Chapter 24 204 Li Qingzhao, poetess

Jin soldiers ran rampant in the Central Plains, but the Southern Song Dynasty was not prepared to resist at all. Song Gaozong lived a life of luxury and gold in Yangzhou, the capital of travel.In the first month of 1129 A.D., the Jin general Zonghan led his troops southward and captured many cities one after another. Along the way, the officials of the Southern Song Dynasty surrendered and fled. The Jin soldiers quickly crossed the Huaihe River and approached Yangzhou. Song Gaozong was having fun in the Yangzhou palace. When he heard the Jin soldiers calling, he hurriedly took five or six trusted eunuchs, rode on horses, and rushed to the riverside in one breath, found a small boat, and crossed the river overnight.Jin soldiers wantonly burned, killed and looted in Yangzhou, and finally set fire to burn Yangzhou to a piece of scorched earth before returning to the north with a full load of looted treasures.

Song Gaozong fled to Lin'an, dismissed Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan, and an internal strife broke out in the Southern Song court.Jin Taizong saw that the Southern Song Dynasty was corrupt and deceitful. In October of this year, he sent General Wushu to invade the south on a large scale and occupied Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu).When Song Gaozong heard that Jin Bing was coming, he fled from Lin'an to Yuezhou (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), and from Yuezhou to Mingzhou (now Ningbo, Zhejiang).Wushu led his troops to chase after him, and Song Gaozong was desperate, so he fled across the ocean to Wenzhou in a sea boat.It was not until the Jin soldiers withdrew north that they returned to Lin'an.

The brutal plunder of the Jin soldiers going south and the corruption and incompetence of the Song Dynasty brought untold suffering to the people, and many families suffered the pain of their families being destroyed.Li Qingzhao, a famous poetess in the Northern Song Dynasty, also had the same tragic experience. Li Qingzhao was born in Licheng (now Jinan, Shandong) and a famous poetess in my country.Her father, Li Gefei, was also a writer. He was an official during the Song Huizong period. Because of his integrity and being a student of Su Shi, he was hit by Cai Jing.Influenced by his father since he was a child, Li Qingzhao was very fond of literature, reciting poems and painting, especially in writing lyrics.At the age of eighteen, she got married.Her husband, Zhao Mingcheng, is also a son of an official family. The couple are like-minded. Apart from being good at poetry and prose, they also have a common hobby, which is collecting gold and stone (ancient bronze wares and calligraphy and paintings engraved on stone tablets).These cultural relics are not only the exquisite art of ancient my country, but also preserve rich historical materials.

At that time, Zhao Mingcheng was still studying in the Taixue in the capital.Although both Zhao and Li held considerable official positions, they were not rich and wealthy, and they did not have extra money for them to buy cultural relics.This does not affect their pursuit of Jinshi.Every first month and a half, Zhao Mingcheng asked for leave to go home, took some clothes, went to the pawn shop to deposit half a penny, and went to Daxiangguo Temple. Daxiangguo Temple is the largest Buddhist temple in Tokyo. Temple fairs are often held there. At the temple fairs, various commodities are filled, and books, antiques, calligraphy and paintings on inscriptions are also sold.Zhao Mingcheng was there, and when he saw the inscriptions and paintings he liked, he bought them.When I got home, I sorted out and appreciated it with Li Qingzhao.The couple regard this event as the greatest joy in their lives.

Two years later, Zhao Mingcheng became an official, and he spent almost all of his official salary on buying Jinshi books. Some relatives and friends of his father worked in the national library, where there were many ancient books that were not circulated outside. Through these relatives and friends, Zhao Mingcheng did everything possible to borrow and copy them.Over time, more and more gold and stone calligraphy and paintings were collected by their family.Li Qingzhao built a large cabinet for the library and compiled the catalogue. If there was a little stain, he must tidy it up at any time.After nearly twenty years of hard work, Zhao Mingcheng completed a book recording ancient historical relics called "Jinshilu".

In the era of national turmoil, it is impossible to concentrate on sorting out cultural relics.When Tokyo was captured by Jin soldiers, Li Qingzhao and Zhao Mingcheng were still in Zizhou (in today's Shandong Province).Soon, the wind became more and more serious, and Li Qingzhao followed Zhao Mingcheng to Jiankang.They took fifteen carts of the most valuable Jinshi books with them.Later, when the Jin soldiers captured Qingzhou, the dozens of cultural relics that Li Qingzhao left in his hometown were burned to a pile of ashes by the flames of war. After arriving in Jiankang, Zhao Mingcheng received an imperial edict and was sent to Huzhou to be the magistrate.At that time, the army was in turmoil, and it was impossible for Li Qingzhao to take office with him.Before leaving, Li Qingzhao asked her husband, "What should I do if the Jinren call again?"

Zhao Mingcheng said firmly: "Let's see. If it doesn't work, you give up the furniture and clothes first; if you can't, you throw away the ancient calligraphy and paintings; but there are a few precious ancient ritual utensils, you must protect them yourself , as your own life.” Unexpectedly, Zhao Mingcheng got malaria and died after going there. Li Qingzhao's husband died, so don't mention her sadness.But the most important thing is to inherit her husband's behest and protect the cultural relics.Zhao Mingcheng had a sister-in-law in Hongzhou (now Nanchang, Jiangxi). At that time, Li Qingzhao still had 20,000 volumes of books and 2,000 volumes of gold and stone engravings, so he asked someone to bring them to Hongzhou.Not long after, the Jin soldiers arrived in Hongzhou, and these cultural relics disappeared.

When Zhao Mingcheng was seriously ill, a scholar named Zhang Feiqing came to visit him and brought a jade pot with him.Li Qingzhao is a person who is good at identifying cultural relics, and he can tell at a glance that the jade pot is not really made of jade, but a jade product.Later, Zhang Feiqing took the pot away.After Zhao Mingcheng's death, some people speculated that Zhao Mingcheng gave the precious cultural relics to the people of Jin Dynasty.This kind of rumor made Li Qingzhao very wronged. She wanted to appeal to the court, but Song Gaozong's small court had already fled. Li Qingzhao ran around in order to escape.By the time she settled down in Shaoxing, the cultural relics around her were scattered, stolen and discovered, leaving only some fragments and fragments.

The shattering of the country's mountains and rivers and the loss of precious cultural relics have dealt a severe blow to Li Qingzhao.She wrote many poems about the pain of the country's destruction and family destruction. Her poems have high artistic achievements, and some of them are full of patriotic spirit.In a poem, she expressed her dissatisfaction with the rulers of the Southern Song Dynasty fleeing across the south of the Yangtze River.The poem says: Live as a hero, and die as a ghost. To this day, I miss Xiang Yu and refuse to cross Jiangdong.