Li Yazhou was a man of virtue. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, he was called to the palace. Later he requested to move out of the palace and live in Xuanduguan.
The chancellor Li Linfu once went to pay him a visit. He said to Li Linfu, “If you live, your Family will be peaceful; if you die, your family will have to die.” Li Linfu sobbed and bowed to him, asking him to save him. Li Yazhou laughed and did not answer, but said, “It is only a joke.”
At the end of Tianbao, An Lushan was so domineering that the whole court was worried about him, but The Emperor did not wake up at all. One day Li Ya Zhou suddenly went into hiding, not knowing where he would end up. But when he left, he inscribed some poems on the wall of his residence about An Lushan’s desire to steal the country and the fact that Tang Emperor Xuanzong was going to take refuge in Shu, no one understood the meaning of the poems until afterwards. The last of the poems reads: “All the people in the city of Yan have gone, but the horses at the Pass do not return. If I meet a ghost under the mountain, I will tie my robe on the ring.” “All the people in the city of Yan have gone” means that An Lushan and all the generals in You and Ji Provinces have revolted; “The horses at Hanguanguan have not returned” means that Goshu Han was defeated at the Tongguan Pass and his whole army was wiped out and his horses did not return; “If I meet the ghost under the mountain “The phrase “tied with the robe on the ring” is about Yang Guifei’s nickname Yuhuan. When Tang Emperor Xuanzong went to Shu for refuge, Gao Li hanged her with a robe when she arrived at Mawei Po. Li Yazhou’s foresight is similar to these examples.
Note: Li Linfu (? -753) was a minister and member of the Tang dynasty who served as the Minister of Rites in the 22nd year of the Kaiyuan era (734) and later as the Chancellor. He was in charge of the imperial government for 19 years and was once made the Duke of Jin. In the year 752, Li Linfu died of illness, and his ministers were angry with him and told him that he was “trying to endanger the clan”, so Emperor Xuanzong ordered him to be buried with the rites of a concubine, and his family was registered.
(Source: Taiping Guangji)
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