Chapter 18 Li Yannian/Musicist with Sima Xiangru as his assistant

Li Yannian (? - around 90 BC), a famous musician in the Western Han Dynasty.Zhongshan (now Ding County, Hebei) people. After the Chen Sheng, Wu Guang uprising at the end of the Qin Dynasty and the Chu-Han wars between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, when Liu Bang finally defeated Xiang Yu and established the centralized Western Han regime, the country was dilapidated and impoverished. It is said that even the emperor wanted to find four horses of the same color. It is impossible for Malays to drive, but the general can only ride in an ox cart.Therefore, the primary task is to heal the wounds of the war and develop production, and there is no time or ability to take culture into account.After the early Han Dynasty and the rule of Wen and Jing, by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the country was already very prosperous.The grain piled up in Taicang was so much rotten that the copper coins in the storeroom were uncountable due to the decay of the strings that stringed the money. Therefore, the country began a large-scale cultural construction.

The state has strengthened the functions of the Yuefu in charge of music.On the one hand, it sorts out the existing music and dances of the previous generation, and on the other hand, it resumes the collection of folk songs from the people since the Zhou Dynasty.These tasks need to be led by a music expert. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had a concubine named Mrs. Li. She was not only beautiful, but also danced very well. She was loved by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. She was Li Yannian's younger sister.She also has a brother, Li Guangli, who served as the general of the Second Division and was one of the important generals in the war against the Huns.

The Li family is a musical family, many of Li Yannian's parents and brothers are musicians, and he keeps dogs in the palace.He has high musical attainments and is good at singing and dancing.Due to the relationship between his younger sister and his brother, he was appointed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty as the captain of Xie Lv, wearing two thousand stone seal ribbons, and his status is equivalent to that of a prefect.Together with Sima Xiangru and others, he sorted out folk songs collected from various places and wrote nineteen chapters of "Songs of Suburbs".After Zhang Qian traveled to the Western Regions, he brought back a piece of music called "Mahadule". Based on it, Li Yannian wrote "Xinsheng Twenty-Eight Interpretations", the earliest horizontal blowing song in the Han Dynasty.

Later, Mrs. Li died, Li Guangli surrendered to the Huns, his younger brother raped the harem, the Li family was exterminated, and Li Yannian was not spared.