Li Wei said:

Li Yu (August, 937 15-August, 978 13), formerly known as Jia Cong, was named Zhong Yin, also known as Zhongfeng Bailian, and was named Li Houzhu, Queen of Southern Tang Dynasty. Born in Jinling (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), his ancestral home is Pengcheng (now tongshan district, Xuzhou, Jiangsu). The last monarch and poet in the Southern Tang Dynasty. The sixth son of Li Jing, the master of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

At the beginning of Li Yu's career, he was appointed as the Duke of Anding, moved to General Zhu Wei and Deputy Marshal, and became the King of Zheng. Later renamed the King of Wu, he moved to the East Palace and was appointed to supervise the country. In the second year of the Stegosaurus (96 1), Li Jing died, and Li Yu succeeded to the throne, continuing to respect the Song Dynasty as orthodoxy and offering annual tribute to protect peace. In the fourth year of Kaibao (97 1), Song Taizu destroyed Nanhan and Li Yu and entered the Tang Dynasty, renamed it "Jiangnan Master";

The following year, he derogated from the ritual system and removed the kiss from Jinling Taidian to show his respect for Song Ting. Since Li Yu ascended the throne, he has widely built temples and purdue monks and nuns, wasting a lot of wealth. During this period, the Northern Song Dynasty was eyeing the outside world and the internal financial expenditure was tight. Although he has implemented some lenient and merciful measures, he can't persist.

The monetary reform it carried out increased the burden on farmers and intensified social contradictions. In the seventh year of Kaibao (974), Song Jun levied Nantang on a large scale. Although Li Yu persisted in resisting, he was defeated and surrendered in the eighth year of Kaibao (975), and was captured to Bianjing, where he was named General Youwei and the imperial army. In 978, on July 7, the third year of Taiping and Xingguo, Li Yu died in Bianjing, and was posthumously awarded a surname and a prince of Wu.

Li Yu is good at calligraphy, painting, melody, poetry and writing, especially ci. In the early stage of his ci, he mostly described the court's enjoyable life, but in the later stage he yearned for the motherland, lamented his life experience and wrote another realm.

The language is fresh and refined, with strong appeal. Therefore, Li Yu is called the "Emperor of Ci". His ci is unique among the five pronouns in the late Tang Dynasty, which has a far-reaching influence on the later ci circles. Later generations carved his ci and Li Jing's ci into two major ci works in the Southern Tang Dynasty.