Poetry Final: Research

            Li Bai is considered one of the most influential and best poets in the history of China. He was born during the heart of the "Golden Age" of China, during the Tang Dynasty, which lasted from 618-907 AD. Li Bai was born in 701 in Suiye, Tang Empire, China (which today is Suyab, Kyrgyzstan) and he died in 762 in or around Dangtu, China. Du Fu, another one of China's great poets during the Tang Dynasty, was one of Li's cherished friends, yet his rival for the title of the greatest poet in all of China during that time. Li Bai was inspired by many things throughout his life to create the poems he did, but half or more of his hundreds of poems were based off of wine. Some of his most studied, beloved, and famous poems are from the Three Hundred Tang Poems. Of those 34 masterpieces, are his most famous "Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day", "The Hard Road to Shu", and "Quiet Night Thought", in which all of these are read and studied in the language arts textbooks throughout China today. When Li's mother was pregnant with him, she had a dream. She dreamed of a great white star falling from the heavens, bringing the idea of Li Bai being a banished immortal before birth, leaving immortality and coming to mortal Earth. This referred to the Great White Star, or Venus, which explains his courtesy name Tai Bai or “Great White”. Li was the family surname, and he was the Great White Star, thus creating his name: Li Bai. Before birth, he was considered something of greatness, out of this world. When he was born, he lived in Suiye, which is on the ancient Silk Road, in which his family were likely merchants. He moved with his family to Jiangyou, which is near modern Chengdu, when he was around five years old. Here, he spent much of his childhood reading immensely, including Confucian classics such as The Classic of Poetry (Shijing) and the Classic of History (Shujing), as well as many astrological and metaphysical literary materials. From this young age and until his twenties he also became very good in the martial arts, and an unbelievable swordsman. He has claimed to have killed several men for reasons of chivalry in accordance with the Youxia, or knight-errant tradition in China. During his mid-twenties, around 725, he set sail on the Yangzi River, and began the life of a wanderer. On a journey back up the river arriving at Yunmeng, he met the granddaughter of Xu Yushi, a Prime Minister of China, in who he married. He gave away much of his inherited wealth to the needy, and met famous people, becoming famous himself from his doings. Now well known, he still continued to travel and wander, when he met and joined a group of poets who also enjoyed writing about journeying and most importantly, drinking wine, which Li loved to do. This group was famous for writing of wine in the midst of life, and they were called "The Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup", including his friend Du Fu. Li Bai was considered a genius, and met the Emperor, becoming his friend and adviser. When the Emperor was removed from power, Li Bai tried to seize power around 730, but failed to do so and was sentenced to death. A general he also befriended bailed him out of the sentence, and Li was only exiled. After years of complications with courts, he wanders even more eventually making friends with a famous Taoist priest named Wu Yun. In 742, in the court of Chang'an, Wu Yun and Emperor Xuanzong eradicate his exile saying he's an "Immortal exiled from heaven" and should be praised for his genius and presence. He became a translator for the Emperor, and who got a post at the Hanlin Academy, where he served to provide scholarly expertise and create poetry for the Emperor. Some of his first famous poems he made for the Emperor and his wife, royalty, etc. Some of the royal court was offended by Li's drinking, so the Emperor kindly sent him from the royal court with riches. From here, Li Bai became a Taoist in Shandong, where he made a home. He wandered to and from his home through nature and rivers for the next ten years, writing poems of all his encounters and thoughts. He meets one last time with Du Fu in 744, to write poems of each other. In 756, war and exile occur and the Emperor and his forces flee, including his people. Li Bai escapes the madness, but much later is captured and imprisoned, once again sentenced to death. The famous general, Guo Ziyi, who had sentenced Li to death years back, now releases him. Imperialism and much political unrest take place for the next ten years, but Li avoids it all and returns to wandering once more. Going through two emperors in a dynasty, a new emperor, Daizong, makes Li one of office in 762. But when Li Bai comes back to Dangtu for the position and return from more years of wandering, he dies. Legend has it that Li Bai drowned after falling off his boat when he tried to embrace the moon's reflection on the Yangtze River while drunk off wine. It is unknown how he died, but it was thought that he died from his hard living style of ongoing traveling and heavy drinking. His legendary death, of drowning for the moon's reflection, goes down in history as one of the most famous deaths ever told, and is a part of Chinese culture today.

            What is believed to be the thousands of poems that Li Bai wrote in his lifetime, there were only hundreds found and recorded, and a great percentage of them involve the act of drinking, enjoying, and celebrating wine. Other themes involved in many of his poems are celebrating the pleasures of friendship and love, the depth of nature and its beauty, views of political corruption, loneliness and/or solitude, and the aspirations of wandering; the journey. In The Hard Road (1 of 3) by Li Bai, he includes three main themes: Discontent, struggles in life, and striving for the journey. In many poems he desires wine, the thing that intoxicates him to his creativity for most of his poetry. Instead, in this particular poem, he does not celebrate drinking wine, but only references it to set the scene−to show his discontent. It seems as though Li is describing a very nice party, where wine and food cost a fortune and dinnerware is made of gold and jade. In reality, since all of his poems are based on the events of his past on some level, he must be attending the party of the royal court when he wrote poems for the Emperor and worked in his palace. The line, "I fling aside my chop-sticks and cup, I cannot eat nor drink..." shows his discontent, because eating and drinking are simple pleasures of life, and drinking is one of his greatest passions in life. The next four lines explain why he cannot eat or drink through one of his other passions, which is journeying. When he pulls out his dagger, and looks in every direction, it seems as though he's had enough and might potentially commit suicide, to be rid of this pain in which he cannot eat or drink. But, he was only trying to show his pain of heart, of what seems like the impossible in his life at that time. He explains things of travel, such as he would cross the Yellow River, "but the ice chokes the ferry". He would climb the Tai-hang Mountains, "But the sky is blind with snow..." This can be interpreted in two ways, either leading to the same point. He might have literally witnessed these natural destinations in snow and ice in the midst of winter, so nature was disallowing him to journey, causing him to feel sorrow. The more probable interpretation though would be of metaphor. The Yellow River and Tai-hang Mountains are parts of nature, which he lives and breathes spiritually as a Taoist. But these things of nature are metaphor to his body and soul. He uses the phrases "chokes the ferry" and "blind with snow" as relations to his neck and eyes. Physically he feels as though he's blind to the world he now lives and is being choked by his unfulfilled desires. This blinds and chokes his soul, allowing his soul discontent. His inability to cross the mountains and climb the mountains is him saying he wants to get back to nature, to journeying, and being one with the world again, but he can't. Then he explains he'd rather be one who is relaxing in nature than in riches, until he has a sudden dream. He dreams "of riding a boat, sailing for the sun..." This is the wish of journeying to the impossible, seeing where nature will take him in the sea. Another big theme is his needing of solitude amongst nature, which is exactly his desire in this line−to forever reach the light of the sun, the impossibility of nature, but something where he'll be one with nature for as long as he pleases. He states that journeying is tasking, is difficult, and "there are many turnings" This means there are many directions life will take you−where his journeys will take him− but he ponders where he will start, and when he starts, where that will take him. Then in the last two lines of the poem, he says with some spark of confidence, that he will set sail someday, through peace or storm, and pursue on no matter what, across the sea. His "cloudy sail" refers to his clouded mind and his sickening heart, and that he will set it straight to journey again, do what he loves, and be one with nature again. His last words "and bridge the deep, deep sea" is saying that he will strive one through this journey and entrance back into his life without ever stopping again. This whole poem can be interpreted as literal, where he actually was, what he actually did and thought, and what he actually thought for his future. But Li Bai's use of words and phrasing tells the reader that the whole poem is indeed metaphor to his suffering body and soul, and the journey he will take to be reborn and be one with nature once again.

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