This article analyzes Li Qingzhao’s A Summer Quatrain. Set against the Jingkang Incident, it traces the poem’s allusions. By praising Xiang Yu, the work satirizes the Southern Song court’s cowardice and implicitly criticizes her husband’s shameful flight, revealing the poet’s bold patriotism.
Yue Fei (1103–1142) was a celebrated military general of the early Southern Song dynasty, renowned for his staunch resistance against the Jin dynasty (established by the Jurchens). His courtesy name was Pengju, and he was born in Tangyin, Xiangzhou (in present-day Henan Province).
– Wen Tianxiang By virtue of the classics, painstakingly I rose to serve my state;Four years of war have passed, with our banners desolate.Our land, torn asunder, drifts like catkins in the gale;My life, adrift and battered, like duckweed in the rain’s assail.At Huangkong Shoal, I sighed for the fears that once prevailed;On Lingding…