[3] His career was rough, and he never obtained a high-ranking position, because of either factional disputes or his association with Liu Fen (劉蕡), a prominent opponent of the eunuchs.
The cosmopolitan capital of Chang'an was filled with traders from the Middle East and other parts of Asia where many Asian vassal states sent envoys to pay tribute.
The court, now weak and impotent, tolerated their growing independence, wary also of the aggression of the Tibetans toward the northwest who posed a constant threat to the capital.
[citation needed] During the subsequent years, military governors repeatedly challenged imperial authority with attempts to claim hereditary succession, resulting in revolts and bloodshed.
Apart from this loss of control over the provincial military leaders and other problems at the frontiers, the Tang court was internally plagued by the increasingly powerful eunuchs and the fierce Niu–Li factional strife.
[citation needed] The eunuchs first gained political influence as a group when Gao Lishi helped Emperor Xuanzong rise to power.
A palace coup, designed by Li Xun (the prime minister) and Zheng Zhu (the military governor of Fengxiang) in support of Wenzong's effort to overthrow the eunuchs, failed.
The Niu and Li factions were not organized political parties, but two groups of rival politicians, hostile toward each other as a result of personal animosity.
In the 830s the two contending factions created much turmoil in court through the reigns of Emperors Muzong, Jingzong, Wenzong, Wuzong, and Xuanzong, a period coinciding almost exactly with Li Shangyin's life.
It was 50 years after Li Shangyin's death that the eunuchs were finally eradicated with the help of the military governors, precipitating the Tang dynasty's downfall.
[14][15] James J. Y. Liu noted that there were five major interpretations of what Li intended to convey, including frustration about his career trajectory and commemoration of his deceased wife, among others.
[12] Derangements of My Contemporaries (Za Zuan, 雜纂, or "random compilations") was not viewed as poetry nor prose in Li's lifetime, but some scholars considered it a precedent for The Pillow Book authored by Sei Shōnagon, and believed that it offered a peak into the Tang dynasty beyond its classic image of a cultural "golden age".
—Translated by Stephen Owen in The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827–860)[22] I wonder why this splendid zither has fifty strings Every string, every peg evokes those glorious springs Perplexed as the sage, waking from his butterfly dream Like the king, entrust to the cuckoo my heart evergreen The moon bathes the teardrop pearl in the blue sea The sun lights the radiant jade in indigo mountain These feelings remain a cherished memory But I was already lost at that moment —Alternate translation by Lien W.S.
in Tang Poems Revisited,[13] and as cited by Maja Lavrač of the University of Ljubljana in Li Shangyin and the Art of Poetic Ambiguity.
Gone is the guest from the Chamber of Rank, And petals, confused in my little garden, Zigzagging down my crooked path, Escort like dancers the setting sun.
It’s hard to be together harder yet apart Flowers wilt in frost while memories last Like silk exhaust until the worm depart And candle melts like teardrops fast Vexed with grey hair in the mirror behold My lady moan in the moonlight cold The paths to Mystic Hill are few Caladrius please give my love a view.