Top 7 Interesting Facts about Li Bai

Top 7 Interesting Facts about Li Bai

LiBai by Liang Kai from Wikimedia Commons

Li Bai or Li Po, a Chinese poet who flourished in the 8th century, is regarded as one of China’s greatest poets. He lived during the Tang period, which is regarded as China’s golden age of art. Li Bai spent his childhood reading Chinese classics, riding horses, and fencing. He began roaming in various places in China in his mid-twenties. This would become his standard way of life, where he would live like a nomad and produce poems.

He served as a translator and poet in the emperor’s court for a short period of time. He was frequently intoxicated, which was not considered a sin in China at the time.

It was more of a way to find inspiration, and Li Bai is reputed to have written some of his most vivid poetry while utterly inebriated. Poetry by Li Bai is an important part of Chinese culture. Even now, children study his poems as they grow older. His impact has persisted into the present day, as seen in Ezra Pound’s and Gustav Mahler’s works. The fact that the heavy metal Chinese band ‘Tang Dynasty’ gets inspiration from his works demonstrates the eternal nature of his writings.

1. He grew up in a fairly poor family 

Although the specific site of Li Bai’s birth is uncertain, he was most likely born in Central Asia. Since the 7th century, his forefathers had been living in exile in that area. He came from a low-income family.

His father was a businessman. As a child, Li Bai did not obtain any formal education. Despite this, he had always excelled at the art of communication, even as a child. Li Bai’s father relocated the family to Mien-chou, Sichuan, in 705. He spent the majority of his early years there.

2. He married the daughter of a prime minister 

Lai Bai’s sword fighting skills improved as he grew older. He spent his adolescent years as a knight-errant, roaming around Sichuan. He travelled to Central China when he was 25 years old. Li Bai travelled to A-lu in Hubei in 727. He married the retired prime minister’s daughter. He proceeded to investigate the natural world around him there.

3. His travels gave him a promotion to the Hanlin Academy 

Li Bai by Wikimedia Commons

Li Bai journeyed to the Yellow River in the north and the Yangtze River in the east in 735. He went to Chang’an in 742 and was presented to the Emperor. The Emperor lavished praise on Li Bai and held him in high regard. He offered Li Bai a job at Hanlin Academy. Fellow scholar-officials paid Li Bai a lot of attention.

4. He enjoyed his liquor 

Li Bai journeyed to the Yellow River in the north and the Yangtze River in the east in 735. He went to Chang’an in 742 and was presented to the Emperor. The Emperor lavished praise on Li Bai and held him in high regard. He offered Li Bai a job at Hanlin Academy. Fellow scholar-officials paid Li Bai a lot of attention.

5. He became a Taoist

Lai Bai by Su Liupeng from Wikimedia Commons

Li Bai left Chang’an in the year 744. The comforts of city life had become tedious to him. He ran into Du Fu in Loyang a year later. He also became a Taoist here, a decision that would have far-reaching consequences for the remainder of his life. After settling with his family in Loyang, he embarked on a ten-year trek through northern China with his family. His poetry illustrates his shift in attention to Toasm during this time, rather than his early inclinations in knightly behaviour and bravery. Li Bai began to suffer from issues such as a lack of money and property although prominent and prominent and well-known.

6. His poetry was unique

Li Bai Calligraphy by Wikimedia Commons

Li Bai is most recognized for his clever and inventive poems. It includes romantic depictions of nature as well as ethical and death-related viewpoints. He was well-known among both nobility and commoners during his time, and is considered one of the Tang Dynasty’s four finest poets. Through his literature, he is also noted for his Taoist ideas and defiance of Confucian traditions.

Drinking Alone by Moonlight (, pinyin: Yuè Xià D Zhuó), one of Li Bai’s most renowned poems, is a good example of some of his most famous elements of poetry—a very spontaneous poem full of natural pictures. Li Bai penned numerous poems with the same title; Arthur Waley’s rendition of the most famous reads.

7. Li Bai’s philosophy 

Li Bai’s poetry expresses the negative feelings one has when he realizes his life has been spent and his gifts have gone untapped. To drown his sorrows, Li Bo became extremely inebriated on a regular basis, until it became a lifetime habit. Wine, on the other hand, aided him in his writing.

Li Bai was able to produce exquisite verses without constraint while inebriated. Li Bai’s best poems were written with a lot of spontaneity and inventiveness because he had nothing to hold him back.

Li Bai returned to eastern China, where he died in a relative’s house, though popular legend says that he drowned when, sitting drunk in a boat, he tried to seize the moon’s reflection in the water. Li Bai was a romantic in his view of life and in his verse.