Happy New Year's Day Questions and Answers

Li Bai has always been known as the "Poetry Immortal", and at the same time, he is worthy of the title of "Wine Immortal". Du Fu once said that he "can't get on the ship when the emperor calls him, so he calls himself a wine-drinking immortal." He himself also declared that "for a hundred years and thirty-six thousand days, three hundred cups must be poured out in one day." However, Li Bai was different from other people when he was drunk. After he drank, he wrote better poems. The three famous poems in "Qingping Diao" were written by him when he was drunk. There is an interesting story here.

During the Kaiyuan period, peonies were planted in the palace for the first time, including red, purple, pink and white peonies. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty liked these flowers very much, so he transplanted some in front of the Agarwood Pavilion east of Longchi in Xingqing Palace. One day, when the peonies were in full bloom, Xuanzong and Concubine Yang came to enjoy the flowers. They selected some outstanding musicians and wrote sixteen new scores. The famous musician Li Guinian came with instruments and other musicians to sing for the fun.

Xuanzong said: "Today I am admiring the peonies, and the imperial concubine is here, how can I use the old lyrics again?" So he ordered Li Guinian to quickly summon Li Bai, a lay scholar in the Imperial Academy, to the palace to write new lyrics and sing them again.

Li Guinian took people to the Hanlin Academy, but Li Bai went out to drink early in the morning. So Li Guinian went to Chang'an City again to look for him. Suddenly I heard someone singing loudly in a restaurant:

Three cups lead to the road, and a bucket matches nature.

But when you get the taste of wine, don’t pass it on to those who are sober.

Li Guinian hurriedly went upstairs and saw that it was indeed Li Bai, so he stepped forward and said loudly: "I have ordered that Bachelor Li come to see you at Chenxiang Pavilion." Unexpectedly, Li Bai was already very drunk, and he said He read: "I'm drunk and want to sleep, please go." After saying that, he lay down on the table and fell asleep. Li Guinian had no choice but to ask his entourage to carry Bachelor Li downstairs and carry him to Xingqing Palace on horseback.

Li Guinian helped Li Bai come to Xuanzong. Li Bai was too drunk to worship. Because Xuanzong cherished Li Bai's talent, he didn't blame him at all. He spread a blanket beside the pavilion for Li Bai to lie down, and asked the singing girl Niannu to sprinkle cold water on his face. After Li Bai woke up and saw the emperor, he hurriedly struggled and knelt down and said, "I deserve to die." Xuanzong ordered someone to make sobering soup immediately. After the soup came, he personally adjusted the temperature with a spoon, asked Li Bai to drink it, and then said: "Today the peonies are in full bloom. My concubine and I are enjoying them. We don't want to listen to the old lyrics, so I ask you to come up with some new ones."

After hearing this, Li Bai said: "This is not difficult. I just ask the emperor to give me some new ones." Wine." Xuanzong was a little unhappy after hearing this: "I just woke you up, and you want to drink again. Are you deliberately disobeying me?" Li Bai said, "Your Majesty, I only did it after drinking. Publish good poems." Xuanzong asked someone to bring him wine. Li Bai drank several cups in one breath, immediately picked up his pen, and began to dance on the paper. The three "Qingping Diao" were completed in a short time:

(1)

Yun Thinking of clothes, flowers, and appearance, the spring breeze blows and the dew blooms.

If we hadn’t met at the top of the jade mountain, we would have met under the moonlight at Yaotai.

(2)

A branch of red dew is fragrant, and the clouds and rain in Wushan are in vain.

May I ask who in the Han Palace looks like him? Poor Fei Yan, who relies on her new makeup.

(3)

The famous flowers in the country are in love, and the king looks at them with a smile.

Explanation: The spring breeze is infinitely hateful, and the Agarwood Pavilion leans against the railing in the north.

The meaning of the first song of "Qingping Diao" is: The beautiful imperial concubine, her clothes make the brilliant clouds yearn for her, and her face makes the delicate flowers envious. The spring breeze outside the balcony is blowing the dewy peonies. This kind of beauty can only be seen at the top of Qunyu Mountain where the goddess Queen Mother lives. Only in her palace Yaochi can you meet someone as beautiful as the imperial concubine.

The meaning of the second song is: A red flower with dew is gorgeous and fragrant. The ancient king of Chu could only see the illusory goddess in his dreams and miss her heartbrokenly. How could it compare to this? Beauty is right in front of you. Which beauty in the palace of the Han Dynasty could be as beautiful as the imperial concubine? Only Zhao Feiyan, who had just been dressed up beautifully (Zhao Feiyan was the empress of Emperor Cheng of the Western Han Dynasty and a famous beauty in history. It is said that she was as light as a swallow and could dance standing on a plate held by others).

The meaning of the third song is: the gorgeous and precious peonies and the charming beauties complement each other, and the king can't stop watching with a smile. Leaning against the railing in the Agarwood Pavilion and admiring the famous flowers and beauties, no matter how many spring sorrows and spring hatreds there will be, they will be resolved without a trace.

Xuanzong was very happy after reading three Qingping tunes. He immediately ordered the musicians to adjust their instruments and urged Li Guinian to sing. So some famous musicians in the prosperous Tang Dynasty accompanied him. Li Mu played the flute, Hua Nu played the Jiegu, He Huaizhi played the Fangxiang, Zheng Guanyin played the pipa, and Zhang Yehu played the zither. When Xuanzong became interested, he also picked up the jade flute and started playing it. After each song is sung, the rhythm must be changed and the song must be sung again slowly, which sounds particularly soft and moving. Concubine Yang was listening with a smile and a flower branch in her hand, very happy.

After singing, Xuanzong ordered his concubine to hold the Qibao Cup and give Li Xueshi a glass of wine produced in the Western Regions.

From this story, it seems that Li Bai was deeply favored by the emperor, but this kind of favor was just to use his poems to praise peace and increase the fun of palace life. This is not what Li Bai hopes.

Although he wrote a lot of poems with gorgeous words in Chang'an, he was in a depressed mood. This was probably one of the reasons for his drunkenness!