Li Shangyin

A poet of the late Tang Dynasty in China. His pen name was Yishan. He was known as Yuxi Sheng. He was from Henei, Huaizhou (Qinyang County, Henan Province). The most popular theory is that he was born in 812 (Genwa 7). He lost his father at a young age, and was protected by Ling Hu Chu, a high-ranking official of the Jinshi faction, who recognized his literary talent. In 837 (Kaisei 2), he passed the Jinshi examination. Ling Hu Chu died in the same year, and the following year he was invited to become the son-in-law of Wang Maoyuan, who was also an opponent, and the year after that he became the Secretary Ministry's Examiner and then the Governor of Hongnong (Henan Province). However, the government at the time was divided into two factions, the aristocrats and the scholars, and fierce factional strife was repeated, leading to his being hated as a traitor by Linghu Chu's son Linghu Sui and others, and he spent the rest of his life moving from one position to another as a staff member of the military governor's staff and as a lower-ranking official. His style of poetry, which excelled in regulated verse with its elaborate formal beauty and made full use of a wide variety of allusions to build a symbolic world, was so highly praised as representative of the delicate and aesthetic tendency of the late Tang period that it gave rise to the external imitation works known as the "Xikun style" in the early Northern Song dynasty, but inside he possessed deep self-reflection and awareness of reality, and possessed the high lyric quality worthy of being described as a successor to Du Fu. He is well known for his works "Kinshitsu" and "Untitled," which sing of the various aspects of love, but also for his "Rakuyugen," which sharply depicts the premonition of the collapse of the dynasty that was looming behind the flourishing Tang culture through the symbolic contrast between "sunset" and "twilight" ("As evening approached, I could not find what I wanted to do, so I drove my cart up to the ancient plains. The setting sun was infinitely beautiful, but this was only close to twilight."). He was also an accomplished writer of prose, and the collection of proverbs "Gizan Zassan," which is said to have been written by him, has attracted attention from the perspective of comparative literature for its influence on "The Pillow Book." He is known together with Wen Tingyun as "Wen Li." He has six volumes of "Collection of Poems of Li Yishan from the Tang Dynasty" and five volumes of "Collection of Prose from Li Yishan."

[Shigeru Saito]

"Selected Works of Chinese Poets 15: Li Shangyin, with Commentary by Takahashi Kazumi (1958, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "The Fate of the Poet" (Collected Works of Takahashi Kazumi, Supplementary Volume, 1972, Kawade Shobo Shinsha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、晩唐の詩人。字(あざな)は義山(ぎざん)。玉谿生(ぎょくけいせい)と号す。懐州河内（河南省沁陽(しんよう)県）の人。812年（元和7）生年説も有力である。幼年父を失い、進士派の大官令狐楚(れいこそ)に文才を認められてその庇護(ひご)を受けた。837年（開成2）進士に及第。この年に令狐楚が死んだため、翌年招かれるままに反対派の王茂元(おうもげん)の女婿となり、その翌年には秘書省校書郎、ついで弘農（河南省）の尉(い)となった。しかし当時の官界は、貴族派と進士派の二派に分かれて激しい派閥抗争が繰り返されていたため、令狐楚の子の令狐綯(れいことう)らから裏切り者として憎まれ、以後は節度使の幕僚や下級官僚を転々とする不遇な生涯を送った。精巧な形式美をもつ律詩を得意とし、多彩な典故を駆使して象徴的世界を築き上げるその詩風は、晩唐期の繊細かつ唯美的な傾向を代表するものとして、北宋(ほくそう)初期に「西崑体(せいこんたい)」とよばれる外面的模倣作を生むほどに愛賞されるが、内面には深い自己省察と現実認識をもち、杜甫(とほ)の後継者と評されるに足る高い叙情の質を備えている。恋愛の諸相を歌う「錦瑟(きんしつ)」「無題」の諸編が著名だが、「夕陽(せきよう)」と「黄昏(こうこん)」との象徴的対比によって、爛熟(らんじゅく)した唐文化の背後に迫った王朝崩壊の予感を鋭く描く「楽遊原(らくゆうげん)」（「晩(くれ)に向(なんな)んとして意適(こころかな)わず、車を駆(か)りて古原(こげん)に登る、夕陽無限に好し、只(た)だ是(こ)れ黄昏に近し」）も忘れがたい。駢文(べんぶん)作家としても優れ、また彼の作と伝えられる箴言(しんげん)集『義山雑纂(ぎざんざっさん)』は、『枕草子(まくらのそうし)』への影響が比較文学の立場から注目されている。温庭筠(おんていいん)とともに「温李」と並称される。『唐李義山詩集』六巻、『李義山文集』五巻がある。

［齋藤　茂］

『高橋和巳注『中国詩人選集15　李商隠』（1958・岩波書店）』▽『『詩人の運命』（『高橋和巳作品集　別巻』1972・河出書房新社）』

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