In 805 AD, the renowned Tang Dynasty writer Liu Yuxi, serving as an imperial censor, joined a reformist faction led by Hanlin academician Wang Shuwen. With Emperor Shunzong's backing, they aimed to curb the power of eunuchs and military governors to strengthen central authority. However, the reform quickly collapsed under opposition from eunuchs and high-ranking officials. Emperor Shunzong abdicated, Wang Shuwen was forced to commit suicide, and Liu Yuxi, along with other supporters, was demoted to a remote provincial post.
The poet Liu Yuxi was demoted to Langzhou, serving as a minor military advisor. Refusing to compromise his integrity by begging the powerful for leniency, he spent a full decade in exile there. It was not until 815 AD that he was finally recalled to the capital, Chang'an, for a new post.
Shortly after returning to Chang'an, he heard that the Taoist temple Xuandu Guan had a thousand peach trees planted by a priest, which were beautiful. He went with friends to admire them and wrote a seven-character quatrain: "On the dusty road, red dust blows in the face; everyone says they've seen the flowers and returned. The thousand peach trees in Xuandu Guan were all planted after my departure."
This seven-character quatrain merely expressed a bit of emotion from Liu Yuxi after his long exile, with no satirical intent. Unexpectedly, it still angered the powerful ministers in power. They insisted Liu Yuxi's poem "mocked the court's governance" and demoted him to serve as prefect in distant Bozhou (present-day Zunyi, Guizhou). He was then reassigned as prefect of Lianzhou and later Kuizhou.
This demotion forced Liu Yuxi to spend 14 years in exile, until 828 AD when, recommended by Chancellor Pei Du, he was finally recalled to the capital to serve as a reception secretary—by then, he was nearly 60 years old.
Shortly after returning to Chang'an in the spring, he recalled the magnificent peach blossoms at Xuan Du Temple from years past and decided to revisit the site. To his astonishment, the temple was utterly transformed—every last peach tree had vanished, leaving a scene of desolation that stood in stark contrast to the once-crowded, blossom-filled paradise.
Liu Yuxi, filled with emotion, wrote a poem titled "Revisiting the Temple of Mystic Capital": "Half the hundred-acre courtyard is covered in moss, peach blossoms are all gone, and rapeseed flowers bloom. Where has the Taoist who planted the peaches gone? The Liu who came before has now returned." Later, the idiom "The Liu Who Came Before" came to refer to someone who leaves and then returns.
Source: Liu Yuxi (Tang Dynasty), *A Second Visit to the Temple of Mysterious Capital*
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "前度刘郎" came to describe how someone who leaves and then returns.