On the Qixi Festival of the first year of Shengyuan of the Southern Tang Dynasty (937), Li Yu was born. He was the sixth son of Emperor Li Jing of the Southern Tang Dynasty. After he was born, he had red lips and white teeth. He was so good-looking that Li Jing named him "Li Congjia", and Li Yu was the name he later named himself. If a royal child is not a direct descendant and is not the eldest son, he will basically not be able to get along very well. Therefore, Li Yu actually did not receive much attention from birth to growing up. He is good at writing poems, loves painting, has sharp eyes, is very talented, and looks very cool, so the then prince Li Hongji was very jealous of him. Li Yu was unwilling to participate in these party and government affairs. He was obsessed with literature, art and Buddhism, what kind of emperor did he mean? , country, I don’t care about it at all.
Not long after, classmate Li Hongji, who was always jealous of talents, died of illness. When Li Jing saw that the prince was dead, the second to fifth children had already received their lunch boxes, so he picked them. Seeing that Li Yu is quite good, why not let him be the prince? Unexpectedly, this idea was strongly opposed by minister Zhong Mo. Zhong Mo looked down on literary young people like Li Yu and firmly opposed this matter. He said that Li Yu would know in one day Writing, painting, playing the flute, traveling around and reading Buddhist scriptures, he was just a dandy, and he couldn't do the emperor's work. Li Jing became angry when he heard this. I chose the prince, and you, a minister, are here to tell me what to do. What does it have to do with you? Li Jing was very angry, and the consequences were serious. Zhong Mo was dismissed and exiled to Raozhou (now Poyang County, Jiangxi Province).
The more things others were not allowed to do, the more Li Jing wanted to do them. He promoted Li Yu, who was originally just a county king, to the king of Wu, and let Li Yu live in the prince's palace to help him handle government affairs. Soon after, Li Jing was not very comfortable in Jinling (now Nanjing), the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and decided to move the capital to Hongzhou (now Nanchang, Jiangxi). He left as soon as he said he wanted to, but left Li Yu in Jinling and was promoted to Prince Supervisor. Basically, it is equivalent to giving half of the country's rights to Li Yu.
In the second year of Jianlong (961), Li Jing died of illness, leaving the riddled Southern Tang Empire to Li Yu. However, Li Yu was relatively lazy and did not want to bother, so he directly ascended the throne in Jinling. The third emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty, from this time on, he lost his real name of Li Congjia and changed his name to "Li Yu". When he became emperor, the Northern Song Dynasty had already been established. The Northern Song Dynasty was so powerful that it was no problem for him to conquer ten Southern Tang Dynasties. The first thing Li Yu did when he became emperor was to send people to pay tribute to the Northern Song Dynasty to show that he was an obedient little brother. Zhao Kuangyin, the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty at that time, Song Taizu, was also very happy. He wrote back to wish Li Yu a happy enthronement. Li Yu saw that the problem was not big. There was no movement in the Northern Song Dynasty and he was very friendly to him. He turned around and did the second thing, which was to form the Southern Song Dynasty. Tang's own armed force, the Longxiang Navy, only then did we understand that Li Yu was not as loyal and cowardly as he seemed on the surface, and he also had his own little thoughts.
The Northern Song Dynasty put too much pressure on these small countries at the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Every step Li Yu took was on thin ice. He would pay tribute to the Northern Song Dynasty when he had nothing to do. He would give silver today and rice tomorrow. The Northern Song Dynasty had a good impression of this respectful little brother. There were frequent exchanges between the two countries. You gave me things, and I gave you things. The Northern Song Dynasty not only returned things to the Southern Tang Dynasty, but also returned a thousand soldiers who had been surrendered to the Southern Tang Dynasty. To Li Yu, there is only one thing. What the Northern Song Dynasty did was not very authentic. Song Taizu felt that the Southern Tang Dynasty was a small country that was flattering, and their emperor could not be counted as an emperor, so every time he addressed Li Yu, he always called him by his first name. This made Li Yu very unhappy. I am also an emperor. You are yelling at me like this. Do I want to lose face? He once protested, but was ignored by the Northern Song Dynasty court.
Li Yu is actually quite responsible as emperor. His life can be half work and half entertainment, and the distribution is very reasonable. When working, he discusses state affairs with ministers and holds meetings all night without stopping. Moreover, his personality Very good, he loved the people like a son, and implemented many policies that benefited the people and the country. Today he reduced taxes and tomorrow he reduced corvee service. He reformed the official system and conducted imperial examinations to recruit talents. After years of war, the people of the Southern Tang Dynasty were under the rule of this benevolent king. Life was very good, but the powerful Northern Song Dynasty fell out whenever they wanted, and Li Yu was deeply worried about the future of the Southern Tang Dynasty. So how does he deal with this worry? Li Yu, a young literary man, has his own way.
Li Yu can be said to be versatile. He can write articles and poems, draw and compose music, and he is not just playing around. If he takes any one of them individually, he has a high level in Chinese history. He has very high attainments. When it comes to playing and doing art, Li Yu is a professional. During this period, he also achieved many small achievements, such as becoming the most influential poet in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and restoring the Tang Dynasty with his strong musical talent. As for the lost song "Dance of Colorful Feather Clothes" and so on, there are too many to mention. Moreover, he was running the country while playing and did not delay the government affairs. As early as when his father Li Jing became emperor, the Southern Tang Dynasty had already surrendered to the Northern Song Dynasty. In order to show his loyalty, he also reduced the various establishments of the Southern Tang Dynasty, resulting in the Southern Tang Dynasty. The military and national strength dropped significantly, and the country was handed over to Li Yu. It was already difficult to compete with the Northern Song Dynasty, but Li Yu did not give up. He stood firm and cleared the country, guarded every inch of the country, and cultivated the country's politics internally and stabilized the people externally. On the surface, he obeyed the Northern Song Dynasty. In fact, Secretly recruited troops and horses to enhance the national power of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
In October of the fourth year of Kaibao (971), Song Taizu destroyed the Southern Han Dynasty, a neighbor of the Southern Tang Dynasty. When Li Yu heard about this, he was very frightened. He understood Song Taizu’s intention, and after finishing the Southern Han Dynasty, he It was time to take care of himself. When he saw something bad, he withdrew the name of his country. He stopped calling himself "Zhen" and changed his name to "Lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty". He wanted to use such word games to numb him. The Northern Song Dynasty, but the Northern Song Dynasty had long seen through his mind, and sent people to the Southern Tang Dynasty every day to invite Li Yu to the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty to have tea with Song Taizu. Catch me. Every time I invite him, he lies that he is sick and refuses to go.
He refused the invitation to have dinner and tea with Song Taizu, and his mood was extremely bad. When he went to court, he cried to the ministers, saying that the country was in danger, and the matter was at this point. There was no other way but to Fight to the death. At this time, Li Yu finally took off his meek disguise. He was no longer the artistic young man obsessed with art, but the last emperor who shouldered the responsibility for the rise and fall of the country. These words reached the ears of Song Taizu. Taizu was very angry. You are a small country in the Southern Tang Dynasty. You don't want to show your favor. So they sent troops to invade the territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty in a large scale. Because most of the land of the Southern Tang Dynasty was in the south, the two armies fought. There were more water battles and less land battles. However, no matter how they fought, the Southern Tang Dynasty, which had fewer soldiers and fewer generals, was not the same as the Northern Song Dynasty. Although the battle was tight and the situation was tragic, Li Yu was not discouraged.
He asked for help from another neighbor, Wu Yue, because he was a neighbor, but his lips were broken and his teeth were cold. However, King Qian Chu of Wu Yue was a pessimist. He believed that the general trend of the world would be that if we unite for a long time, we will divide, and if we divide for a long time, we will unite. Sooner or later, the land of China will return to the Northern Song Dynasty. So not only did he not help Li Yu, but he joined forces with the Northern Song Dynasty to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty. Li Yu was anxious, and the neighbors who entered did not help, so he asked the Khitan dynasty in the distance for help. The Khitan dynasty was willing to help, but Nai Heli couldn't help Li Yu. It's too far, and water from far away can't save the fire from near. This really makes the sky not respond, and the earth doesn't work. Li Yu was forced to a dead end. He sent an envoy to the Northern Song Dynasty to discuss whether there was any room for maneuver, but what he got was Song Taizu. In a cold reply, Song Taizu said: How can you allow others to snore on the side of the bed? In December of the eighth year of Kaibao (975), Jinling City, the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was destroyed. Li Yu had no choice but to surrender, and the Southern Tang Dynasty was destroyed.
After the surrender, Li Yu was captured by the Northern Song Dynasty army and brought to the capital. In order to show his preferential treatment to the prisoners, Song Taizu named Li Yu a "disobedient candidate". It sounds like he was granted a title and rewarded an official, but in fact it was a joke about Li Yu's confrontation with the Northern Song Dynasty. This is overestimating one's own capabilities and going against destiny.
Although Li Yu surrendered, he did not surrender. He was in the Song Dynasty, but he always missed his hometown in the Southern Tang Dynasty. During this period, he created a series of ancient poems, such as "Yu Meiren", "Yu Meiren" and "Yu Meiren". "Happy Meeting", "Lang Tao Sha", etc., changed from the gorgeous and extravagant words he used when he was emperor, and began to become sad and desolate. It deeply entrusted him with unspeakable emotions as a subjugated king, and also brought him to a new peak in the history of Chinese literature. In the third year of Taiping and Xingguo (978), Li Yu passed away in sadness and indignation. Coincidentally, Yes, the day he died was also the Chinese Valentine's Day that year.
Throughout Li Yu's life, he took over the riddled Southern Tang Dynasty from his father. The king worked diligently and served the country and the people when he was in power. In his leisure time, he added a few strokes of color to Chinese culture. During the war, he was resolute and without cowardice, and maintained the crumbling Southern Tang regime for a full fifteen years. How can such an emperor be considered a foolish and unruly king who has subjugated his country?