Life and Death at Stake: A Philosophical Interpretation of Li He's Poetry

Author: Liao Mingjun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Li He is renowned as the "Poet Demon" and holds a unique yet controversial position in the history of Chinese literature. This book approaches Li He's poetry from the perspective of life philosophy, drawing on theories from psychology, aesthetics, sociology, religion, and mythology to conduct a comprehensive and systematic philosophical interpretation and analysis. It not only captures the essence of Li He, the famous Tang Dynasty "demon poet," with keen academic insight and a rich poetic passion, focusing on his probing into fundamental human questions such as ambition, pleasure, suffering, love, war, history, death, and eternity, but also reveals that the philosophical depth and spiritual essence of Li He's poetry lie in the poeticization of life philosophy. Furthermore, it highlights how Li He, with the thinking of an Easterner and the poetic wisdom of the Chinese, employs highly artistic and poetic language to explore the different states of human, ghost, and talismanic life. Through the construction of past, present, and future, as well as the mortal world, the underworld, and the heavens, he achieves specific spatial and temporal transformations. This provides a uniquely brilliant answer to the fundamental and core philosophical question of "Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?" Thus, it deciphers the life mysteries and cultural connotations embedded in Li He's poetry.