The discredited Li Shen

“It’s noon on the day of hoeing,

The sweat is dripping from the soil.

Who knows that every grain of rice on the plate is hard work?

”

This poem can be said to be known to all women and children, but do you still remember the great poet Li Shen who wrote this poem?

Li Shen is one of the poets most criticized by modern people. Why? The biggest crimes are basically two: extravagant and lustful and commonplace.

There is a story that Li Shen changed after he became an official. Later, when he became prime minister, he became even more extravagant. He loved to eat chicken tongue and would kill it every time he ate it. There is a huge difference between hundreds of chickens and the poem he wrote about compassion for farmers.

A common saying comes from the Tang Dynasty? Liu Yuxi's "Gift to Li Sikong Prostitute": "A high bun with a palace-style makeup, a spring breeze of "Du Weiniang", commonplace messy things, cut off the heart of Suzhou's governor." Someone. This was used to satirize Li Shen's extravagant and indiscreet life, but this incident was also recorded in Tang Mengqi's "Poetry of Skills and Emotions": "Liu Shangshu Yu Xi went to Hezhou, and his guest was a doctor and a scholar of Jixian. Li Sikong ( Li Shen, who once held the post of Sikong, left town in Beijing and admired Liu's name. He invited him to the palace, where he drank a lot and ordered a beautiful prostitute to sing in his honor. Liu wrote a poem on the table: "? Doing her hair and making up like a palace, Du Weiniang sang in the spring breeze. It was commonplace to see the messy things and cut off the heart of the governor of Jiangnan. "

Is there really such a thing?

Let’s first talk about eating chicken tongue. The story of Li Shen's extravagant desire to eat chicken tongue has not been found in any official or unofficial history, no matter the old or new Tang Dynasty books, "Tang Caizi Biography", "Yunxi Youyi", or even "Beimeng Suoyan", "Cefu Yuan" There is no record in "Turtle", only records and so-called current commentary articles by keyboard warriors after 2010. I don’t know if there was mechanized chicken raising in the Tang Dynasty, or how many chickens he had to support his hobby. It can only be said to be a fake history compiled to blackmail one person.

Let’s talk about commonplace.

It was a common trend in the Tang Dynasty for bureaucrats to keep domestic prostitutes, and Liu Yuxi himself was no exception. Therefore, it is a common scene to entertain distinguished guests with monks and prostitutes playing music, singing and dancing to entertain them. It is also a welcome gift among friends and colleagues. It was very popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Li Sikong hosted a family banquet and entertained him lavishly. Liu Yuxi would not retort on such occasions. Finally, the title of the poem clearly indicates that it was given to Sikong Jiale prostitute, not to Mr. Li. Therefore, this poem is by no means intended to be satirical. It can be seen that this is a compliment to the singing girls of the Li family. Her makeup was elegant and fashionable, and her singing voice was comparable to that of Du Weiniang, a famous singer in the Tang Dynasty. Li Sikong was used to seeing such singing and thought it was ordinary, but after hearing the song, the poet was heartbroken. It is for this reason that the poet wrote this poem dedicated to the singer. It would be unkind to interpret this poem as a satire on the master. In the end, he gave it to a prostitute. Would it be ironic?

Any comment on a historical figure without historical context is a hooligan.

When writing articles, we often quote some allusions, but these allusions need to be carefully considered. In order to prove some of their own views, they completely abandon the historical background and copy it mechanically, and even fabricate and falsify some historical data, nihilizing and distorting history. They are all playing hooligans on history.

I end with one of my favorite poems by Li Shen, "Reply to Filial Piety"

Fake gold should be plated with real gold.

If it is real gold, it will not Gold plated.

Chang'an has won the first place in ten years,

Why should you have an empty stomach and a high heart?

Although Li Shen’s official reputation in history is not very good and he is a famous cruel official, you cannot falsify history, falsify history, or smear history just to discredit a person. This is a very despicable thing.