Talent ,Appearance,Loyal And Steadfast

There are three groups of people who were named "Five Devils" in Chinese history successively. The first group lived in Later Shu Dynasty when King Meng Chang was on the crown, include Mao Wenxi, Lu Qianyi, Ou Yangjiong, Yan Xuan and Han Cong. Another group is "Five Devils in Southern Tang Dynasty", they are Feng Yansi, Feng Yanlu, ChenJiao, WeiCen and Zha Weihui, and were active during the rule of King Li Jing and his successor, King Li Yu, about the same time as the Five Devils, in Later Shu Dynasty. They are Wang Qinruo, Ding Wei, Lin Te, Chen Pengnian and Liu Chenggui, and were active in early eleventh century, about seventy or eighty years later than the other two groups.Although "Five Devils" of Southern Tang and Northern Song Dynasties gained noticeable achievements, people still named them devils to show contemptation for their wicked personality. Here we can learn that "Five Devils" were used to show people's criticism for "Five Devils", both due to their mean characters and the way they acted as officers. However, the "Five Devils" in Later Shu Dynasty were different from those of Southern Tang and Northern Song Dynasties, because their bad reputation was not given correctly. First, let's make an investigation from literary aspect. There are two reasons for naming a person devil. One is that when a person is referred to as a ghost, it means either he was dead or he is very talent to do extraordinary tasks. The other refers to works, either the style is unusual or the art of writing is very obscure. Although "Five Devils" in Later Shu Dynasty got the bad title for "flattering the king with their ci poems'", their works don't accord with the above reasons, so it sounds not reasonable to give them that bad title because of their works. Secondly, let's study this from the viewpoint of politics. According to history books, it is said that the "Five Devils" in Later Shu Dynasty were despised due to that their king enjoys ci poems. But we cannot find any evidence for the wicked things done by them, like that of the "Five Devils" of Southern Tang and Northern Song Dynasties. Then there arose a question: why did the Five Devils in Later Shu Dynasty get their bad title? Besides, there are doubts about the time, origin and even the memberinvolved in this term, such as Han Cong, he wasn't a member of it. All the arguments show that there are some mistakes about the "Five Devils" and have to be serious about them.The ci poems written by the "Five Devils" of Later Shu Dynasty are valuable, because the members were all good at ci poems. Ci poems written by Mao Wenxi are plain and clear, though some were emperor-ordered. His ci poems centering about going sight-seeing are very appreciable. The ci poems written by Lu Qianyi somewhat have center above females, and show the influence of Taoism and the poet's concern for his country and common people as well. Ou Yangjiong wrote ci poems centring on human nature and desire, he made bold probe into the genre theme; the craft and tonal patterns and rhyme schemes of ci poem, so his ci poems are very touching and sensational that no one can compete with him. The ci poems of Yan Xuan, one of the "Five Devils" who was born in an ordinary family, are full of sexualities. . His erotic ci poems reflected the taste of common people, which is passionate, love-centered and plain. When Yan Xuan wrote love affairs, he was either only a narrator or sorry for himself. Though his ci poems are touching, the narration is too direct and the craft is too common, that his works has the nature of "lust in words, dull in content". Even if he was limited by his ability in writing and achieved little, his works forecasted the following trend of ci poem, and this makes his ci poems even more vulgar in nature.