Li He

Li He (c. 790–791 – c. 816–817) was a Chinese poet of the mid-Tang dynasty. His courtesy name was Changji, and he is also known as Guicai and Shigui.

Chapter 137 of the Old Book of Tang and chapter 203 of the New Book of Tang each give a brief outline of the biography of Li He. He was born in 790 or 791. Various dates are given for him, some more credible than others; it seems likely that he was born in the year of the Horse, as some twenty-three of his surviving poems use the horse as a symbol for the poet.

He was a native of Fuchang County (west of modern-day Yiyang County, Henan Province). His family were of distant royal descent (from the Li family who were the ruling dynastic family of the Tang Dynasty), but his branch's fortunes had declined early on, and by Li He's time they were of low rank.

He started composing poetry at the age of 7, and by around 15 he was being compared to the yuefu master Li Yi. When Li was 20, he attempted to take the Imperial Examination, but was forbidden from doing so because of a naming taboo: the first character (晉 jin) of his father's given name (晉肅 Jinsu) was a homonym of the first character (進) of Jinshi (進士), the name of the degree that would have been conferred on him had he passed. Ueki et al. (1999) speculate that this was a pretext devised by rivals who were jealous of his poetic skill to prevent him from sitting the examination.

Han Yu, who admired his poetry, wrote Hui Bian (諱弁) to encourage him to take the exam, but Li was ultimately unsuccessful. He served only three years, in the low-ranking office of Fenglilang (奉禮郎) before returning to his hometown.

He is described as having a very sickly appearance: he was supposedly very thin, had a unibrow, and let his fingernails grow long. Li He died a low-ranking and poor official in 816 or 817, at the age of 26 or 27.

Li Shangyin, a poet of the following generation, reports in his Short Biography of Li He (simplified Chinese: 李贺小传; traditional Chinese: 李賀小傳; pinyin: lǐ hè xiǎo chuán) that at the hour of his death he was visited by a figure in scarlet who told him that Shangdi had summoned him to heaven to write poetry.

His courtesy name was Changji, and he is also known by a combination of his surname and courtesy name, Li Changji.

He was also known as Guicai (鬼才 "devilish talent") by contrast of his morbid poetic style to Li Bai's Tiancai (天才 "heavenly talent") and Bai Juyi's Rencai (人才 "humanly talent"). This title was given him by the Song scholar Qian Yi (zh) in his work Nanbu Xinshu (zh).

He was also dubbed the "Ghost of Poetry" (詩鬼), while Li Bai was called the "Immortal of Poetry" (詩仙) and Du Fu the "Sage of Poetry" (詩聖).

In literary history, Li is generally considered a poet of the so-called Middle Tang period, which spanned the late-eighth and early-ninth centuries. About 240 of his poems survive. There are two extant anthologies of his poems: the Collected Songs and Verses of Li He (simplified Chinese: 李贺歌诗篇; traditional Chinese: 李賀歌詩篇; pinyin: lǐ hè gē shī piān) and the Wai Ji (Chinese: 外集; pinyin: wài jí).

Collected Songs and Verses of Li He

The Short Biography of Li He describes him as a diligent poet, who carried an old brocade pouch around with him, and when a verse came to him he would jot it down and put it in this pouch.

His poetry is unique, filled with fantastic and unusual imagery, which is where he gets his nickname "Guicai" (see above). Virtually none of his surviving poems are in regulated verse form, and his poems make frequent use of inauspicious words such as "aging" (Chinese: 老; pinyin: lǎo) and "death" (Chinese: 死; pinyin: sǐ). In poems like "Tianshang yao" (simplified Chinese: 天上谣; traditional Chinese: 天上謠; pinyin: tiān shàng yáo; literally: "In Heaven") and "Meng tian" (Chinese: 夢天; pinyin: mèng tiān; literally: "Dreaming of Heaven"), he wrote evocatively of the worlds of gods and Buddhas.

He also gave eerie descriptions of the world of ghosts in his poems "Qiu lai" (simplified Chinese: 秋来; traditional Chinese: 秋來; pinyin: qiū lái; literally: "The Coming of Autumn") and "Shen xian qu" (Chinese: 神弦曲; pinyin: shén xián qū; literally: "Tune for Unearthly Strings"). The spiritual symbolism Li employed in the latter poem has been called "nearly impenetrable".

He frequently combined colour and feeling imagery in his poetry, as can be seen in his poems "Qin wang yinjiu" (simplified Chinese: 秦王饮酒; traditional Chinese: 秦王飲酒; pinyin: qín wáng yǐn jiǔ; literally: "The King of Qin Drinks Wine") and "Tianshang yao".

His poetic style was dubbed Changji-ti (simplified Chinese: 长吉体; traditional Chinese: 長吉體; pinyin: cháng jí tǐ) by later critics, after his courtesy name.

Tang and Song dynasties

Two poets of the generation following Li He, Du Mu and Li Shangyin, commemorated Li in their prose writings: a preface to Li's collected poems and a short biography of Li, respectively.

He was also one of a group of Tang poets frequently quoted in the lyrics of Song-era musicians such as Zhou Bangyan (zh) (1056-1121). The Song commentator Yan Yu, in his work Canglang Shihua (zh), contrasted Li to the earlier poet Li Bai.

Yuan and Ming dynasties

Many shi poets of the Yuan dynasty emulated Li's poetic style. These included Cheng Tinggui (成廷珪), Yang Weizhen, and Gu Ying (顧瑛), as well as the early Ming poet Gao Qi

Qing dynasty

By the Qing dynasty, though, Li's poetry began to fall out of favour with the literary establishment. The anthologist Shen Deqian (zh) included a scant ten of Li's poems in his influential work Tangshi Biecai Ji (Chinese: 唐詩別載集; literally: "Separately Collected Anthology of T'ang Verse").

Modern era

Along with Li Bai and Li Shangyin, Li He is one of the "Three Lis" (三李) admired by Mao Zedong.

In his article on Li for the Chūgoku Bunkashi Daijiten, Japanese sinologist Kazuyuki Fukazawa called him "the representative poet of the Middle Tang".

According to French sinologist François Jullien, Li He's poetry was readmitted to the Chinese literary canon "at the end of the nineteenth century ... [when] ... Western notions of romanticism [allowed] the Chinese to reexamine this poet, allowing the symbolism of his poems to speak at last, freeing his imaginary world from the never-ending quest for insinuations."

Paul W. Kroll, in his chapter on Tang poetry for the Columbia History of Chinese Literature, called Li "[t]he most eccentric poet of the T'ang, perhaps in all of Chinese poetry", and dubbed him "the Chinese Mallarmé" for his almost inscrutable poetic style and use of imagery.

• In 1968, Roger Waters of the rock band Pink Floyd borrowed lines from Li's poetry to create the lyrics for the song "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun".

• Allusions to Classical Chinese poetry in Pink Floyd

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