Li He poetry

Author: Li He
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-06-01
Features: The overall characteristics of Li He's poetry, which have been commented on by predecessors, are their strangeness and unconventionality. Take his poem "Annoying the Official" as an example. He exerted great effort in depicting the appearance and demeanor of the characters, seeking novelty in his words, with gorgeous and ornate imagery everywhere. Previous scholars often described this poem as obscure and difficult to understand. In fact, Li He's poem uses many omissions and hints to create a vague and ethereal realm, allowing us to appreciate the elegant and beautiful lines and the marvelous thoughts within, even without fully understanding them.
The line "Singing voice like spring grass dew" is brilliant in describing the round and clear singing voice with the image of dew on spring grass, fitting and appropriate. "Hair heavy in mist, waist light as if leaning on the wind" perfectly captures the graceful and alluring charm of a beautiful woman, her every movement captivating. The descriptions in the poem are dense and disjointed, yet sometimes repetitive. This is like a cluster of wild flowers, each branch exuding fragrance, colorful and vibrant, yet the branches are tangled and lack arrangement. However, we can appreciate the beauty of spring in this tangle. The last four lines of "Annoying the Official" start from two perspectives: the first two lines express the frustration of finding a beautiful woman difficult to approach ("Seeking willows in the Han garden, startled by the bell on the river bridge"). The last two lines depict the wife's malicious amusement at the poet's misfortune in love ("Moonlight awakens the wife, she should laugh at the empty hall"). The extraordinary emotions and subtle thoughts are Li He's greatest strengths.
In his poem "The Tomb of Su Xiaoxiao," the poet begins with the ghost in his imagination. The orchid dew is like tears, the orchids like smoke, the lush green grass, and the cool wind among pines and firs, forming a world of ghosts. Poems like "The Princess of Xiang," "The King of Qin Drinking," and "Autumn Comes" share similar characteristics, becoming a prominent feature in Li He's poetry. The emergence of such distinctive poetry by Li He in the mid-Tang poetry scene was partly determined by the inevitable trend of Tang poetry development. By the time of Li Bai and Du Fu, the Tang poetry had reached an extremely high level in terms of themes, techniques, and forms. They were monumental achievements, yet also insurmountable obstacles. The situation of mid-Tang poets was precisely this: they could draw inspiration from the accomplishments of their predecessors, and after the clamor of the poetic scene subsided, they could calmly innovate while inheriting—pressured by circumstances to observe more finely, dig deeper, and explore more broadly. Compared to Li Bai and Du Fu, mid-Tang poets' styles were less fluid, their forms less elevated, their tone less profound, and their minds less expansive, but their techniques, forms, and sentence structures underwent greater and more significant changes. This development resulted in the mid-Tang poetry scene's flourishing diversity, with each style claiming its own prominence. The diverse styles of poetry in the mid-Tang poetry scene perfectly reflect this invaluable uniqueness, making it also the source of their individuality and achievements.
Li He (790–816) was a Tang Dynasty poet. His courtesy name was Changji. He was from Fuchang (now Yiyang, Henan). His ancestral home was Longxi, and he claimed to be "Changji of Longxi." He lived in Changgu in Fuchang, and later, posthumously, was known as Li Changgu. Li He was a descendant of the Tang imperial clan, the Prince of Zheng, Li Liang, but his family had declined. He was described as "thin, with a long, arched brow and long fingernails," and was able to compose poetry from a young age. By the age of 15 or 16, he was already renowned for his mastery of lefu poetry, rivaling his predecessor Li Yi. Li He's father was named Jin Su, and because "Jin" and "jin" (to advance) had the same pronunciation, those who opposed Li He in competition claimed he should avoid the name to take the imperial examination. Han Yu wrote "On the Taboo" to encourage Li He to take the exam, but Li He ultimately failed to pass. Later, he served as a Fengli official for three years, filled with frustration. While in the capital, he lived in Chongyi Lane and was close friends with Wang Canyuan, Yang Jingzhi, Quan Qin, and Cui Shi. They often went out together, with a small servant riding a donkey and carrying a broken silk pouch. Whenever Li He composed a line of poetry, he would write it down and put it in the pouch. Upon returning home, he would complete the poem. His mother, Lady Zheng, often said, "This child must vomit out his heart to finish his work." Later, he resigned from his post and returned to Changgu, and then went to Luzhou (now Changzhi, Shanxi) to rely on Zhang Che for a period. He suffered from poor health throughout his life and died at the age of 27.
His poetry is rich in imagination, with unconventional structures, embodying an extremely romantic style. It reflects his strong dissatisfaction with the autocracy of eunuchs and the separatist regimes of regional warlords, as well as his concern for the suffering of the common people. However, some of his works also reveal a melancholic mood about the impermanence of life. He compiled his poems into four volumes and presented them to Shen Ziming. The "Li He Collection" published since the Northern Song Dynasty, with four volumes, contains 219 poems, matching the number of volumes he compiled but differing in the number of poems and the arrangement, which was not accurately dated. There is also a five-volume collection that includes an additional volume titled "Outer Collection," with 23 poems, bringing the total to 242, which still differs from Li He's self-composed collection. The five-volume collection is now preserved in the Jigu Ge edition of the Northern Song Dynasty, as well as in the Xuanzhou edition of the Northern Song Dynasty, published by Dong Shi's Shongfen Room and Jiang Shi's Miyun Tower. The collection is titled "Li He's Song and Poem Collection." There is also a Southern Song Dynasty edition of the "Continuation of Ancient and Rare Series," published as "The Collected Works of Li Changji," without an "Outer Collection." Another edition is the Mongolian edition published by Tieqin Tongjian Tower and the "Four Classics Series," titled "Li He's Song and Poem Collection." The latter two are now preserved in the Beijing Library.
The earliest annotations were by Wu Zhengzi of the Southern Song Dynasty, with Japanese and widely circulated editions. Later came Wang Qi's "Comprehensive Explanation of Li Changji's Song and Poems," which selected comments or annotations from Wu Zhengzi, Liu Chenweng, Xu Wei, Dong Maocie, Zeng Yi, Yu Guang, Yao Xian, and Yao Wenxie. There are also Chen Benli's "Harmonizing Rhythm and," Li Jian's annotated edition, and Wu Ruyun's annotated edition. The 1977 published "Collected Annotations of Li He's Poetry" compiled Wang Qi's "Comprehensive Explanation," Yao Wenxie's annotations, and Fang Shiju's annotations, with annotations and. Qian Zhonglian also wrote "Notes on Reading Changgu Poetry" and "Exploring the Secrets of Li Changji's Yongzhen Poetry History," offering new insights into the origins of the poems. Qian Zhonglian's "Collected Annotations of Li Changji's Chronology" published in 1984 is a new work that combines the nature of a chronology and poem annotations, with many interpretations differing from traditional annotations.
There are several references to Li He's life, including Li Shangyin's "Biography of Li He," the biographies in the New and Old Tang Histories, "The Hall of the Emperor's Audience," "The Elegant and Solitary Wind," "Gathering Words," as well as Zhu Ziqing's "Chronology of Li He" and Qian Zhonglian's "Collected Annotations of Li Changji's Chronology" and "Collected Annotations of Li He's Chronology."