Chapter 20 Li Qingzhao

Speaking of which, Li Qingzhao should be called Master Su Shi.Because her father, Li Gefei, was recognized by Su Shi with his articles, and he was one of the "Four Su Men's Scholars". Li Gefei is a famous writer with a very emancipated mind, so Li Qingzhao's childhood was full of joy and received a good education.Her early words: There is a kind of carefree innocence and liveliness. Li Qingzhao's marriage is also very happy.His father-in-law Zhao Tingzhi was the deputy prime minister during the Song Huizong period, and her husband Zhao Mingcheng was a famous epigrapher.After marriage, the two had a very good relationship. They collected antiquities together and edited "Jinshilu", and lived a very happy life.Another song of hers is a portrayal of this kind of life:

In this kind of life, of course, there are also some setbacks and sorrows.Although many years have passed since Wang Anshi's reform, the party struggles caused by it have not stopped.During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, Cai Jing monopolized the power, under the banner of "new law" to exclude dissidents, and engraved the "Yuanyou Party Members Stele", listing more than 390 people under Sima Guang as "treacherous parties", including Li Gefei, and Zhao Tingzhi But it is Cai Jing's party.This incident hit Li Qingzhao very hard. Zhao Tingzhi failed in the struggle for power with Cai Jing, and Zhao Mingcheng was once imprisoned for this, and later lived with Li Qingzhao in Qingzhou Township for thirteen years.Fortunately, their interest is not in official career, but in collecting and arranging antiquities, editing "Jinshilu", life is still peaceful.Later, Zhao Mingcheng successively served as magistrate of Laizhou and Zizhou, but Li Qingzhao did not follow him.Many of her early poems were about the lovesickness after parting with Zhao Mingcheng, which is very charming.For example, the following two sentences:

These two poems are both representative works of Li Qingzhao.What is expressed in the words is the young woman's longing for her husband in her lazy and rich life. It is faint, faint, but very touching.It is said that Li Qingzhao sent "Drunken Flower Yin" to Zhao Mingcheng, and Zhao Mingcheng admired it greatly. He spent three days writing fifty poems of "Drunk Flower Yin", and then mixed together Li Qingzhao's words and sent them to his friend Lu Defu. Look.Lu Defu played with it again and again, and finally said: "Only three sentences are the best." Zhao Mingcheng asked which three sentences, Lu Defu said: "It is impossible not to be ecstasy, the curtain is blowing to the west, and people are thinner than yellow flowers."

Such a day was completely broken by Jin Bing's invasion of the South and the death of Zhao Mingcheng. In the second year of Jingkang (1127) of Emperor Qinzong of the Song Dynasty, the Jin people captured Bianjing, and captured the two emperors Hui and Qin in the second year. This is the famous "Jingkang Difficulty", also known as "Jingkang's Shame".In the same year, Zhao Gou, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty ascended the throne in Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province), and changed his name to Yuan Jianyan, known as the Southern Song Dynasty in history.In the spring, Zhao Mingcheng went to Jinling (now Nanjing, Jiangsu) for his mother's funeral, and served as the magistrate of Jiankang.In the third year of Jianyan (1129), he was dismissed from the magistrate and changed to Huzhou. Before he took office, he died of illness in Jiankang.This year, Li Qingzhao was forty-six years old.

With his family ruined and his country destroyed, Li Qingzhao suddenly fell into the abyss of pain.What's more, she and Zhao Mingcheng exhausted their family wealth and worked so hard to collect books, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, etc. that filled more than a dozen rooms, all of which were burned by Jin Bing.Li Qingzhao recorded in "The Preface to the Record of Jinshi": "Qingzhou's old house still locks books and objects, and uses more than ten rooms. It is expected to be carried by boats in the next spring. In December, the Jin people were trapped in Qingzhou. The house has been reduced to ashes."

After that, Li Qingzhao basically lived in Lin'an until his death in the twenty-sixth year of Shaoxing (1156). Li Qingzhao lived in the double torment of financial constraints and emotional pain in his later years. "Yunlu Manchao" contains the preface to the poems she wrote to the Privy Councilor Han Gong, saying: "Those who have easy to settle down, their fathers and ancestors all came from Han Gong's family. Now the family background has been replaced, and the son's surname is humble...and poor and sick." Her words, It also changed the previous style, and wrote more about the mourning of the family's ruin and the death of the country, old age, illness and loneliness, as well as the sharp contrast with the previous life. certain practical significance.For example, the famous "Yong Yu Le":

In the personal misfortune, it also reveals the thoughts of hometown and the pain of subjugation. Li Qingzhao is a firm advocate of "Ci is not a family", and she is one of the representatives of the graceful school of Ci.In the article "On Ci", she criticized almost all poets in the Northern Song Dynasty, especially thinking that the Ci of Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi and others can only be regarded as "poems that cannot be read without repair". The word "unreadable also".I don’t care about whether the comment is fair or not, but it can be seen that Li Qingzhao herself filled in strictly according to "the lyrics are divided into five tones, and then divided into five tones, and then divided into six rhythms, and also divided into clarity and turbidity". A cadence of beauty.

Li Qingzhao is good at choosing small things in daily life to express her emotions. Once some very ordinary details of life are included in her words, she will immediately be in high spirits.For example, describing the scenery in late spring as "green, fat, red and thin";The language of her words is not gorgeous, but the artistic conception is very elegant. In many cases, the words are written in ordinary, everyday language, but they receive excellent artistic effects.For example, "Three cups and two cups are light, how can the enemy come late and the wind is rushing", "This time, why is there a word of worry" ("Slow Voice").Look at her "Wuling Spring" again:

Almost all spoken words.In Qing Peng Sunyu's "Jinsu Cihua", it is said: "Li Yi'an's new dream is sold by cold incense, so don't worry about it', 'If you keep the window, how can you be dark alone', all use simple and vulgar language, and the hair is refreshing. The thought, the meaning of the words are combined, and the boudoir love is perfect." This is the characteristic of Li Qingzhao's words. But these seemingly ordinary languages ​​have been carefully thought out, such as the fourteen words used at the beginning of her most acclaimed "Slow Voice", "Looking for, looking for, deserted, desolate and miserable", Not only the syllables are interrupted, but the fourteen overlapping characters outline three layers of artistic conception: "Xun Xun Mi Mi" is a lonely and sad poet in his later years looking for a kind of spiritual sustenance, but what is this sustenance and where is it? I don't know, and of course I can't find it.That's why the second meaning "cold and clear" was introduced. This is not only the desolation of life, but also the desolation of heart and emotion, so it naturally transitioned to the third meaning. Qi Qi" feeling.As soon as these fourteen characters were uttered, they became almost unheard of. Anyone who learns them will become a laughing stock. "Gujin Cihua" quoted "Guier Ji" and said: "("Slow Voice") Li Yi'an's first fourteen words are repeated, which are Gongsun Da Niang's sword dancing skills. There are no talented poets in this dynasty, and there is no such thing. Fourteen repeaters."

Later generations spoke very highly of Li Qingzhao. Although there were a few people who took a moralist and machismo standpoint and criticized Li Qingzhao's poetry, it did not hurt his status as the top poet in the Song Dynasty.Ming Yang Shen's "Ci Pin" said: "Li Yi'an is also known as the best among Song people who write Ci. He should compete with Qin Qi, Huang Jiu, and not only in the boudoir."