Author: Zhao Xinfang
The three Tang poems that I remember most clearly when I was a child are First, Li Bai's "Quiet Night Thoughts", followed by Luo Binwang's "Wing Goose", and finally Li Sheng's "Compassion for Nong". The evaluation of Li Bai and Luo Binwang in the past did not differ much before and after, but the evaluation of Li Shen spanned a large distance, first pit farmers, and finally completely became an authentic corrupt official. Dissecting the trajectory of his mental path mutation can play a thought-provoking role.
(1) When he was born into the Shi clan, he was obedient and lucky
Li Sheng, who was born in the seventh year of the Chinese calendar (772 AD), his grandfather Li Jingxuan served as a Zhongshu Ling in the Wu Zetian Dynasty, roughly equivalent to the current vice premier of the State Council, and his grandfather Li Shouyi and his father Li Hui both served as county orders. Li Huan served in Wucheng, Jinling and other places around Zhejiang, which is the hometown of fish and rice in jiangnan, which can be regarded as a fat shortage. It can be said that Li Shen was born in a standard family of official eunuchs.
Unfortunately, When Li Shen was six years old, his father Li Huan died in office, and he could only live with his mother. Orphans and widows are inevitably bullied by their peers. His childhood experience is very similar to that of another poet, Yuan Shu. However, the lost Yuan Shu still had relatives to help, and Li Shen was even more unfortunate, not getting any relatives and friends to help. Students with family difficulties lived in temples to study, which was a folk custom at that time. In the midst of her life, her mother found a temple far away from the world and let her live there to study and study.
The early-witted and intelligent Li Gentry is well aware of her mother's good intentions, and lives in the temple to study and study very hard. According to historical records, Li Shen often studied hard in the cangsong and green bamboo. I also tried to learn to write poetry. What if there is no paper to doodle? After all, he was a small child, did not understand human feelings, and wrote in Buddhist scriptures. The monks, believing this to be a great act of desecration against the gods and Buddhas, drove Li Shen out of the temple. It is estimated that his mother had passed away at that time, and the orphan Li Shen, who had nowhere to go, began to wander and wander, only about 15 years old.
The historical records do not specifically record his wandering life, but from Li Sheng's poem "But to Zhejiang West" when he passed through Zhejiang West after becoming rich and noble, we can see his pitiful appearance when he was wandering and wandering:
Linping water exhausted Crab leaf died, Lishe depressed hotel autumn.
Taste the suburbs of Jin without begging, do not forget the Wu customs to share worries.
Wild Sorrow yang said that he was eating, and Lin Ji Feng Sang gu asked for it.
The harsh government still exists, and the old man secretly worships the front boat.
Without interpreting the whole poem, it is enough to say that there is only one allusion quoted in the poem. The food in the poem "Wild Sorrow And Yang Eye Called Eating Food" derives from the allusion "The Food that Comes from The Food of Sorrow". It is said that there was a famine in the country of Qi for many years. Qian'ao prepares food on the side of the road for hungry pedestrians to eat. There was a hungry man who covered his face with his sleeves, dragging his feet and walking with his eyes dazed. Qian Ao told him to come and eat.
The hungry man looked up at him and said, "It was precisely because I did not eat the food that others gave me that I ended up at this point!" Qian Ao chased after him and apologized, but the man eventually starved to death because he did not eat. Li Shen said in the poem that when he was wandering and wandering, he relied on the charity of others to survive.
(2) When the opportunity arises, show talent
After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty not only declined in the country's fortunes, but also in the decline of poetry, and of course gave people of insight and talent the opportunity to show their own value.
In 802, Li Shen went to the capital to take the entrance examination, and although he fell in the first place, he became acquainted with Han Yu. Han Yu was 4 years older than Li Shen and was already an influential Beijing official in the literary world. Han Yu admired Li Sheng's character and talent, and praised him for "writing or doing, all of them are outstanding talents". In 806, the 35-year-old Li Shen, who had only just studied, coupled with the strong recommendation of Han Yu, finally entered the army and the first after repeated defeats.
In the tenth year of Yuan He (815), Bai Juyi held aloft the banner of the Xinlefu Movement that "articles are written for the times, songs and poems are written for the sake of things", and Li Shen, Yuan Shu and others responded positively, and a vigorous poetry reform movement began.
Li Shen's "New Topics of Lefu" 20 poems were published in this poetry movement, and "New Topics of Lefu" is also Li Sheng's summary of the first half of his life. In the turbulent and displaced years of his early years, he had the opportunity to contact the people at the bottom, to feel their pain, to experience their heartache, and it was precisely in this way that he produced the immortal works that made him famous for eternity, the two poems of "Compassion for Nong", thus laying the foundation for his status as a "poet of compassion for farmers" in one fell swoop.
There are not many works handed down by Li Shen, but his poems, such as "The harsh government still exists, the old man secretly worships and embraces the front boat", "Fake gold is only plated with real gold, if it is real gold, it is not plated." Etc., all of them are the expressions of his truest feelings.
Li Shen, who had just entered the army, dared to face the powerful and dared to speak out in righteousness. Please enjoy the third poem that is said to be his title of Mercy Nong.
Plough on the ridge, hands planted belly hunger.
A weaver woman under the window, hand-knitted without clothes.
I wish Yan Zhao Shu to become a concubine.
A smile is worthless, natural home and country fat
Compared with the first two poems of "Mercy Nong", this poem is not so well-known, but its ideological nature is not much more. In particular, the last two sentences, "A smile is worthless, the natural family and the country are fattened", point out that the imperial court is the root cause of the peasants' poverty. True righteousness and sternness! Legend has it that emperor Tang Wuzong, who was deeply disturbed and ashamed after reading this poem, crowned Li Shen as the right servant of Shangshu, but when Li Shen could not even sit firmly in the chair of the new official position, he was degraded because of the rumors of villains.
(3) Throwing oneself into party struggle degenerates
In the tenth year of Yuan He (815), when the chancellor Wu Yuanheng was stabbed to death, shocking the government and the opposition. Bai Juyi, who was zuo shiyi at the time, repeatedly wrote letters insisting on arresting the murderer, and was demoted to Sima of Jiangzhou for "exceeding his authority".
The following year, the disheartened Bai Lotte achieved the ancient poem "Pipa Line" in Jiangzhou, which established his position as a generation of poets. What about Li Shen? It may be that his unfortunate experience in his early years left a shadow in his heart, unwilling to be snubbed anymore, unwilling to drift again, in this time of great political turmoil, he turned around and threw himself into Li Deyu's door, and in the fourteenth year of Yuan He (819), he was promoted to the position of Right Picker and became the leader of The Li Party. He and Bai Juyi were completely separated. Bai Juyi created the peak of the poetry world step by step, but he became a complete politician step by step!
The historical name liu and li party struggle refers to the struggle between the cattle party led by cattle monks and children, Li Zongmin, and the Li party led by Li Deyu and Zheng Qin in the late Tang Dynasty. The struggle began during the reign of Emperor Xianzong of Tang and ended in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, lasting nearly 40 years.
During the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Tang, the Li Dang reached its peak and the Niu Dang was deposed one after another; in the early days of Tang Xuanzong, the Li Dang was demoted to a local official. It ended with the Cattle Party surviving and the Lee Party leaving the imperial court. As a result, Tang Wenzong lamented: "It is easy to go to Hebei to be a thief, but it is difficult to go to the DPRK and the Chinese friends." The Niu-Li party struggle was a concentrated manifestation of the eunuch dictatorship and the corruption and decline of the imperial court in the late Tang Dynasty, which aggravated the crisis of rule in the late Tang Dynasty.
Although Li Dang suffered some twists and turns when it lost power, in general, from the fourth year of Taihe (830) to the fifth year of Kaicheng (840), Li Shen was a smooth ten years, from Shouzhou Assassin All the way to Zhongshu Shilang (tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi), Shangshu Right Servant Shooting Gate Shilang (i.e., Zai Chancellor), and the Duke of Zhao.
Not only could Li Shen no longer write the poems of his early years, but he also made a frightening turn, keen on extravagance, official party strife, and reckless people's lives.
There is a dubious but widely circulated legend that he spends hundreds or even thousands of dollars per meal. He loves chicken tongue, one plate per meal, and the tongueless chickens in the courtyard are piled up.
When the famous poet Liu Yuxi was an assassin in Suzhou, Li Shen set up a banquet at home because he admired his talents. During the banquet, a beautiful singer sang a song "Du Wei Niang". Liu Yuxi immediately recited a poem "Gift to Li Sikong Prostitute":
High-haired cloud beard palace-like makeup, spring breeze a song Du Wei Niang.
It is common to see idle things, and cut off the Suzhou thorn history sausage.
The "commonplace" allusion comes from here. Liu Yuxi's poetry is: This kind of banquet pomp and circumstance is already accustomed to Li Shen, thinking of the difficult life of ordinary people, but cutting off his intestines.
The harsh punishment laws originally established to punish the powerful and the evil have become tortures that harm the common people in Li Shen's case. Once a monk came to see Li Shen and wanted to use the Buddhist theory of cause and effect to explain him. Li Shen asked, "Where did Master come from?" The monk replied, "The poor monks have come from everywhere." Li Shen thought that the monk's answer was too rapy, and ordered him to be beaten twenty times, and laughed: "Let him go anywhere." ”
At the end of the text, in the sixth year of Huichang (846), Li Sheng died of illness in Yangzhou at the age of 74. In the first year of da zhong (847), because of the notoriety of "cool officials", Li Shen was punished with "cutting the three officials of the gentry, and the descendants were not allowed to serve". Li Shen's life experience is thought-provoking, even if people who have experienced suffering, to pursue glory, wealth and power, will lose their humanity and become a person who is pointed out by a thousand husbands.
【About the author】Zhao Xinfang, pen name Zhao Shi, is a member of the Chongqing Nan'an District Writers Association and vice president of the Huangjue Literary Society.
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