Writers › Writer / Poet
Li Yi
Mid-Tang poet famed for frontier quatrains, later minister of rites, and model for the male lead of the tale Huo Xiaoyu.
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Junyu · Li Shilang (Tenth Son Li)
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Li Yi, courtesy name Junyu, claimed descent from the Li of Longxi and passed the jinshi in the Dali era. Frustrated in his career, he served on the staffs of frontier commanders such as Liu Ji of Youzhou, and his frontier quatrains, like Hearing a Flute at Night on Shouxiang Fortress, were so prized that court musicians competed to set them. He later became director of the imperial library, Jixian academician and cavalier attendant, retiring as minister of rites early in the Taihe era. The Old Book of Tang notes his jealous suspicion of his wives. Jiang Fang's tale Huo Xiaoyu casts 'Li Shilang' as its faithless hero, a fictional plot not to be read as history.
Life and times
- c. 746 CEBorn
Tang - c. 829 CEDied
Works
Literature · Poetry3- A Song South of the YangziTangLi Yi speaks as a merchant's wife: the tide keeps its time better than her husband does
- Hearing a Flute at Night on the Wall of ShouxiangTangLi Yi's frontier quatrain: on a moonlit fort wall, a far-off reed pipe makes soldiers homesick
- Glad to Meet My Cousin, Then Saying Goodbye AgainTangLi Yi's regulated poem on meeting a cousin after years of war, only to part again the next day