Li Bai

Li Bai

Liang Kai's Li Bai Strolling (detail), early 13th century
Born 701
Sui Ye, Tang dynasty, China. Today's Tokmok
Died 762
Dangtu
Occupation Poet
Nationality Chinese
Period Tang dynasty, Shanxi Province, China

Li Bai or Li Po[1] or Li Bo [2] (Chinese: 李白; pinyin: Lǐ Bái, or, Lǐ Bó) (701 – 762) was a Chinese poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest poets in China's Tang period, which westerners often consider China's "golden age" of poetry.[3][4] He was part of the group of Chinese scholars called the "Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup" in a poem by fellow poet Du Fu. Approximately 1,100 poems attributed to Li Bai remain today.[5]

Li Bai travelled extensively "looking for patrons"[6], became well known for his consumption of wine[7], served for brief periods under the emperor, and made his living through his poetry.[8] He died from illness.

In China, his poem "Quiet Night Thoughts", reflecting a nostalgia of a travellor away from home[9], has been widely "memorized by school children and quoted by adults".[10]

The first translations in a Western language were published in 1862 by Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys in his Poésies de l'Époque des Thang.[11] The English-speaking world was introduced to Li Bai's works by a Herbert Allen Giles publication History of Chinese Literature (1901) and through the liberal, but poetically influential, translations of Japanese versions of his poems made by Ezra Pound.[12]

Contents

Name Variants

Names
Chinese: 李白
Pinyin: Lǐ Bái or Li Bó
Wade-Giles: Li Po or Li Pai
Cantonese: Léih Baahk
Japanese Rōmaji: Ri Haku (り はく / リ ハク)
Korean: 이백 or 이태백
Zì 字: Tàibái 太白
Hào 號: Qīnglián Jūshì 青蓮居士
aka: Shīxiān, 詩仙
The Poet Sage
Vietnamese: Lý Bạch

Li (李) is the family name, or surname. His given name is written with a Chinese character (白), which is romanized variously as Po, Bo, Bai, Pai, and other variants. Even in Hanyu Pinyin, there is ambiguity, as Bái is the common variant and Bó the literary variant (and thus presumably closer to the original pronunciation). His style name, also known as courtesy name, was Tài Bó (太白), literally "Great White," a reference to the planet Venus. Thus, combining the family name with the style name, we get variants such as Li Tai Bo, Li Tai Pai, and so on. He also may be known by the pseudonym Qinglianjushi (青莲居士), meaning Retired Scholar of the Azure Lotus. Furthermore, he has the nicknames Poet Transcendent (詩仙) and Poet Knight-Errant (詩俠). In works derived through Japanese, he is sometimes known as Ri Haku. All of these variants, and more, with or without hyphenation, have been historically attested to.

Biography

Some believe that Li Bai's birthplace is Chu, Kazakhstan while another candidate is Suiye (Chinese: 碎叶城; pinyin: Suìyè Chéng) in Central Asia (near modern-day Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan).[13] However, his family had originally dwelt in what is now southeastern Gansu [14], and later moved to Jiangyou, near modern Chengdu in Sichuan province, when he was five years old. At the age of ten, his formal education started. Among various schools of classical Chinese philosophies, Taoism was the deepest influence, as demonstrated by his compositions. In 720, he was interviewed by Governor Su Ting, who considered him a genius. Though he expressed the wish to become an official, he could not be bothered to sit for the Chinese civil service examination. Some speculate that he considered taking the examination below his dignity. However, it is more likely that he did not possess the proper social connections or heritage required for sponsorship to sit for the examinations. Instead, beginning at age twenty-five, he traveled around China, enjoying liquor and leading a carefree life: very much contrary to the prevailing ideas of a proper Confucian gentleman. His personality fascinated the aristocrats and common people alike, and he was introduced to the Emperor Xuanzong around 742.

In 725, when he was twenty-five years old, Li Bai sailed down the Yangtze River all the way to Weiyang (Yangzhou) and Jinling (Nanjing). During the first year of his trip, he met celebrities and gave away much of his wealth to needy friends. He then turned back to central southern China, met Xu Yushi, the retired prime minister, married his daughter, and settled down in Anlu, Hubei.

In 730, Li Bai stayed in the Zhongnan Mountain near the capital Chang'an (Xi'an), and tried but failed to secure a position. He sailed down the Yellow River, stopped by Luoyang, and visited Taiyuan before going home.

In 740, he moved to Shandong. In 742, he traveled to Zhejiang and befriended the Taoist Wu Yun. The same year, he traveled with his friend to the capital. Poet He Zhizhang called Li Bai "the Transcendent dismissed from the Heaven" after their initial meeting, and thus the epithet of "the Poet Transcendant". Consequently, he was interviewed by the emperor (Li Longji, but commonly known by his posthumous title Xuanzong), who personally prepared soup for him, and gave him a post at the Hanlin Academy, which served to provide scholarly expertise and poetry for the Emperor. When the emperor ordered Li Bai to the palace, he was drunk, but he improvised on the spot and produced fascinating love poems alluding to the romance between the emperor and Yang Guifei, the favorite concubine. Once, Li Bai was drunk and asked Gao Lishi, the most powerful eunuch in the palace, to take off his boots in front of the emperor. Gao was offended and managed to persuade Yang Guifei to stop the emperor from naming Li Bai for a prominent position. Li Bai gave up hope thereafter and resigned from the academy.

Thereafter he wandered throughout China for the rest of his life. He met Du Fu in the autumn of 744, and again the following year. These were the only occasions on which they met. A dozen of Du Fu's poems to or about Li Bai survive, while only one from Li Bai to Du Fu remains. At the time of the An Lushan Rebellion he became involved in a subsidiary revolt against the Emperor, although the extent to which this was voluntary is unclear. The failure of the rebellion resulted in his exile to Yelang. He was pardoned before the exile journey was complete.

Finally, Daizong named Li Bai the Registrar of the Left Commandant's office in 762. When the imperial edict arrived in Dangtu, Anhui, Li Bai was already dead.

Critique and analysis

The only surviving calligraphy in Li Bo's own handwriting.

Over a thousand poems are attributed to him, but the authenticity of many of these is uncertain.[15] He is best known for the "[i]ndividuality, spontaneity and fantasy" of his poems, particularly the yue fu poems and "shi" poems.[16] He is often associated with Taoism[1]: there is a strong element of this in his works, both in the sentiments they express and in their spontaneous tone.

Li Bai's interactions with nature, friendship, his love of wine and his acute observations of life inform his best poems. Some, like Changgan xing (translated by Ezra Pound as The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter,[12] record the hardships or emotions of common people. He also wrote a number of very oblique, allusive poems on women.

In his poems, Li Bai tried to avoid the use of obscure words and historical references.

Li Bai's poem Drinking Alone by Moonlight (月下獨酌, pinyin: Yuè Xià Dú Zhuó), translated by Arthur Waley, reads:[17]

花間一壺酒。 A pot of wine, under the flowering trees;
獨酌無相親。 I drink alone, for no friend is near.
舉杯邀明月。 Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,
對影成三人。 For her, with my shadow, will make three people.
月既不解飲。 The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;
影徒隨我身。 Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.
暫伴月將影。 Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave
行樂須及春。 I must make merry before the Spring is spent.
我歌月徘徊。 To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;
我舞影零亂。 In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.
醒時同交歡。 While we were sober, three shared the fun;
醉後各分散。 Now we are drunk, each goes their way.
永結無情遊。 May we long share our eternal friendship,
相期邈雲漢。 And meet at last on the paradise.

Influence

Li Bai is influential in the West partly due to Ezra Pound's versions of some of his poems in the collection Cathay,[12] such as The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter. The ideas underlying them had a profound impact in shaping American Imagist and Modernist poetry through the 20th Century. Also, Gustav Mahler integrated four of Li Bai's works in his symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde. These were in a free German translation by Hans Bethge, published in an anthology called Die chinesische Flöte (The Chinese Flute), [18] Bethge based his version on the pioneering translation into French by Saint-Denys.[11] There is another striking musical setting of Li Po's verse by the American composer Harry Partch, whose Seventeen Lyrics by Li Po for intoning voice and Adapted Viola (an instrument of Partch's own invention) are based on the texts in The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet translated by Shigeyoshi Obata.[19]

Simon Elegant novelized Li Bai's life in his 1997 work, A Floating Life.[20] Li Bai appears (under a fictional name) as a major character in Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven, a fantasy novel set in Tang Dynasty China.[21] A crater on the planet Mercury has been named after him.

In both versions of Epcot's Circle-Vision 360° film in the China pavilion, Li Bai serves as the narrator and guide of the film.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia By Marshall Cavendish Corporation. p. 109 [1]
  2. ↑ The New York Times guide to essential knowledge: a desk reference for the ... By The New York Times p. 57 [2]
  3. ↑ The New York Times guide to essential knowledge: a desk reference for the ... By The New York Times p. 57 [3]
  4. ↑ China By Damian Harper, Thomas Huhti. Lonely Planet. p.74
  5. ↑ China : a cultural and historical dictionary By Michael Dillon. Routledge. p.185 [4]
  6. ↑ China : a cultural and historical dictionary By Michael Dillon
  7. ↑ Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology By David Hinton p.173. Macmillon [5]
  8. ↑ Speaking of Chinese By Raymond Chang, Margaret Scrogin Chang
  9. ↑ How to read Chinese poetry: a guided anthology By Zong-qi Cai p. 210. Columbia University Press [6]
  10. ↑ Speaking of Chinese By Raymond Chang, Margaret Scrogin Chang p. 176 WW Norton & Company [7]
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 D'Hervey de Saint-Denys (1862). Poésies de l'Époque des Thang (Amyot, Paris). See Minford, John and Lau, Joseph S. M. (2000)). Classic Chinese Literature (Columbia University Press) ISBN 978-0231096768.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Pound, Ezra (1915). Cathay (Elkin Mathews, London). ASIN B00085NWJI.
  13. ↑ Zhongguo fu li hui, Chung-kuo fu li hui. China Reconstructs. China Welfare Institute, 1989. Page 58.
  14. ↑ Two accounts given by contemporaries Li Yangbing (Preface to the Thatched Cottage Collection) and Fan Chuanzheng (Tang's Zuo Sheyi Hanlin Xueshi Li Gong's Xin Mubei Bingxu) stated that his family was originally from what is now southeastern Gansu, as in the Xin Tangshu 215.
  15. ↑ China : a cultural and historical dictionary By Michael Dillon. Routledge. p.185 [8]
  16. ↑ China : a cultural and historical dictionary By Michael Dillon. Routledge. p.185 [9]
  17. ↑ Waley, Arthur (1919). "Drinking Alone by Moonlight: Three Poems," More Translations from the Chinese (Alfred A. Knopf, New York), pp. 27-28. Li Bai wrote 3 poems with the same name; Waley published translations of all three.
  18. ↑ Bethge, Hans (2001). Die Chinesische Flöte (YinYang Media Verlag, Kelkheim, Germany). ISBN 978-3980679954. Re-issue of the 1907 edition (Insel Verlag, Leipzig).
  19. ↑ Obata, Shigeyoshi (1923). The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet (J. M. Dent & Co, ). ASIN B000KL7LXI.
  20. ↑ Elegant, Simon (1997). A Floating Life (Ecco Press, ). ISBN 978-0880015592
  21. ↑ New York: ROC/Penguin (ISBN 978-0451463302), 2010

Selected bibliography

External links

Online free encyclopedia about Li Bai in Chinese:

Online translations (some with original Chinese, pronunciation, and literal translation):