Li Qingzhao's Ci poems

Author: Li Qingzhao
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Li Qingzhao's literary creation is very rich. According to the Records of the Arts and Literature of the Song Dynasty, she wrote the Collected Works of Lady Yi'an in seven volumes and Songs of Lady Yi'an in six volumes, but these works have long been lost. The works we see today by Li Qingzhao are all compiled and reconstructed by later generations. Li Qingzhao was proficient in poetry, ci (a classical Chinese poetic form), prose, calligraphy, painting, and music, with her greatest achievement in ci. Her ci is elegant, fresh, and emotionally sincere. The early works mainly depict the lives of young women and wives, often focusing on domestic emotions, revealing her longing for love and the pain of separation and longing. In her ci Drunk on the Fragrant Flowers, she describes the pain of longing: "Do not say that it does not hurt the heart, the curtain rolls with the west wind, the person is thinner than the chrysanthemum." Using the chrysanthemum to compare a person's thinness and using thinness to illustrate the depth of longing, it is subtle, implicit, and creative. It is said that she sent this ci to Zhao Mingcheng, who was studying at the Imperial Academy. Zhao Mingcheng worked day and night for three days, writing fifty ci, and included this one in the middle, asking his friend Lu Defu to review it. Lu Defu said, "Only three lines are truly good." He believed that the best lines were exactly the three lines by Li Qingzhao. In feudal society, Li Qingzhao dared to boldly depict the love of women, which led to criticism from some. However, this only shows that her ci objectively had the significance of opposing the constraints of feudal ethics. After crossing the Yangtze River, the national disaster and personal misfortune cast a heavy sense of sorrow over her works; her later ci often lamented her fate and sometimes expressed her longing for the Central Plains, expressing her patriotic thoughts. Her ci Shēng Shēng Màn begins with fourteen: "Seeking, seeking, coldly, coldly, sadly, sadly," fully reflecting her melancholic, lonely, and helpless mood, with extremely profound emotions. Li Qingzhao's prose and poetry also have distinctive features. Her Postscript to the Records of Gold and Stone is a self-narrative that combines storytelling and emotion, written very movingly. Her poems are full of patriotic passion. For example, in A Poem for Summer: "To live, be a hero; to die, be a ghostly hero. Even today, I think of Xiang Yu, unwilling to cross the river eastward." This poem praises Xiang Yu's refusal to live in humiliation after his defeat, mocking the compromising and retreating policies of the Southern Song ruling group, and is written with great vigor. Unfortunately, very few of her prose and poetry have been passed down. Li Qingzhao (1084–c. 1155) was an outstanding female ci poet of the Song Dynasty, holding a significant position in Chinese literary history. Li Qingzhao, styled Lady Yi'an, was from Jinan and came from a scholarly official family. Her father, Li Gefei, was a famous scholar and prose writer, holding the position of Assistant Director of the Ministry of Rites. Her mother was also educated and skilled in writing. Li Qingzhao received a good cultural upbringing from a young age, with excellent literary. At the age of eighteen, she married Zhao Mingcheng, a student at the Imperial Academy. Zhao Mingcheng was the youngest son of the prime minister Zhao Tingzhi and had served as the governor of Laizhou and Zizhou in the late Northern Song Dynasty. He was passionate about studying gold, stone, calligraphy, and painting and was a renowned archaeologist of the Song Dynasty, author of the Records of Gold and Stone in thirty volumes. After their marriage, they collected and appreciated gold, stone, calligraphy, and painting together, collated ancient books, and recited poetry, leading a relatively happy life. In 1127 (the second year of the Jingkang era), the Jin army invaded the south, and the areas north and south of the Yellow River fell one after another. They crossed the Yangtze River together, but Zhao Mingcheng died suddenly on his way to become the governor of Huizhou in Jiankang. At that time, Li Qingzhao was forty-six years old. From then on, she wandered alone in places like Taizhou, Wenzhou, and Jinhua, eventually settling in Lin'an, where she spent her later years in solitude. Li Qingzhao's literary creation is very rich. According to the Records of the Arts and Literature of the Song Dynasty, she wrote the Collected Works of Lady Yi'an in seven volumes and Songs of Lady Yi'an in six volumes, but these works have long been lost. The works we see today by Li Qingzhao are all compiled and reconstructed by later generations. Li Qingzhao was proficient in poetry, ci (a classical Chinese poetic form), prose, calligraphy, painting, and music, with her greatest achievement in ci. Her ci is elegant, fresh, and emotionally sincere. The early works mainly depict the lives of young women and wives, often focusing on domestic emotions, revealing her longing for love and the pain of separation and longing. In her ci Drunk on the Fragrant Flowers, she describes the pain of longing: "Do not say that it does not hurt the heart, the curtain rolls with the west wind, the person is thinner than the chrysanthemum." Using the chrysanthemum to compare a person's thinness and using thinness to illustrate the depth of longing, it is subtle, implicit, and creative. It is said that she sent this ci to Zhao Mingcheng, who was studying at the Imperial Academy. Zhao Mingcheng worked day and night for three days, writing fifty ci, and included this one in the middle, asking his friend Lu Defu to review it. Lu Defu said, "Only three lines are truly good." He believed that the best lines were exactly the three lines by Li Qingzhao. In feudal society, Li Qingzhao dared to boldly depict the love of women, which led to criticism from some. However, this only shows that her ci objectively had the significance of opposing the constraints of feudal ethics. After crossing the Yangtze River, the national disaster and personal misfortune cast a heavy sense of sorrow over her works; her later ci often lamented her fate and sometimes expressed her longing for the Central Plains, expressing her patriotic thoughts. Her ci Shēng Shēng Màn begins with fourteen: "Seeking, seeking, coldly, coldly, sadly, sadly," fully reflecting her melancholic, lonely, and helpless mood, with extremely profound emotions. Li Qingzhao's prose and poetry also have distinctive features. Her Postscript to the Records of Gold and Stone is a self-narrative that combines storytelling and emotion, written very movingly. Her poems are full of patriotic passion. For example, in A Poem for Summer: "To live, be a hero; to die, be a ghostly hero. Even today, I think of Xiang Yu, unwilling to cross the river eastward." This poem praises Xiang Yu's refusal to live in humiliation after his defeat, mocking the compromising and retreating policies of the Southern Song ruling group, and is written with great vigor. Unfortunately, very few of her prose and poetry have been passed down.