Li Yu (Southern Tang)

Li Yu (; 15 August 937), before 961 known as Li Congjia (), also known as Li Houzhu (; literally "Last Ruler Li" or "Last Lord Li"), was the third ruler of the Southern Tang state during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. He reigned from 961 until 976, when his state was conquered by the Northern Song dynasty. Taken captive to the Song capital Bianjing, Li Yu was given the title Marquis of Disobedience (), reflecting Emperor Taizu of Song’s resentment over Li’s delayed surrender. In 978 he was executed by poisoning on the orders of Emperor Taizong of Song.

Li Yu is generally regarded as an ineffective ruler but an accomplished artist, especially renowned for his ci poetry. His early lyrics depict courtly pleasures and romantic love, while his later poems express profound grief over the loss of his kingdom.

Family

Parents

Father: Li Jing
Mother: Empress Guangmu (; d.965) of the Zhong clan ()

Consort and their respective issue(s)

Empress Zhaohui, of the Zhou clan (昭惠國后 ), personal name Ehuang ()
Li Zhongyu, Duke Qingyuan (清源郡公 ; 958–994), 1st son
Li Zhongxuan, Prince Huaixian (岐懷獻王 ; 961–964), 2nd son
Empress Zhou the younger, of the Zhou clan (小周后 ), sister of Empress Zhaohui
Baoyi, of the Huang clan ()
Gongren, of the Bao clan ()
Gongren, of the Zang clan ()

Early life

In the same Chinese year Li Congjia was born, his grandfather Xu Zhigao, also known as Xu Gao (Li Bian) founded the state Qi (), renaming it Tang (known as the Southern Tang) 2 years later. When Li Congjia was 6, his father Li Jing became the next Southern Tang emperor. With Li Jing naming his younger brother Li Jingsui his heir apparent, his sixth eldest son Li Congjia seemed unlikely to ever succeed the throne. However, many of Li Congjia's brothers died very young, and after the death of the second eldest brother Li Hongmao () in 951, Li Congjia all of a sudden found himself right behind Li Hongji — the eldest brother — and uncle Li Jingsui in the succession line.

Li Hongji, a withdrawn and troubled young man, resented his crown prince uncle, whom he saw as a political enemy standing in his way. He also disliked his younger brother Li Congjia, even though they shared the same biological mother, Empress Zhong. Fearing the possible results of this family enmity, Li Congjia tried hard to be inconspicuous and focused on the arts, including poetry, painting and music. He loved reading, a passion encouraged by his father, also an acclaimed poet. At the age of 17, Li Congjia married Zhou Ehuang, chancellor Zhou Zong's daughter and a year his senior. Lady Zhou was not only highly educated but also multi-talented in music and the arts and the young couple enjoyed a very intimate relationship.

Accession to the throne

In 955, a year after Li Congjia's marriage, Southern Tang was invaded by Later Zhou. The resistance war did not end until spring 958, after Li Jing ceded all prefectures north of the Yangtze River to his powerful northern neighbor. Li Jing also relinquished all imperial trappings, degrading his own title from emperor to king (). The national humiliation was soon followed by familial tragedy: later that year Li Hongji poisoned uncle Li Jingsui to death, which was followed by his own death a few months later, allegedly hastened by many encounters with Li Jingsui's vengeful ghost.

Suffering from poor health, Li Jing decided to transfer all responsibilities to his successor. He named Li Congjia the crown prince in spring 961 to take over in the capital Jinling (; modern Nanjing, Jiangsu) while he retired to the southern city of Hongzhou (; modern Nanchang, Jiangxi). A few months later he died, and Li Congjia officially succeeded the throne, not without a last-second effort by Li Congshan to challenge him. By then Zhong Mo had also died, so Li Congshan asked chancellor Xu You to bring Li Jing's last will to him. Xu refused and confided in Li Congjia of Li Congshan's intentions. Li Congjia — changing his name to Li Yu — did not punish his younger brother other than a slight demotion. died unexpectedly. Li would mourn his son by himself so as not to sadden his wife more than necessary, In addition to several grieving poems, he chiseled the roughly 2000 characters of his "Dirge for the Zhaohui Queen Zhou" () — "Zhaohui" being her posthumous name — to her headstone himself.

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|孰謂逝者

|Who is it says, of those departed,

|荏苒彌疏

|they grow more remote as times goes by?

|我思姝子

|I long for her, that beautiful lady,

|永念猶初

|eternally remembering, just as at first.

|愛而不見

|"I love her but I cannot see her";

|我心毀如

|my heart seems to blaze and burn.

|寒暑斯疚

|With chills and fever I am afflicted,

|吾寧禦諸

|can I ever overcome this?

There is speculation but no evidence that Li Yu engaged in a secret sexual relationship with the queen's younger sister, who was only around 14 at that time, before the queen died. A few months later, in late 965, disaster stroke again: Queen Dowager Zhong died after several months of attentive care-taking by Li. The subsequent mourning period delayed Li's marriage to the younger Lady Zhou until 968.

What Li was perhaps unaware was a year before, the Song military had gotten hold of an important chart with detailed measurements of Yangtze River crossing points, provided by a Southern Tang defector named Fan Ruoshui. After the conquest of Southern Han, their next step was to eliminate Lin Renzhao. In 974, Emperor Taizu of Song got hold of a Lin portrait through agents working in Southern Tang, and Li Congshan, the hostage kept in Bianliang, was then made to believe that Lin's loyalty was with Song. When Li Yu was told of this, he without a thorough investigation secretly poisoned Lin to death. Chancellor Chen Qiao angrily reacted to Lin's death: "Seeing loyal ministers killed, I don't know where I will die!"

Fall of Southern Tang

Li was an incompetent ruler who spent more time on literature and art, with little regard to the Song dynasty that was eyeing its weaker neighbor. In 971, Houzhu dropped the name of Tang from its Kingdom's name, in a desperate move to please the mighty Emperor Taizu of Song.

Of the many other kingdoms surrounding the Southern Tang, only Wuyue to the east had yet to fall. The Southern Tang's turn came in 974, when, after several refusals to summons to the Song court, on the excuse of illness, Song dynasty armies invaded. After a year long siege of the Southern Tang capital, modern Nanjing, Li Houzhu surrendered in 975. He and his family were taken as captives to the Song capital at present-day Kaifeng. In a later poem, Li wrote about the shame and regret he had on the day he was taken away from Jinling (as translated by Hsiung Ting):

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|四十年來家國

|For forty years my country and my home —

|三千里地山河

|Three thousand li of mountains and rivers.

|鳳閣龍樓連霄漢

|The Phoenix Pavilion and Dragon Tower reaching up to the Milky Way,

|玉樹瓊枝作烟蘿

|Jade trees and jasper branches forming a cloudy net —

|幾曾識干戈

|Not once did I touch sword or spear!

|一旦歸為臣虜

|Suddenly I became a captive slave.

|沈腰潘鬢銷磨

|Frail my waist, gray my temples, grinding away.

|最是倉皇辭廟日

|Never shall I forget the day when I bade hasty farewell at the ancestral temple.

|教坊猶奏別離歌

|The court musicians played the farewell songs,

|揮淚對宮娥

|My tears streamed as I gazed at the court maidens.

Death

He was poisoned by the Song emperor Taizong in 978, after he had written a poem that, in a veiled manner, lamented the destruction of his empire and the rape of his second wife Empress Zhou the Younger by the Song emperor. After his death, he was posthumously created the Prince of Wu ().

Writing

Li was interested in cí poetry, which sometimes seems to characterize poetry of the Song Dynasty. However, he is not a Song poet: the Southern Tang is more a successor of Tang and precursor of the Song side that existed during the Tang-Song transition, also known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Li Yu represents both a continuation of the Tang poetry tradition, as well as representing the cí poetic style associated with the poetry of Song.

Li Houzhu devoted much of his time to pleasure-making and literature, and this is reflected in his early poems. A second phase of Li's cí poems seems to have been the development of an even sadder style after the death of his wife, in 964. His saddest, poems were composed during the years of his captivity, after he formally abdicated his reign to the Song, in 975. He was created the Marquess of Disobidience (), a deliberately humiliating title for his prolonged resistance and delayed surrender. Though with the outward accoutrements of a prince, Li was a prisoner. Li's works from this period dwell on his regret for the lost kingdom.

He developed the ci by broadening its scope from love to history and philosophy, particularly in his later works. He also introduced the two stanza form, and made use of contrasts between longer lines of nine characters and shorter ones of three and five. Only 45 of his ci poems survive, thirty of which have been verified to be his authentic works, the other of which are possibly composed by other writers. Also, seventeen shi style poems remain to his credit.

| Liǔ Zhī () || Fēng Qíng Jiàn Lǎo Jiàn Chūn Xiū () ||

| Pò Zhèn Zǐ () || Sì Shí Nián Lái Jiā Guó () || Shiao Lih-ju sang it in Mandarin

|rowspan=5| Pú Sà Mán () || Huā Míng Yuè Àn Lóng Qīng Wù () ||

| Péng Lái Yuàn Bì Tiān Tái Nǚ () ||

| Rén Shēng Chóu Hèn Hé Néng Miǎn () || Tune written as Zǐ Yè Gē ()

| Tóng Huáng Yùn Cuì Qiāng Hán Zhú () ||

| Xún Chūn Xū Shì Xiān Chūn Zǎo () || Tune written as Zǐ Yè Gē ()

| Qīng Píng Yuè () || Bié Lái Chūn Bàn () ||

| Ruǎn Láng Guī () || Dōng Fēng Chuī Shuǐ Rì Xián Shān () || Possibly by Feng Yansi

| Sān Tái Lìng () || Bù Mèi Juàn Cháng Gèng () || Authorship questioned

|rowspan=4| Wàng Jiāng Nán () || Duō Shǎo Hèn () ||

| Duō Shǎo Lèi () ||

| Xián Mèng Yuǎn () 2nd line: Nán Guó Zhèng Fāng Chūn () ||rowspan=2| Tune written as Wàng Jiāng Méi ()

| Xián Mèng Yuǎn () 2nd line: Nán Guó Zhèng Qīng Qiū ()

| Wū Yè Tí () || Zuó Yè Fēng Jiān Yǔ () ||

| Xǐ Qiān Yīng () || Xiǎo Yuè Zhuì () ||

|rowspan=2| Xiāng Jiàn Huān () || Lín Huā Xiè Liǎo Chūn Hóng () || Teresa Teng sang it in Mandarin

| Wú Yán Dú Shàng Xī Lóu () || Teresa Teng sang it in Mandarin Shiao Lih-ju sang it in Mandarin

|rowspan=5| Xiè Xīn Ēn () || Jīn Chuāng Lì Kùn Qǐ Huán Yōng () || Missing the rest of the poem

| Rǎn Rǎn Qiū Guāng Liú Bù Zhù () || Possibly missing lines and/or characters

| Tíng Kōng Kè Sàn Rén Guī Hòu () ||

| Yīng Huā Luò Jìn Chūn Jiāng Kùn () || Missing 2 lines

| Yīng Huā Luò Jìn Jiē Qián Yuè () ||

| Yī Hú Zhū () || Wǎn Zhuāng Chū Guò () ||

|rowspan=2| Yú Fù () || Làng Huā Yǒu Yì Qiān Chóng Xuě () ||

| Yī Zhào Chūn Fēng Yī Yè Zhōu () ||

| Yù Lóu Chūn () || Wǎn Zhuāng Chū Liǎo Míng Jī Xuě () || Chang Chen sang it in Mandarin

|rowspan=2| Yú Měi Rén () || Chūn Huā Qiū Yuè Hé Shí Liǎo () || Teresa Teng sang it in Mandarin Chan Ho Tak sang it in Cantonese Huang Yee-ling and others sang it in Taiwanese Huang Fei sang it in Taiwanese

| Fēng Huí Xiǎo Yuàn Tíng Wú Lǜ () ||

Poetry Examples

Poems like these are often invoked in later periods of strife and confusion by literary figures.

Alone Up the Western Tower ()

"Alone Up the Western Tower" was written after his capture. Here the poem is translated by Chan Hong-mo:

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|Alone to silence, up the western tower, I myself bestow.

|Like silver curtain hook, so does the moon glow.

|The fallen leaves of one forsaken parasol

|Make deeper still the limpid autumn locked up in the court below.

|Try cutting it, it is still profuse –

|More minding will but more confuse –

|Ah, parting's such enduring sorrow!

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|It leaves behind a very special taste the heart alone could know.

This was also rendered into a song by Teresa Teng.

Jiangnan Remembrance (望江南), second stanza

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|Such hatred,

|Last night I departed in my dream.

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|To enjoy the park as of yore,

|The carriages flow like water and the horses like dragon,

|Blossoms and the moon in the spring breeze.

Shi poetry

Li Yu's poems in the form of shi include:

"Bìng Qǐ Tí Shān Shě Bì" (; "Getting up while Ill: Written Upon the Wall of My Mountain Lodge")
"Bìng Zhōng Gǎn Huái" (; "Feelings while Ill")
"Bìng Zhōng Shū Shì" (; "Written while Ill")
"Dào Shī" (; "Poem of Mourning")
"Dù Zhōng Jiāng Wàng Shí Chéng Qì Xià" (; "Gazing at Stone City from Mid-River and Weeping")
"Gǎn Huái" (; "My Feelings") — 2 poems
"Jiǔ Yuè Shí Rì Ǒu Shū" (; "Jotted Down on the Tenth Day of the Ninth Month")
"Méi Huā" (; "Plum Blossoms") — 2 poems
"Qiū Yīng" (; "Autumn Warbler")
"Shū Líng Yán Shǒu Jīn" (; "Written on the Napkin for a Sacrificial Banquet")
"Shū Pí Pá Bèi" (; "Written on the Back of a Pipa")
"Sòng Dèng Wáng Èr Shí Dì Cóng Yì Mù Xuān Chéng" (; "On Saying Farewell to My Younger Brother Chongyi, the Prince of Deng, Who is Going Away to Govern Xuancheng") — including a long letter
"Tí jīn lóu zi hòu" (; "Written at the end of the Jinlouzi") — including a preface
"Wǎn Chí" (; "Poem of Mourning") — 2 poems

"To the Tune of Liǔ Zhī" mentioned in the cí section may also be classified as a shi.

Prose writing

Li's surviving prose are miscellaneous in character. For example, "Dirge for the Zhaohui Queen Zhou" is rhymed and almost entirely in regular four-character metre, resembling the fu form a millennium before.

Calligraphy

Li Yu's calligraphy style has been dubbed "Golden Inlaid Dagger" () for its perceived force. As one Song Dynasty writer noted: "The large characters are like split bamboo, the small ones like clusters of needles; altogether unlike anything done with a brush!"

Television series

Three independent television series focused on the complex relationships between Li Yu (Li Houzhu), Emperor Taizu of Song (Zhao Kuangyin) and the various women in their lives. They are:

The Sword and the Song (), a 1986 Singaporean series starring Li Wenhai as Li Yu.
Love, Sword, Mountain & River (), a 1996 Taiwanese series starring Chin Feng as Li Yu.
Li Houzhu and Zhao Kuangyin (), a 2006 Chinese series starring Nicky Wu as Li Yu.

Notes and references

Sources

;Primary sources

;Secondary sources

Davis, A. R. (Albert Richard), Editor and Introduction, The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse. Baltimore: Penguin Books (1970).
Landau, Julie. 1994. Beyond spring tz'u poems of the Sung dynasty. Translations from the Asian classics. New York: Columbia University Press.
Liu, Kezhang. 2006. An appreciation and English translation of one hundred Chines (i.e. Chinese) cis during the Tang and Song dynasties. Pittsburgh, Penn: RoseDog Books.
MacKintosh, Duncan and Alan Ayling. 1967. A collection of Chinese lyrics. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.

External links

Index of Poems of Li Yu