Li Bai (701 - 762), also romanized as Li Bo or Li Po, was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty regarded as one of the greatest figures in the history of Chinese literature. [1] Together with his contemporary Du Fu, he came to embody the golden age of Tang poetry, and roughly a thousand poems attributed to him survive. [2] His work, marked by vivid imagery, apparent spontaneity, and recurring themes of wine, friendship, nature, and Daoist reverie, has been admired and imitated for more than a millennium. [1]
Early life
Li Bai was born in 701, by tradition in Suyab in Central Asia, in what is now Kyrgyzstan; his family later settled in Sichuan in southwestern China, where he was raised. [1] Reliable details of his youth are scarce and heavily overlaid with legend, but he is said to have read widely, practiced swordsmanship, and developed an early attachment to Daoism. [2] Rather than pursue the imperial civil-service examinations that were the conventional route to office, he left home as a young man to travel.
Travels and court service
For much of his life Li Bai wandered across China, earning a reputation as a brilliant and unconventional poet. Around 742 he was summoned to the capital, Chang'an, where the emperor Xuanzong received him at court and attached him to the Hanlin Academy. [2] His time in imperial service was brief; within a few years he left the capital and resumed his travels. [1] During the upheaval of the An Lushan Rebellion he became entangled in the conflict, entered the service of a prince later branded a rebel, and was arrested and sentenced to exile before being pardoned. [1]
Poetry
Li Bai worked in a range of classical forms and is especially celebrated for his shi lyrics and yuefu ballads. His verse is noted for its energy, its imaginative flights, and a seemingly effortless flow that later readers linked to his fondness for wine. [3] Enduring pieces such as "Quiet Night Thought" and "Drinking Alone under the Moon" treat the moon, mountains and rivers, parting from friends, and the brevity of life. Where Du Fu is often praised for craft and moral seriousness, Li Bai is remembered for spontaneity and romantic abandon. [2]
Death and legend
Li Bai died in 762 at Dangtu, in present-day Anhui province in eastern China. [1] A well-known legend holds that he drowned while drunk in a boat, reaching out to embrace the reflection of the moon on the water; historians generally treat the story as apocryphal. [1]
Legacy
Li Bai is among the most beloved poets in the Chinese tradition, and his poems have long been memorized, set to music, and studied as models of the classical style. [2] His influence reached the West through translation, notably Ezra Pound's 1915 collection Cathay, which rendered several of his poems and helped introduce Chinese verse to modern English-language readers. [3]
