Liu Yuxi, whose ancestors were Liu Liang, the son and seventh ancestor of Lady Jia, Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty, served as the secretariat of Jizhou in the Northern Dynasty and moved to Luo with Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Father Liu Xu moved to Suzhou to avoid the Anshi Rebellion. Liu Yuxi was born in the seventh year of Dali (772). His father and ancestors were petty bureaucrats. His father Liu Xu was an official in Jiangnan, where Liu Yuxi spent his adolescence. He began to study Confucian classics and write poems at an early age. He was clever and diligent, and was once influenced by famous poems at that time.
In the sixth year of Zhenyuan (790) 19 years old, Liu Yuxi studied in Luoyang, Chang 'an and other places, enjoying a high reputation among scholars.
Zhenyuan nine years (793), and Liu Zongyuan tied for Jinshi, the same year for Hongci Jinshi. Two years later, I went to the official department to take an examination of the scholar department, and was placed as a prince school book. Ding You soon stayed at home. In the 16th year of Zhenyuan (800), Du You appointed Liu Yuxi as our ambassador, taking Huainan as the ambassador and Xu Sihao as the ambassador. Later, Du You returned to Yangzhou. Du You wrote many forms during his stay in the curtain.
In the eighteenth year of Zhenyuan (802), he was transferred to the main book of Weinan County, Jingzhao Prefecture, and soon transferred to supervise the imperial history. At that time, both Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan worked in Yushitai, and the three became friends and had a very close relationship.
In the first month of the 21st year of Zhenyuan (805), Tang Dezong died of illness and Shunzong acceded to the throne. Wang He and Wang Lai, the attendants of two former princes, are famous for their ambition to reform graft and are trusted by Shunzong to enter the center. Liu Yuxi and Wang are good friends, and his talents and ambitions are highly valued by his uncle. Therefore, he was appointed Yuan Wailang, sentenced to a salt and iron case, and participated in the management of state finances.
In March of the 11th year of Yuanhe (865438+February 2007), Liu Yuxi wrote the poem "In the 11th year of Yuanhe, I was called to Beijing from Langzhou, and I gave a play to the gentlemen who looked at flowers", which offended the ruling and opposition parties and was released as the secretariat of Lianzhou. Liu Yuxi was exiled in Langzhou for nearly ten years. In the meantime, he created a large number of fable poems, expressed his great dissatisfaction with the powerful people of the current dynasty, and wrote many fu poems to express his ambition of being unwilling to be left behind. Because of his contact with local folk songs, he absorbed nutrition from them, and his poetry creation showed some new characteristics. During this period, he also wrote many philosophical papers, the most important of which was Three Essays on Heaven, which echoed Liu Zongyuan's Tian Shuo.
In December of the 9th year of Yuanhe (8 14), he returned to Beijing with Liu Zongyuan and others. However, he was soon banished to Bozhou, which is farther away, as a secretariat. Fortunately, with the help of Pei Du and Liu Zongyuan, he was changed to Lianzhou as a secretariat. Liu Yuxi stayed in Lianzhou for nearly five years.
In the fourteenth year of Yuanhe (8 19), he was able to leave because of his mother's death.
In the winter of the first year of Changqing (82 1), Liu Yuxi was appointed as the secretariat of Kuizhou (now fengjie county, Sichuan).
In the summer of the fourth year of Changqing (824), he was transferred to Hezhou (now Hexian County, Anhui Province) for secretariat.
In the second year of Bao Li's reign (826), he was transferred back to Luoyang and worked in Shangshu Province, the eastern capital. It has been 23 years since he was demoted for the first time.
Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi
When Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi met, they were 54 years old and Liu Yuxi was 52 years old. Bai Juyi is known as the "King of Poetry". He is obsessed with poetry. In order to write poetry, his mouth is sore and his elbows are sore. So when he met his eponymous poet Liu Yuxi, he was like a martial arts master at the peak and met a rare' opponent'. They are similar in age and talented, and their mutual affection makes them become close friends soon. They retired to Luoyang, sang poems and drank together in their spare time, leaving many excellent works, which became a great story in the Tang Dynasty.
Although they have a good relationship, it is inevitable that they will compare their poems with each other. Bai Juyi's official was relatively large, and his influence was also a little greater at that time. Although Liu Yuxi's poems are not as many as Bai Juyi's, they are also unique and novel. In particular, his poetic history, such as the sentence "Wang Meng went down to Yizhou, and the ghost of Nanjing City languished" in "Thoughts on the Past of the West Fort", is considered to be the highest in poetic history, surpassing Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi.
Bai Juyi was dissatisfied with this and wrote several poems for Liu Yuxi. Some poems seem to greet friends, but in fact they want to compare with this intimate friend. In this way, the two great poets fought for half their lives, and neither of them obeyed. However, there is a poem that Bai Juyi believes deeply. It is said that Bai Juyi "turned and sighed for a long time" when he got this poem, which is a famous poem "Wuyi Lane".