, one is the Wanyue faction, the other is the flamboyant faction, the Wanyue faction is represented by Liu Yong and Li Qingzhao, "Where the wine wakes up tonight, Yang Liu'an Xiaofeng is remnant of the moon", this is Liu Yong's very gentle representative, Li Qingzhao is even more so, "whether you know it or not, it should be green fat, red and thin"; The Haofang faction is represented by Su Dongpo, and the Song people said, how to sing the words of Su Dongpo's Su students, to beat the copper general with iron and bamboo plates, to sing the great rivers to the east, the waves are exhausted, and the characters of the ancient winds and currents ... These are two factions. But Li Yu, as their predecessor, was neither. He is the essence of what I just said—writing poetry with blood, poetry with true disposition, poetry with innocence. I think who can sing his words today? I searched for half a day, but still found a person. If someone comes to sing, I think it should be Cui Jian who sings, and uses "Nothing" to sing "A River of Spring Water Flows East".
From Li Yu's words and life to the Song Huizong whose paintings have been handed down, what qualities do you think works of art must have to resist time and make us empathize now?
Still what I just said, I think that a word or a painting can resist the eternity of art. So what in the eternity of art resists time? True temperament, true blood, with such truth, he and human nature are common, so he will never be erased. To this day, you still have to be able to impress people with true temperament, true blood. The same is true for friends to make friends, how can you make friends without true temperament, it must be true temperament to impress people and resist time. Including the works of Song Huizong, such as his paintings of flowers and birds, he is still deeply in love, and he can still move people today. At the same time, his tolerant heart and tolerance for art, Song Huizong did a very good job. Li Yu's words are his true blood, his innocence, and his artistic willfulness. He is willful, I am an artist, I am not affected by any external conditions, this kind of thing can resist time, so he can impress me. I remember that I also wrote a poem by Li Yu, which was called "Li Yu Met Me When He Met Wang Guowei":
I tapped it twice with the historical pen
This thousand-year-old coffin lid
It rattled among the scattered pages
Which dynasty does not end
No king does not die
Alas! Who can
Share with me this different sky
Remember to open it last year
I was not a poet or a king
I have not been born, and I have not died
Only the pain of broken bones
I will never indulge in hoarseness in case the nobility produces sores
Tear open the stump throat
I whispered the strings that were still warm inside me
In a pair of ancient and desolate eyes
Go further and go further.
This is what I wrote about Li Yu, and I wrote it as a "me" person. At that time, after I finished reading "Words in the World", I wrote it with tears. What can resist time and still impress me to this day is his true disposition and true blood.
【Further reading】
Into Song Painting: The Chinese Renaissance of the 10th-13th Centuries
Li Dongjun/Author, Beijing Times Chinese Literature Bureau, July 2022 edition
This book reinterprets the paintings of 15 famous artists and nearly 100 paintings, and explores the development process of the three major painting categories of landscape, flowers, birds and figures from technology to art. Looking at the history of painting from the perspective of intellectual history is an academic attempt by the author Li Dongjun, who combines appreciation and commentary in terms of creative style, method, aesthetic and speculative, and gives a novel aesthetic paradigm.
Editor-in-Charge: Gu Ming
Proofreader: Luan Meng