Gao Lishi, speaking of him, some people may not know much about his life story, but they will certainly know about the matter of “taking off his boots” between him and Li Bai. With the spread of many of Li Bai’s famous songs through the ages, he is also famous for Li Bai. Gao Lishi, whose original name was Feng Yuanyi, was born in Panzhou, today’s Gaozhou. He is the great-grandson of Feng Ang, a national hero of Hainan in the Northern Dynasty, and his father is Feng Jun. When Feng Yuanyi was 10 years old, his family was plagiarized because of implicated crime, and he had no choice but to enter the palace and become an eunuch.
He was clever by nature and was adopted as an adopted son by Gao Yanfu shortly after entering the palace. Later, he was appreciated by Wu Zetian because of his proper work, which led to his confusion in the palace. However, he was also expelled from the palace because of his mistakes. However, he did not give up at this time. Instead, he looked for opportunities to contact Li Longji. After understanding, he thought that Li Longji was the most ambitious vassal king. In fact, his choice was not wrong. Li Longji entered the palace.
After Li Longji became the emperor, he did his best to help the emperor clean up the mess between Empress Wei and Princess Taiping. He also won the trust of Li Longji and was appointed the general of the right prison. Since then, he has continued to work for the emperor, doing quite well, such as adjusting the relationship between the emperor and the prime minister Yao Chong, and dealing with the treacherous minister Li Linfu. He only works for the emperor, and the emperor is naturally very fond of him. Even when he spoke against the emperor many times, the emperor didn’t care about it. He still likes him, and even treats him as a brother.
In addition to Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the relationship between him and Li Bai has also been hotly discussed. According to the records of “Youyang Zazu”, Li Bai was also drunk at a banquet, so he said “go to the boots” to Gao Lishi in front of the emperor. Gao Lishi is always respected and naturally unwilling, but in front of the emperor, he is also not easy to attack, so he was aggrieved and begged for perfection, that is, “Li Lishi lost his power and suddenly got rid of it”. Many people said that he began to hate Li Bai and wanted to get rid of him.
Therefore, in the eyes of future generations, Gao Lishi is a narrow-minded and jealous man of virtue. I think it is somewhat arbitrary to look at this matter alone. No matter what happened between him and Li Bai, he finally did not change his mind to the Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and died for him. It is really moving.