What is the legend of prostitutes in Li Shishi?

The story of Li Shishi, a famous prostitute in the Northern Song Dynasty, in Li Shishi is full of legends. She not only had a romantic relationship with the conquered monarch Song Huizong, but also had close ties with many literati at that time. It is said that the poet Zhou Bangyan also intervened between the emperor and the famous prostitute to make the love story more interesting. Is Li Shishi really that charming in history?

Zhang Song Duan Yi's note "Gui Jill" records such a story:

One day, Daojun of Song Huizong came to the house of Li Shishi, a geisha. Zhou Bangyan, the great poet, arrived first. When he heard that the emperor had arrived, he quickly hid under the bed. Hui Zong came into the room unconsciously with a new orange. He proudly said that it was a tribute from the south of the Yangtze River, which was very fresh, so he had a intimate conversation with Li Shishi. Unexpectedly, privacy was all monitored under the bed. Zhou Bangyan later wrote a "Youth Tour" to allude to this matter:

Knife is like water, the house is better than snow, and the fingers break the new orange. At the beginning of the brocade, the smell of animals is unchanged, so they sit opposite each other and tune up.

Ask in a low voice: Who are you with? It's already midnight in the city, and the horses are slippery and frosty. It's better to have a rest, but there are few pedestrians.

From then on, Li Shishi liked this song very much and sang it in front of Hui Zong. If Hui Zong hears anything, he will ask who did it. The teacher replied: "Zhou Bangyan word." Hui Zong flew into a rage and left. The next day, Hui Zong said to Prime Minister Cai Jing, "There is a tax inspector named Zhou Bangyan in Kaifeng. I heard that the tax he is responsible for has not been completed. Why not arrest him for trial? " Cai Jing was puzzled and had to answer only Nuo Nuo: "After Chen Rong left the DPRK, he greeted Yin Shenban in Kaifeng. Then report the punishment result. " Cai Jing called Kaifengfu Yin and told him the emperor's decree. Yin Kaifeng said: "Our government, Zhou Bangyan, has exceeded the tax quota." Cai Jing said: "If the emperor wants to punish him, he must do it." Therefore, Zhou Bangyan was deposed and sent out of Beijing in the name of dereliction of duty.

A few days later, Hui Zong came to Li Shishi's home again, but he didn't see his teacher. He asked his family and knew that he sent Zhou Bangyan. Alternated secretly happy, finally sent the man away, but waited for a long time, Li Shishi came back morosely. Hui Zong looked at the teacher's haggard appearance and said angrily, "Where have you been just now?" The teacher replied, "I knew that Zhou Bangyan had offended me and was taken out of the capital, so I went to say goodbye to him, but I didn't know that the emperor had arrived." Hui Zong quickly asked, "Did you write a farewell message?" The teacher said, "There is a word called Warrior Lan Ling." Hui Zong said, "Sing it once and listen." Teacher Qiang greeted him with a smile and offered a glass of wine, saying, "The words sung by male and female servants are for the birthday of the emperor." At the end of the song, Hui Zong was fascinated and admired, so he happily wrote a letter: recalling Zhou Bangyan to Beijing and appointing Sheng Da Lezheng as an official post.

In addition, there are similar records in the Southern Song Dynasty's Hao Ran Zhai Ya Detailed Talk, Zhang Bangji's Miscellaneous Notes on Mozhuang and Chen Hu's Stories about Continuing the Aged. It's just that Zhou Bangyan's "Journey to Youth" was appreciated by Hui Zong and accepted as an official. From then on, he became famous and became an official. The above notes belong to the more influential literati in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the author is familiar with the anecdotes in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, this story has been talked about for a long time. It embellishes the love between Hui Zong and Li Shishi, and the love triangle in which the great poet Zhou Bangyan also joined.

It is said that Li Shishi is the daughter of a poor dyer surnamed Wang in Beijing. His parents died when he was a child, and he was adopted by Li Lao, a prostitute, and later changed his surname to Li, becoming a famous artist. After the teacher's study and careful training, the teacher has grown into a charming, talented and talented singer. Her elegant temperament and familiarity with rhythmic calligraphy and painting have attracted the pursuit of many literati, so she has frequent contacts with Bianjing celebrities. For example, she shared poems with famous literati Zhou Bangyan and Chao Chongzhi at that time. Song Dynasty is the heyday of Ci, which belongs to music literature. Only by singing can people fully appreciate it and be widely spread. Lyrics were called "small singing" in the Song Dynasty, and geisha mainly engaged in this special art. Finally, the romantic emperor Hui Zong also visited the house, sang poems and had a romantic relationship with him.

The imperial court system in the Song Dynasty was strict, and officials made suggestions on the emperor's private life from time to time. However, Song Huizong can go to the geisha house incognito, and sometimes even stay out all night. "History of Song Dynasty Cao Fuchuan" said: "After taking office, the emperor traveled more and more in small sedan chairs, and several ministers guided him. When you set up a lucky bureau, it was said that the emperor had a row every day. If you don't return it the next day, you will say that the sore will not sit in court. " It is said that for fear that others would know about his whoring, a three-mile-long wall was built from the side door to Anfang in Lijia Town in the name of building a forbidden dormitory, which became a safe secret passage for the emperor to prostitute. This is even more surprising. Can the Emperor of the Song Dynasty do such an outrageous thing? Besides, if people don't know, unless they have no choice, the emperor's whoring has long been a big news in Kaifeng, Tokyo. Is it necessary for Huizong to have no money?

Wang Guowei, a master of modern Chinese studies, opposed the love triangle of emperors, poets and famous prostitutes. In his article "The Legacy of Mr. Halal", he pointed out three doubts: First, "Hui Zong's micro-trip started from politics and was very successful in promoting peace. Mr Zheng He (Zhou Bangyan) was 56 years old in the first year. You should stop fooling around. It is unreasonable to say that he is having an affair with Li Shishi and can stay under the bed for one night. Second, Zhou Bangyan went to Shao Qing, Wei as an official, with high taste. It is impossible for him to serve as a small official who supervises taxes like Kaifeng, and it is impossible for him to dismiss the official and expel him from the capital on the grounds that the number of classes is not high. Third, there is no official position of Sheng Da Lezheng in history. Therefore, Mr. Wang Guowei concluded that the story in Return is pure fiction, and there can be no affair between the famous poet Zhou Bangyan and Li Shishi.

Zhou Bangyan was born in the first year of Injong Jiayou (1056) and died in Xuanhe, Hui Zong (11). Hui Zong acceded to the throne when he was 45 years old. In fact, it is not surprising that there were many prostitutes over 50 in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Guijil didn't say that he stayed under the bed all night. Of course, the description of "hiding under the bed" is somewhat exaggerated, so there is no need to be so serious. Zhou Bangyan didn't hold the post of tax supervisor in Kaifengfu, and it's also a fabrication to be expelled from Beijing. He served as Guo Zi's main book, secretary supervisor, and badge cabinet to be edited. However, during Hui Zong's administration, Zhou Bangyan did take the post of "promoting Sheng Da Yuefu". This should be no different from the post of "Sheng Da Lezheng". The key question of this story is whether Zhou Bangyan and Song Huizong liked the same prostitute at that time. Song Huizong is twenty-six years younger than Zhou Bangyan, and he was nineteen when he acceded to the throne. In this way, it is not impossible for an emperor in his twenties and an official in his fifties to like famous prostitutes in the period of Chongning Grand View at the same time. Of course, the careful "Hao Ran Zhai Ya Tan" said: "In Xuanhe, Li Shishi is famous for her singing and dancing. When Zhou Bangyan was a student, he went to his home every time. " Due to the lack of textual research, this statement is almost absurd. At the beginning of Xuanhe, Zhou Bangyan was sixty-four. How can he be a student? At this time, he was out to know the truth, changed to Shunchang House, returned to Zhou Mu the following year, passed through Yangzhou West for three years, and died in Shangqiu Hongqing Palace. That is to say, in Xuanhe, Zhou Bangyan is not only old, but also not in Kyoto at all, so he won't compete with the emperor for a famous prostitute.

Later, Mr. Luo Jianlie of Hong Kong University published an article "Talking about Li Shishi", which made textual research on his life. It is believed that Li Shishi was first mentioned in the Stone Chamber Order in the late years of Zhang Xian (Zi Ye) JaeHee Ning in the Northern Song Dynasty (1077), saying that Li Shishi was only fifteen or sixteen years old at that time. In this way, she is about six years younger than Zhou Bangyan and twenty years older than Song Huizong, so it is entirely possible for Li Shishi to have an affair with Zhou Bangyan, but there should be no affair with Song Huizong, otherwise the romantic emperor would not "love" this "mother-class" beauty. At the same time, it is pointed out that Zhou Bangyan's "Youth Tour" was a young and colorful word when he first entered the Academy during Yuan Feng's reign. It is about forty years away from the word "Warrior Lanling", but it is far-fetched for Gui to put them together.

It was noticed that Mr. Zhang Xian's order only mentioned the teacher's name, but not the person's surname. In this way, maybe there were two "teachers" in the Northern Song Dynasty. One had an affair with Zhou Bangyan, and the other had sex with Song Huizong. Because they were all called teachers, later literati and poets confused the two, so they invented a love triangle of "forgetting to make friends".

I don't agree with the view that Zhang Ziye's order was related to Hui Zong and Li Shishi as early as the Qing Dynasty. Wu said in Lotus Seed House Thorn: "My Teacher's Order is said to be a gift to Li Shishi, who died at the age of 89 according to his ten years in JaeHee. It has been more than 30 years since Ye Zi died, so Ye Zi can't see his teacher. Why are you doing this? It's not because of Li Shishi that he changed the name' Shi Ling'. " In other words, The Stone Chamber Order is a popular song title, not written for Li Shishi, which directly denies that Zhang Ziye's The Stone Chamber Order was given to Li Shishi when Hui Zong was born. Ding also said in "Listening to Autumn Sound": "It's Renzong's people, and Zhezong (Qin Guan) went to Tengzhou for a long time. Were there two teachers in the Song Dynasty? " Qin Guan, Yan and others also presented works to the "teacher" in their poems. Qin Guan died in the last years of Zhezong (1 100), and Yan also died a few years later, but he was 70 years old when he acceded to the throne, so what he presented should not be Li Shishi. In fact, due to the folk customs of the Song Dynasty, there were many geisha in the name of "teachers". From the above, it can be said that there was at least one famous geisha "teacher" in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, which was different from Li Shishi in Huizong at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.

During the reign of Hui Zong Li Shishi, the article "Tokyo Dream China", Volume 5, "Jingwa Jiyi" wrote: "Self-worship, always performing in Jingwa ... singing Li Shishi ... who is sincere." "Mo Zhuang Man Lu" Volume 8 says: "Politics and politics, Li Shishi and Cui Nianyue are prostitutes, and their works are all temporary." "Hao Ran Zhai Ya Tan" also said: "In Xuanhe, Li Shishi is famous for his ability to sing and dance." Some scholars estimate that more than 20 years since Chongning was promoted to Xuanhe was a famous period of active music in Li Shishi. For example, in the first year of Chongning 16 years old, he will be 38 years old in the sixth year of Xuanhe. Zhou Bangyan was an official in Beijing from the fourth year of Zhezong Shaosheng (1097) to the first year of Huizong Zhenghe (11), especially from six to seven years (1 16 ~ 65438). Anfang Town, where he lives, is adjacent to Sheng Da House, so it is entirely possible for them to become friends. Due to business needs, officials such as Zhou Bangyan and Chao Chongzhi can call teachers to the government to learn folk new songs and singing art, or try new words. Of course, it is not excluded that people like Zhou and Chao can go to the teacher's house to collect folk songs. Although it is possible that the relationship between the teacher and Zhou Bangyan was misinformed and well-founded, it will inevitably be embellished in the process of circulation.

The History of the Song Dynasty says that "the emperor has done a lot since he was in power". In fact, before entering politics, Hui Zong occasionally did some lucky acts in disguise. The Biography of Li Shishi records that Hui Zong was fortunate to be a teacher in Daguan for three years (1 109). He is about 23 years old this year. He was lucky to be in Daguan for four years, in Xuanhe for two years (1 120) and in Xuanhe for four years. This is basically consistent with the description of Hui Zong's "multi-micro-line" in the official history. Of course, the number of times he was lucky enough to be a teacher didn't stop there. Hui Zong was originally a fatuous and dissolute emperor, and the special charm of Li Shishi folk geisha aroused Hui Zong's strong interest. From the analysis of various conditions, the love triangle between the emperor, officials and famous prostitutes described in Guijil is entirely possible, but it is hard to say whether it is a historical fact. "A General Introduction to Song Ci" written by modern people thinks that this love triangle is a true historical story, saying: "Song Huizong is a respectable person, who condescends to lower her social status without hesitation, and often takes humble servants to her (teacher's) home at night. Later, because of the inconvenience, she returned to her home from the inner palace through a hidden passage ... If we read Zhou Bangyan's Journey to Youth ... the clear tune, we can imagine.

So, what do you think of this romantic love story? Due to Hui Zong's extravagant desire, Jiangshan was destroyed, and the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the nomads from the Golden Army. After Song Huizong was captured, he went north to Wu Guocheng (now Yilan, Heilongjiang). It is said that Hui Zong was still writing a biography for Li Shishi at this moment, fearing that the story of the beautiful woman would be lost. If so, do you believe it?