Li Shangyin 李商隐, poet in late Tang Dynasty
Li Shangyin (李商隐 813-858), also named Li Yishan, was born in Henei of Huaizhou (now in Qinyang County, Henan Province). He was the famous poet in the late Tang Dynasty. Together with Du Mu, they were called "Little Li Bai & Du Fu". He started to be an official at the age of 20, but he had been struggling all his life and died of illness in Zhengzhou when he was 46 years old.
The poems of Li Shangyin (AD 813-858) further build on the artistictraditions of Chinese classical poetry.
Li Shangyin's poems broadlyencompassed four areas: politics, history, landscapes and lyrics, andlove. Among his political poems, Passing the Western Suburb and GateTower at An'ding are splendid, suffused with his effervescent spirit. Hishistoric poems jia Yi and The Palace of the Sui Dynasty are exquisitelyschemed and profound, while his Climbing Pleasure Plateau is of bleakand heroic demeanor But the most popular of his poems were lovepoems, which he often titled "No Title." These later "No Title" poemsare generally regarded as love poems. These poems tended to be oftwo types, the first being obscure and vague-unable to make his lovepublic, he could only express his yearning for his lover through hazyverses. The second were emblematic poems in which he called on loveto help express his indignation over the unfairness of fate.
Learning extensively from the mastery of poets before him, LiShangyin inherited the depth and cadence of Du Fu's seven-characterlushi, meshing into his own poems the ornate and flowery style of poetrycreated during the Qi and liang periods. He emulated the strange fantasyin Li He's poems, and was good at using apt literary quotations to expresssentiments heretofore inexplicable.
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