Liu Yuxi

Also known as Zi Mengde · Liu Binke · Liu Zhongshan · Shi Hao

Roles: Writer / Poet

Liu Yuxi, courtesy name Mengde, is called a native of Pengcheng in the *Old Book of Tang* (*Jiu Tangshu*), while the *New Book of Tang* (*Xin Tangshu*) says he claimed descent from Zhongshan. He passed the jinshi examination in 793 and, with Liu Zongyuan, joined Wang Shuwen's Yongzhen reform; when it collapsed in 805 he was banished as marshal of Langzhou. Recalled in 815, he offended those in power with a poem on the peach blossoms of the Xuandu Temple and was sent out again as prefect of Lianzhou, later governing Kuizhou and Hezhou; at Kuizhou he wrote 'Bamboo Branch Songs' on local tunes. Back in Chang'an in 828, he revisited the temple and wrote that the former Master Liu had returned. Late in life he held a sinecure in Luoyang and exchanged poems with Bai Juyi; he died in 842 and was posthumously named minister of revenue. Bai Juyi called him a heroic poet, while his authorship of the 'Inscription on a Humble Room' is disputed.

Life and times

772 CEBornTang
805Yongzhen ReformTook partage 33After Emperor Shunzong took the throne in 805, Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi abolished the palace market and the Five Workshops' bird-catchers and sought to take the Shence Army from the eunuchs, but eunuch and regional opposition ended the reform with Shunzong's abdication that August.
1. Two Wangs, Eight Adjutants BanishedAfter the reform of 805 failed, Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi were banished and eight officials, including Liu Zongyuan to Yongzhou and Liu Yuxi to Langzhou, were demoted to adjutants of remote prefectures.
842 CEDied

Works

Literature · Sayings12
1. What Shabbiness Could a Humble Room HaveTangFamous line from Liu Yuxi's Inscription on a Humble Room: virtue makes any dwelling worthy
2. Desolate Hills of Ba and Waters of ChuTangAphorism from Liu Yuxi's reply to Bai Juyi: twenty-three years in remote exile
3. Swallows of the Old Wang and Xie HallsTangFamous line from Liu Yuxi's Black Robe Lane: old noble halls now home to commoners
4. A Thousand Sails Pass the Sunken BoatTangFamous line from Liu Yuxi's reply to Bai Juyi: new sails passing an old wreck
5. Ten Thousand Trees in Spring Before the Withered OneTangFamous line from Liu Yuxi's reply to Bai Juyi: new life springing up beyond the old
6. +7 more
  1. Into the Homes of Ordinary FolkTangFamous line from Liu Yuxi's Black Robe Lane: swallows of great clans now nest with commoners
  2. A Hill Need Not Be High If an Immortal Dwells ThereTangFamous line from the Inscription on a Humble Room: worth lies within, not in size
  3. No Unlettered Callers at My DoorTangFamous line from the Inscription on a Humble Room: every visitor a person of learning
  4. Like the Woodcutter Whose Axe Handle Rotted AwayTangFamous line from Liu Yuxi's reply to Bai Juyi: home after long exile, all changed
  5. An Autumn Day Surpasses Any Spring MorningTangFamous line from Liu Yuxi's Autumn Song, defying tradition to praise autumn over spring
  6. Laughing and Talking with Great ScholarsTangIdiom from Liu Yuxi's Inscription on a Humble Room: keeping company with the learned
  7. No Sun, They Say, Yet the Sun Is OutTangFamous line from Liu Yuxi's Bamboo Branch Song: a pun on sun and love for shy feeling
Literature · Poetry10
1. Black Robe LaneTangLiu Yuxi's Jinling quatrain on the old lane of the Wang and Xie clans, now home to commoners
2. In Reply to Letian, Who Gave Me a Poem at Our First Meeting in YangzhouTangLiu Yuxi's reply to Bai Juyi on first meeting in Yangzhou, after twenty-three years in exile
3. Bamboo Branch Songs, No. 1 of TwoTangLiu Yuxi's song in the Ba-Yu folk style, a girl's riddle of sun and rain over the river
4. Autumn Song, No. 1 of TwoTangLiu Yuxi's quatrain from exile in Langzhou, defying the old autumn lament with a soaring crane
5. Call of the Autumn WindTangLiu Yuxi's quatrain on the first autumn wind, felt soonest by a man far from home
6. +5 more
  1. Peach Blossoms at Xuandu TempleTangLiu Yuxi's quatrain on his return to Chang'an after ten years' exile, mocking the new men
  2. Revisiting Xuandu TempleTangLiu Yuxi's sequel fourteen years on, when the peaches are gone and he has outlasted his foes
  3. Spring PoemTangLiu Yuxi's reply to a Bai Juyi poem, a lonely court lady and a dragonfly
  4. The Temple of the First Ruler of ShuTangLiu Yuxi at the temple of Liu Bei: a hero who founded a state, and an heir unworthy of it
  5. Recalling the Past at Xisai MountainTangLiu Yuxi passes Xisai Mountain and reflects on the fall of Wu and the brevity of power
Literature · Prose1
1. Inscription for My Humble CottageTangLiu Yuxi's short inscription on a humble dwelling made worthy by the virtue of its occupant

Life and times

Works

Connections