Poet Immortal Li Bai

The poems of Li Bai (701-762) represent another peak of, romanticism in the history of Chinese ancient poetry after Qu Yuan. His unrestrained personality, excellent ability and profound ingenious thoughts pushed creation of Chinese romantic poems to a new height.

Li Bai, with the courtesy name of Taibai, was a native of Chengji, Longxi (today's Tianshui, Gansu). His ancestors migrated to Suiye City in Central Asia at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and Li Bai was born there. Later, he migrated to Qinglian village, Zhangming County, Mianzhou, Sichuan (today's Jiangyou County, Sichuan) with his father, hence his alias Qinglian Jushi. When Li Bai studied, practiced sword play and wandered in his early years, he began to write poems. Though poems such as The Moon over Mount Brow and Song for White Hair are not outstanding, they show his romantic and transcendental style. When Li Bai was young, he wandered around, broadened his vision and wrote more and more poems. Famous works such as River Chant, A Song of Changgan, Viewing the Waterfall at Mount Lu, Bidding a Friend Farewell at Jingmen Ferry and Seeing off Meng Haoran at Tower of Yellow Crane also emerged successively. In the Tianbao Period, he became a member of the Imperial Academy and was treated with courtesy by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, but he was soon repulsed by influential officials and resigned. Later, after social disturbances such as the An-Shi Rebellion, he suffered bad luck and frustration, wandered around, and at last died in Dangtu, Anhui away from his hometown. After leaving Chang'an, Li Bai wrote famous works full of his deep thought and inspiration such as 59 poems in Verses in the Old Style, The Hard Road, Hard Ways to Shu, Bring in the Wine and Tianmu Mountain Ascended in a Dream. More than 990 poems and essays written by Li Bai are included in The Complete Works of Li Taibai.

Portrait of Li Bai

Li Bai had complicated thoughts and an unrestrained personality. The orthodox rite and morality of the Confucian School, the transcendence and seclusion of the Taoist School, the unruliness of the School of Diplomacy and the thoughts of knights-errant wandering among mountains and rivers and missing nothing were all manifested by him, but generally speaking, Li Bai had his unique thought and temperament, the most prominent aspect being the conflict between ideals and reality: he had a sense of responsibility for the state and society and strongly wished to go into the society, but meanwhile he was quite unsatisfied and angry about the rulers' dissolution and the dark side of the society; he hoped he could do something but was out of tune with the powerful and influential people and the hierarchy. He always hoped to realize the great wish to "benefit people in the world," "stabilize the state" and then retire after successful accomplishment of his tasks to make his life complete under the emperor's favor. Obviously, this thought of his was too naive, and the ruthless reality crushed his dream time and again. Such experiences full of conflict and pain, on the one hand, strengthened Li Bai's independent, unruly, arrogant and unrestrained ideological character and, on the other hand, also directly influenced the formation of the romantic style in his poetry creation.

Li Bai's artistic accomplishments in poetry are epitomized in three aspects. The first is the unrestrained momentum: "From both sides of the River thrust out the cliffs blue; leaving the sun behind, a lonely sail comes forth." in Mount Heaven s Gate Viewed from Afar, "Its torrent dashes down three thousand feet from high; as if the Silver River fell from azure sky." in Viewing the Waterfall at Mount Lu, "As the riverbanks echo still with the monkey's cry aloud. Before a myriad mountains the swift boat has glided away." in Leaving Baidi Town in Early Morning, and "I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves and set my cloudy sail straight and bridge the deep, deep sea." in The Hard Road... These thrilling lines transcending time and space without parallel in history all show the poet's extraordinary and outstanding momentum.

The second is romantic charm. The widely known poem Bring in the Wine fully displays the poet's romantic feelings without regard to the past and future:

See how the Yellow River s waters move out of heaven.

Entering the ocean, never to return.

See how lovely locks in bright mirrors in high chambers,

Though silken-black at morning, have changed by night to

snow.

Oh, let a man of spirit venture where he pleases

And never tip his golden cup empty toward the moon!

Since heaven gave the talent, let it be employed!

Spin a thousand pieces of silver, all of them come back!

Cook a sheep, kill a cow, whet the appetite,

And make me, of three hundred bowls, one long drink!

To the old master, Cen,

And the young scholar, Danqiu,

Bring in the wine!

Let your cups never rest!

Let me sing you a song!

Let your ears attend!

What are bell and drum, rare dishes and treasure?

Let me be forever drunk and never come to reason!

Sober men of olden days and sages are forgotten,

And only the great drinkers are famous for all time.

Prince Chen paid at a banquet in the Palace of Perfection

Ten thousand coins for a cask of wine, with many a laugh and quip.

Why say, my host, that your money is gone? Go and buy wine and we'll drink it together! My flower-dappled horse,

My furs worth a thousand,

Hand them to the boy to exchange for good wine,

And we'll drown away the woes of ten thousand generations!

This poem is forthright, forceful, extremely romantic and passionate. After reading this poem by Li Bai, everybody can see through the vanity of life and the world!

The third is the enchanting poetic feeling. Many poems by Li Bai are enchanting, colorful and deeply emotional, such as Sitting Alone in Jingting Mountain:

Flocks of birds fly high and vanish;

A single cloud, alone, calmly drifts on.

Never tired of looking at each other -Only the Jingting Mountain and me.

To Wang Lun is also full of emotion:

I'm on board; we 're about to sail,

When there’s stamping and singing on shore;

Peach Blossom Pool is a thousand feet deep.

Yet not so deep, Wang Lun, as your love for me.

Picture of Drunken Taibai, painted by Su Liupeng in the Qing Dynasty, depicts the scene of Li Bai supported and served by two eunuchs in the palace of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty after getting drunk.

The short four-line poem is eloquent, natural and vivid, integrating acts and scenes, narration and expression of feelings, and the intangible and tangible. The writing style is easy, special and unforgettable.

Bodhisattva-like Barbarians is another example:

Aflat-top forest stretches far in embroidered mist;

A cluster of mountains cool is tinged with heartbreak blue.

The mansion in creeping dusk in clad,

Someone up there is sad.

On marble steps I stand forlorn.

Birds fly hurriedly by back to roost.

Where, pray, is the way home?

Along a string of wayside pavilions I roam.

People on a journey are often stirred by sights and miss their close relatives anytime and anywhere, but this poem is special in that deep and honest affection, naturalness and indifference combine both the real and unreal. The last two lines, especially the last line "along a string of wayside pavilions I roam" consisting of five Chinese characters, fully express the poet's true feelings and boundless melancholy during his journey.

Li Bai's poems are diversified in thought and art. His unparalleled imagination and creativity refreshed and invigorated the style of Chinese poetry that had remained unchanged for hundreds of years. His contemporary and great poet Du Fu highly praised Li Bai's poetry, "The poems of Po are unequalled. His thoughts are never categorical, but fly high in the wind." "When the pen is to paper, the wind and rain have been shocked, and when the poetry is finished, even the ghosts and spirits have been touched by it." Another contemporary poet He Zhizhang (659-744) praised Li Bai as a "banished immortal" from heaven when they first met, so later people called Li Bai "Poet Immortal."