Liu Yuxi

Liu Yuxi from the Wan Xiao Tang, published in 1743

Template:Chinese name Liu Yuxi (Wade-Giles: Liu Yü-hsi; simplified Chinese: 刘禹锡; traditional Chinese: 劉禹錫; pinyin: Liú Yǔxī) (772–842) was a Chinese poet, philosopher, and essayist, active during the Tang Dynasty.

Biography

Family background and education

His ancestors were Xiongnu nomadic people. The putative ‘seventh generation’ family head, Liu Liang, was an official of the Northern Wei (386-534), who followed the Emperor Xiaowen (471-499) when he established the capital at Luoyang in 494. Following the government sinification policy, he became Han and register his surname as Liu. From then on the family was based in Luoyang.

Liu Yuxi’s father, Li Xu, was forced to leave Luoyang to avoid the An Lushan rebellion (755-763) and went to Jiaxing (in the north of present day Zhejiang Province). Liu Yuxi was born and grew up in the south. In his youth he studied with two renowned poets in Kuaiji (now Shaoxing), the Chan (Zen) monks Lingche (靈澈, 746-816) and Jiaoran (皎然, 730-799).

Early career

Names
Chinese:	刘禹锡
Pinyin:	Liú Yǔxī
Wade-Giles:	Liu Yü-hsi
Japanese:	りゅう うしゃく Ryū Ushaku
Zì (字):	Mèng dé (梦得; Meng-te in Wade-Giles)
Hào (號):	Shī háo (詩豪; Shih-hao in Wade-Giles)

In 793, Liu passed the jinshi imperial examination. One of the other successful candidates that year was another great poet, Liu Zongyuan, whose career was to be closely connected to that of Liu Yuxi. That same year, Liu Yuxi went on to pass the higher examination (boxue hongceke). In 795, the Ministry of Appointments sent him to be a tutor to the Heir Apparent, a sign that he was destined from a prominent career. However in 796, his father suddenly died and he had to return to Yangzhou.

In 800, Liu became a secretary to the important scholar-official Du You who had been made the military governor of Xusihao Circuit, in charge of suppressing an insurrection in Xuzhou, enabling Liu to see army life at first hand. Later he followed Du You to Yangzhou, where he enjoyed the company of the poet Li Yi.

In 802. Liu was transferred to be a registrar (zhubu) in Weinan (in Shaanxi). The following year, on the recommendation of an official in the Imperial Censorate called Li Wen, Liu was transferred to the post of investigating censor. At that time, the essayist and poet Han Yu was already also working as an investigating censor, with Liu Zongyuan shortly to join him. These three literary giants of the middle Tang period became friends and were to remain in close contact for the rest of their lives.

Yongzhen Reform and banishment

In 805, the Emperor Dezong died and was succeeded by his son Shunzong. The government was entrusted to two reformers associated with the new emperor, Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi, 'imperial scholars' of the Hanlin Academy, who initiated the 'Yongzhen Reform' (after the new emperor's reign title). Liu Yuxi and Liu Zongyuan were closely connected to these officials, working immediately under them. However the emperor was in poor health and after only five months, the powerful eunuchs forced him to abdicate in favour of his son, who became Emperor Xianzong. The reform party lost power, Wang Shuwen was ordered to commit suicide, and the officials connected with the 'Yongzhen Reform' were banished to remote parts of the empire.

Liu Yuxi was sent to Lianzhou in Guangdong to be the local governor, then redirected to Langzhou in Hunan, while being demoted to the rank of 'sima'. Liu Zongyuan was sent to Yongzhou, another city in the same province. Others in the same group of banished officials included Wei Zhiyi, Cheng Yi, Han Ye (韓曄), Han Tai (韓泰), and LIn Huai (凌準).

Poetry

Just over 700 of his poems still exist, notable for their simple, 'folk' style. He was a friend of the great poet Bai Juyi, born in the same year as Liu Yuxi, who referred to "Liu and Po, those two mad old men" in at least one poem dedicated to Liu. Four of his poems are included in the classic Qing Dynasty anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems, which was first published in the 18th-century.

English translations

Two of Liu's poems were included in one of the first collections of English translations of Chinese literature: Herbert Giles's 1898 Chinese Poetry in English Verse:

	Summer Dying Whence comes the autumn's whistling blast, With flocks of wild geese hurrying past? . . . . Alas, when wintry breezes burst, The lonely traveller hears them first! The Odalisque A gaily dressed damsel steps forth from her bower, Bewailing the fate that forbids her to roam; In the courtyard she counts up the buds on each flower, While a dragon-fly flutters and sits on her comb.

Loushi Ming

One of his most famous works is 'Loushi Ming' 陋室銘, "The Scholar's Humble Dwelling", a prose-poem describing living in a simple dwelling, following a life that is refined in culture and learning:

	山不在高， Who heeds the hill's bare height until 有仙則名； Some legend grows around the hill? 水不在深， Who cares how deep the stream before 有龍則靈。 Its fame is writ in country lore? 斯是陋室， And so this humble hut of mine 惟吾德馨。 May shelter virtues half divine. 苔痕上階綠， The moss may climb its ruined stair, 草色入簾青。 And grassy stains the curtain wear, 談笑有鴻儒， But scholars at their ease within, 往來無白丁。 For all but Ignorance enters in, 可以調素琴， With simple lute the time beguile, 閱金經。 Or "Golden Classic's" page a while. 無絲竹之亂耳， No discords here their ears assail, 無案牘之勞形。 Nor cares of business to bewail. 南陽諸葛廬， This is the life the Sages led. 西蜀子雲亭。 孔子云：「何陋之有？」 "How were they poor?" Confucius said. (Translated by James Black.)

Gallery

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  Statue of Liu Yuxi in Baidicheng, now in Fengjie County, Chongqing Municipality
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  Poem of Liu Yuxi by the Chinese calligrapher Sun Xinde

References

• Lim, Chooi Kua [Lin Shui-kao]: A biography of Liu Yuxi, Chinese Culture, 36.2, 37.1 (1994, 1996), 115-50, 111-141
• Fang Li-Tian: Liu Zongyuan and Liu Yuxi. Theories of Heaven and Man in Yijie Tang, Zhen Li, George F. McLean, Man and Nature: The Chinese Tradition and the Future, CRVP, 1989, pp. 25–32, ISBN 978-0-8191-7412-3
• Red Pine (translator) (2003): Poems of the Masters: China's Classic Anthology of T'ang and Sung Dynasty Verse, Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press
• Richardson, Tori Cliffon Anthony. Liu Pin-k'o chia-hua lu ('A Record of Adviser to the Hier Apparent Liu (Yü-hsi's) Fine Discourses'): A Study and Translation. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1994
• Sping, Madeline K (1989): Equine Allegory in the Writings of Liu Yü-hsi, in Ti-i chieh Kuo-chi T'ang-tai wen-hsüeh hui-i Lun-wen chi 第一结国际唐代文学会议论文集, Taipei Student Book Company, pp 1–35

External links

• Liu Yuxi in The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry, Whittier College
• Works by Liu Yuxi in the Complete Tang Poetry (Chinese only) at the Zhengzhou University Internet Centre
• Works by Liu Yuxi at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)