Liu Yuxi: Difference between revisions
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===Second period of banishment=== |
===Second period of banishment=== |
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In 815, Liu and the other Yongzhen reformers were recalled to the capital. Early the following year, he reached Changan, and unrepentantly wrote a poem with a veiled satire on court politics (''The Peach Blossoms of Xuandu Temple'' 玄都觀桃花) that helped earn him another immediate demotion back to Lianzhou (Guangdong) as provincial governor, while Liu Zongyuan, who was also involved, was sent to [[Liuzhou]] in [[Guangxi]]. In 821, Liu was then transferred to [[Kuizhou]] (on the [[Yangtze River]]), then transferred to another post at [[Hezhou]] (Guangxi). In 826, Liu was again recalled, this time to [[Luoyang]], finally ending the long period of his banishment from the court.<ref name=WZQ /> |
In 815, Liu and the other Yongzhen reformers were recalled to the capital. Early the following year, he reached Changan, and unrepentantly wrote a poem with a veiled satire on court politics (''The Peach Blossoms of Xuandu Temple'' 玄都觀桃花 <ref>[http://www.mountainsongs.net/poem_.php?id=840 ''The Peach Blossoms of Xuandu Temple'', on Mountain Songs]</ref>) that helped earn him another immediate demotion back to Lianzhou (Guangdong) as provincial governor, while Liu Zongyuan, who was also involved, was sent to [[Liuzhou]] in [[Guangxi]]. In 821, Liu was then transferred to [[Kuizhou]] (on the [[Yangtze River]]), then transferred to another post at [[Hezhou]] (Guangxi). In 826, Liu was again recalled, this time to [[Luoyang]], finally ending the long period of his banishment from the court.<ref name=WZQ /> |
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==Poetry== |
==Poetry== |
Revision as of 04:17, 20 July 2015
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.[1]
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), and his later works often reflected this Buddhist sensibility.[2]
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.[2]
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, in a further demotion, to Langzhou in Hunan. 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).[2]
Second period of banishment
In 815, Liu and the other Yongzhen reformers were recalled to the capital. Early the following year, he reached Changan, and unrepentantly wrote a poem with a veiled satire on court politics (The Peach Blossoms of Xuandu Temple 玄都觀桃花 [3]) that helped earn him another immediate demotion back to Lianzhou (Guangdong) as provincial governor, while Liu Zongyuan, who was also involved, was sent to Liuzhou in Guangxi. In 821, Liu was then transferred to Kuizhou (on the Yangtze River), then transferred to another post at Hezhou (Guangxi). In 826, Liu was again recalled, this time to Luoyang, finally ending the long period of his banishment from the court.[2]
Poetry
Just over 700 of his poems still exist. Some of the best known are notable for their simple, 'folksong' 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.[4] 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:[5]
Summer Dying Whence comes the autumn's whistling blast, A gaily dressed damsel steps forth from her bower, |
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A more recent translator, Red Pine (Bill Porter) has translated Ode to the Autumn Wind (秋风引 Qiūfēng yǐn, the same poem as Giles's Summer Dying above), The Peach Blossoms of Hsuantu Temple (玄都觀桃花 Xuándū Guàn Táohuā), and Visiting Hsuantu Temple Again (再遊玄都觀 Zài Yóu Xuándū Guān).[6]
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 |
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Gallery
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Poem of Liu Yuxi by the Chinese calligrapher Sun Xinde
Notes
- ^ Liu Yuxi short biography at Renditions.org
- ^ a b c d 刘禹锡集 (Liu Yuxi Selected Works) 吴在庆 (Edited by Wu Zaiqing) Nanjing:凤凰出版社,2014 ISBN 978-7-5506-2009-4
- ^ The Peach Blossoms of Xuandu Temple, on Mountain Songs
- ^ To Liu Yu-hsi (AD 838) from More Translations from the Chinese, by Arthur Waley, 1919, at sacred-texts.com
- ^ H Giles (1898): Chinese Poetry in English Verse, Bernard Quaritch, London
- ^ 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
- ^ "The Scholar's Humble Dwelling (Poem). Liu Yu Hsi. Translated by James Black.," The Open Court: Vol. 1911: Iss. 3, Article 7, available at: Open SIUC
References
- Lim, Chooi Kua [Lin Shui-kao] (1994, 1996): A biography of Liu Yuxi, Chinese Culture, 36.2, 37.1, 115-50, 111-141
- Fang Li-Tian (1989): 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
- Luo Yuming (translated with annotations and an introduction by Ye Yang), (2011): A Concise History of Chinese Literature Volume 1, Brill, Leiden, pp 356–8
- Richardson, Tori Cliffon Anthony (1994). 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
- 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