Li Bai (Chinese: 李白; pinyin: Lǐ Bái and/or Lǐ Bó, 701 – 762, also well known as Li Po, among other transliterations) was a major Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period. Regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Tang Dynasty, often called China's "golden age" of poetry, Li Bai was both a prolific and a profound poet, as well as one who stretched the rules of versification of his time. Around a thousand yet existing poems are attributed to him.[1] Thirty-four of his poems are included in the popular anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.
In the area of Chinese cultural influence, Li Bai's poetry has been much esteemed from his lifetime through the present day. His influence also extends to the West through many translations, adaptations, and much inspiration.
Li (李) is the family name, or surname; however, he has been and is known by various names. 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. His style name, also known as courtesy name, was Tài Bái (太白), literally "Great White," a reference to the planet Venus. Thus, combining the family name with the style name, his name appears in variants such as Li Tai Bo, Li Tai Bai, Li T'aipo, and others[2]). Less commonly in English, he also may be known by the pseudonym (hao), Qīnglián Jūshì (青蓮居士), meaning Householder of the Azure Lotus, or the nicknames Poet Transcendent (simplified Chinese: 诗仙; traditional Chinese: 詩仙; pinyin: Shīxiān), Wine Immortal (Chinese: 酒仙; pinyin: Jiǔxiān), Banished Transcendent (Chinese: 謫仙人; pinyin: Zhéxiānrén), Poet Knight-Errant (simplified Chinese: 诗侠; traditional Chinese: 詩俠; pinyin: Shīxiá, or "Poet-Hero"). In works in which the English transliteration is derived through Japanese, his name may be given as Ri Haku. All of these variants, and more, with or without hyphenation, have been historically attested to.
The two "Books of Tang", The Old Book of Tang and The New Book of Tang remain the primary sources of bibliographical material on Li Bai.[3] Other sources include internal evidence from poems by or about Li Bai, and certain other sources.
The year of Li Bai's birth is generally considered to be 701. He was born somewhere in Central Asia.[4] Apparently, his family had originally dwelt in what is now southeastern Gansu, and later moved to Jiangyou, near modern Chengdu in Sichuan province, when he was perhaps five years old. Two accounts given by contemporaries Li Yangbing (a family relative) and Fan Chuanzheng stated that his family was originally from what is now southeastern Gansu. Li's ancestry is traditionally traced back to Li Gao, the founder of the state of Western Liang.[5] Evidence suggests that during the Sui Dynasty, his ancestors, then commoners, most likely as the result of some act of crime, were forced into a form of exile from their original home in what is now Gansu to some location further west.[6] During their exile, the Li family lived in Suiye (Suyab, now an archeological site in present-day Kyrgyzstan) and perhaps also in Tiaozhi (simplified Chinese: 条枝; traditional Chinese: 條枝; pinyin: Tiáozhī), a state centered near modern Ghazni, Afghanistan.[7] These areas were on the ancient Silk Road, and the Li family were likely merchants.[8]
While she was pregnant with him, Li Bai's mother had a dream of a great white star falling from heaven. This seems to have contributed to the idea of his being a banished immortal (one of his nicknames).[9] That the Great White Star was synonymous with Venus, helps to explain his style name, "Tai Bai".
In 705, when Li Bai was four years old, his father secretly moved his family to Sichuan, near Chengdu, where he spent his childhood.[10] There is currently a monument commemorating this in Zhongba Town, Jiangyou, Sichuan province.
The young Bai read extensively, including Confucian classics such as The Classic of Poetry (Shijing) and the Classic of History (Shujing), as well as various astrological and metaphysical materials which the Confucians tended to eschew.[10] He also engaged in other activities, such as taming wild birds and sword play.[10] Apparently, he became accomplished in the martial arts; this autobiographical quote by Li Bai helps to illustrate the wild life that he led in the Sichuan of his youth:
When I was fifteen, I was fond of sword play, and with that art I challenged quite a few great men.
Before he was twenty years of age, Li had fought and killed several men, apparently for reasons of chivalry, in accordance with the knight-errant tradition (youxia).[10]
In 720, he was interviewed by Governor Su Ting, who considered him a genius. Though he expressed the wish to become an official, he never took the civil service examination.
The China of Li Bai and Du Fu
In his mid-twenties, about 725, Li Bai left Sichuan, sailing down the Yangzi River, through Dongting Lake, to Nanjing, beginning his days of wandering. He then went back up-river, to Yunmeng, in what is now Hubei, where his marriage to the granddaughter of a retired Prime Minister, Xu Yushi, seems to have formed but a brief interlude.[12] During the first year of his trip, he met celebrities and gave away much of his wealth to needy friends.
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 735, Li Bai was in Shanxi, where he intervened in a court martial against Guo Ziyi, who was later, after becoming one of the top Tang generals, to repay the favour, during the An Shi disturbances.[9]
By perhaps 740, he had moved to Shandong. It was in Shandong, at this time, that he became one of the group known as the "Six Idlers of the Bamboo Brook", an informal group dedicated to literature and wine.[9]
He wandered about the area of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, eventually making friends with a famous Daoist priest, Wu Yun.[9]
In 742, Wu Yun was summoned by the Emperor to attend the imperial court, where his praise of Li Bai was great.[9]
Wu Yun's praise of Li Bai led the Emperor to summon Li to the court in Chang'an, as well, where he met the Emperor of China, Ming Huang (born Li Longji and also known as Emperor Xuanzong). His personality fascinated the aristocrats and common people alike, including another Taoist (and poet) He Zhizhang who bestowed upon him the nickname "the Transcendent dismissed from the Heaven", or "Immortal Exiled from Heaven".[9] Indeed, after an initial audience, where he was questioned upon his political views the Emperor was so impressed that he held a big banquet in his honor. At this banquet the Emperor was said to show his favor, even to the extent of personally seasoning his soup for him.[9][13]
Emperor Ming Huang found employment for him as a translator, as Li Bai knew at least one non-Chinese language.[9] Ming Huang eventually 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 often drunk, but quite capable of performing on the spot.
Li Bai wrote several poems about the Emperor's beautiful and beloved Yang Guifei, the favorite royal consort.[14] Once, while drunk, Li Bai had gotten his boots muddy, and Gao Lishi, the most politically powerful eunuch in the palace, was asked to assist in the removal of these, in front of the emperor. Gao, took offense at being asked to perform this menial service, and later managed to persuade Yang Guifei to take offense at Li's poems concerning her.[14]
At the persuasion of Yang Guifei and Gao Lishi, Ming Huang reluctantly, but politely, and with large gifts of gold and silver, sent Li Bai away from the royal court.[15]
After leaving the court, Li Bai formally became a Taoist, making a home in Shandong, but wandering here and there for the next ten some years, writing poems.[15]
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.
Riders on Horseback, Northern Qi Dynasty, the general area of the rebel heartland, although of an earlier date.
At the end of 756, the An Lushan disorders burst across the land. The Emperor eventually fled to Sichuan; then, later, during the confusion, the Crown Prince opportunely declared himself the head of government. As the An Shi disturbances continued, Li Bai became an adviser to one of Ming Huang's sons, who was far from the top of the primogeniture list, yet nevertheless apparently made his own bid for the imperial power. Upon the defeat of the Prince's forces, Li Bai escaped, but was later captured, imprisoned in Jiujiang, and sentenced to death. Through the intervention of the by then famous and powerful Army General Guo Ziyi, whom he had a couple of decades earlier saved from a court martial, and who offered to exchange his official rank for Li Bai's life;[15] thus, his death sentence was commuted to exile in remote Yelang, in Yunnan,[15] towards which he proceeded quite slowly, writing poems along the way. He was subsequently pardoned before he ever reached Yelang.[15]
When Li received the news of his imperial reprieve he then returned down the river to Jiangxi, passing on the way through Baidicheng, still writing poetry: his poem "Departing from Baidi in the Morning" records this stage of his travels. Although he did not cease his wandering lifestyle, he generally confined his travels to Nanjing and two cities in Anhui, Xuancheng and Li Yang (in modern Zhao County).[15] Eventually, in 762, his relative Li Yangbing became magistrate of Dangtu, and Li Bai went to stay with him there.[15]
The new emperor, Daizong named Li Bai the Registrar of the Left Commandant's office in 762. However, by the time that the imperial edict arrived in Dangtu, Anhui, Li Bai was already dead.
There is a long and sometimes fanciful tradition regarding his death, from uncertain sources, that Li Bai drowned after falling from his boat when he tried to embrace the reflection of the moon in the Yangtze River, something later believed by Herbert Giles.[15] However, the actual cause appears to have been natural enough, although perhaps related to his hard-living lifestyle. Nevertheless, the legend that Li Bai died trying to embrace the reflection of the moon has entered Chinese culture, and is considered to be synonymous to an illusion.[16]
There is a memorial to Li Bai, just west of Ma'anshan.
The only surviving calligraphy in Li Bai's own handwriting, titled
Shangyangtai (
Going Up To Sun Terrace), located at the
Palace Museum in
Beijing, China.
[17]
Criticism of Li Bai's works has focused on his strong sense of the continuity of poetic tradition, his glorification of alcoholic beverages (and, indeed, frank celebration of drunkenness), his use of persona, the fantastic extremes of some of his imagery, his violations of formal poetic rules – and his ability to combine all of these with a seemingly effortless virtuosity in order to produce inimitable poetry.
Li Bai has been known to be a skilled calligrapher,[18] though there is only one surviving piece of Li Bai's work in his own handwriting that exists today.[17] The piece is titled Shangyangtai (Going Up To Sun Terrace), a 38.1 cm by 28.5 cm long scroll; the calligraphy is housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing, China.[18]
Although many of Li Bai's poems have survived, even more have been lost. From the editorial perspective, some difficulty exists regarding variant textual versions of his poems. One of the earliest endeavors at editing Li Bai's work was by his relative Li Yangbing, to whom Li Bai finally entrusted his manuscripts.
Li Bai had a strong sense of himself as being part of a poetic tradition. Burton Watson, comparing him to Du Fu, says his poetry, "is essentially backward-looking, that it represents more a revival and fulfillment of past promises and glory than a foray into the future."[1] Watson adds, as evidence, that of all the poems attributed to Li Bai, about one sixth are in the form of yue fu, or, in other words, reworked lyrics from traditional folk ballads.[19] As further evidence, Watson cites the existence of a fifty-nine poem collection by Li Bai entitled Gu Feng, or In the Old Manner, which is, in part, tribute to the poetry of the Han and Wei dynasties.[20] His admiration for certain particular poets is also shown through specific allusions, for example to Qu Yuan or Tao Yuanming, and occasionally by name, for example Du Fu.
A more general appreciation for history, is shown on the part of Li Bai in his poems of the huaigu genre,[21] or meditations on the past, wherein following "one of the perennial themes of Chinese poetry," "the poet contemplates the ruins of past glory."[22]
Many of the Classical Chinese poets were associated with drinking wine, or more precisely, alcoholic beverages, such as choujiu, baijiu, or even grape wine. In fact, Li Bai was part of the group of Chinese scholars during his time in Chang'an, called the "Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup", as mentioned in a poem by fellow poet Du Fu. However, Li Bai is of special note in this respect. As John C. H. Wu put it, "[w]hile some may have drunk more wine than Li [Bai], no-one has written more poems about wine."[23] Or as Burton Watson put it, "[n]early all Chinese poets celebrate the joys of wine and white liquor, but none so tirelessly and with such a note of genuine conviction as Li [Bai]."[24]
Due to his championship of drunkenness together with his wandering life-style, Li Bai's poetry has been criticized on moral grounds.[by whom?]
One of Li Bai's most famous titles is Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day (春日醉起言志. A translation by Arthur Waley):[25] is as follows:
- Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day 春日醉起言志
- 處世若大夢, Life in the world is but a big dream;
- 胡爲勞其生. I will not spoil it by any labour or care
- 所以終日醉, so saying, I was drunk all the day,
- 頹然臥前楹. lying helpless at the porch in front of my door
- 覺來盼庭前, when I awoke, I blinked at the garden-lawn;
- 一鳥花間鳴. a lonely bird was singing amid the flowers
- 借問此何時, I asked myself, had the day been wet or fine?
- 春風語流鶯. the Spring wind was telling the mango-bird
- 感之欲嘆息, moved by its song I soon began to sigh,
- 對酒還自傾. and, as wine was there, I filled my own cup
- 浩歌待明月, wildly singing I waited for the moon to rise;
- 曲盡已忘情. when my song was over, all my senses had gone
An important characteristic of Li Bai's poetry "is the fantasy and note of childlike wonder and playfulness that pervade so much of it."[20] Burton Watson attributes this to a fascination with the daoshi, Taoist recluses who practiced alchemy and austerities in the mountains, in the aim of becoming xian, or immortal beings.[20] There is a strong element of Taoism in his works, both in the sentiments they express and in their spontaneous tone, and "many of his poems deal with mountains, often descriptions of ascents that midway modulate into journeys of the imagination, passing from actual mountain scenery to visions of nature deities, immortals, and 'jade maidens' of Taoist lore."[20] Watson sees this as another affirmation of Li Bai's affinity with the past, and a continuity with the traditions of the Chuci and the early fu.[24] Watson finds this "element of fantasy" to be behind Li Bai's use of hyperbole and the "playful personifications" of mountains and celestial objects.[24]
Li Bai also wrote a number of poems from various viewpoints, including the personae of women. For example, he wrote several poems in the Zi Ye, or "Lady Midnight" style, as well as Han folk-ballad style poems.
Li Bai is well known for the technical virtuosity of his poetry and the mastery of his verses.[1] In terms of poetic form, "critics generally agree that Li [Bai] produced no significant innovations....In theme and content also, his poetry is notable less for the new elements it introduces than for the skill with which he brightens the old ones."[1]
Burton Watson comments on Li Bai's famous poem, which he translates "Bring the Wine": "...like so much of Li [Bai]'s work, it has a grace and effortless dignity that somehow make it more compelling than earlier treatment of the same."[26]
Li Bai especially excelled in the gushi form, or "old style" poems, a type of poetry allowing a great deal of freedom in terms of the form and content of the work. An example is his poem "蜀道難", translated by Witter Bynner as "Hard Roads in Shu." Shu is a poetic term for Sichuan, the destination of refuge that Emperor Xuanzong considered fleeing to escape the approaching forces of the rebel General An Lushan. Watson comments that, this poem, "employs lines that range in length from four to eleven characters, the form of the lines suggesting by their irregularity the jagged peaks and bumpy mountain roads of Sichuan depicted in the poem."[1]
Li Bai was also noted as a master of the cut-verse, or jueju.[27]
Li Bai was noted for his mastery of the lushi, or "regulated verse", the formally most demanding verse form of the times: however, he was especially noted for his successful violations of its strict rules.[28]
Spring Evening Banquet at the Peach and Pear Blossom Garden with quoted text by Li Bai, painted by
Leng Mei, late 17th/early 18th cent.
National Palace Museum, Taipei
Li Bai's poetry was immensely influential in his own time, as well as for subsequent generations in China. His influence has also been demonstrated in the immediate geographical area of Chinese cultural influence, being known as Ri Haku in Japan. This influence continues even today. Examples range from poetry to painting and to literature.
In his own lifetime, during his many wanderings and while he was attending court in Chang'an, met and parted from various contemporary poets. These meetings and separations were a typical occasion for versification in the tradition of the literate Chinese of the time, a prime example being his relationship with Du Fu.
After his lifetime, his influence continued to grow. Some four centuries later, during the Song Dynasty, for example, just in the case of his poem that is sometimes translated "Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon", the poet Yang Wanli wrote a whole poem alluding to it (and to two other Li Bai poems), in the same gushi, or Old-style Poetry form.[29] In the Ming Dynasty, Duan shuqing, dedicated her poem Taibai Tower to him. In the Twentieth century, Li Bai even influenced the poetry of Mao Zedong.
In China, his poem "Quiet Night Thoughts", reflecting a nostalgia of a traveller away from home,[30] has been widely "memorized by school children and quoted by adults".[31]
The ideas underlying Li Bai's poetry 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 into his symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde. These were derived from a free German translation by Hans Bethge, published in an anthology called Die chinesische Flöte (The Chinese Flute),[32] Bethge based his version on the pioneering translation into French by Saint-Denys.[33] There is another striking musical setting of Li Bai'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.[34] In Brazil, the songwriter Beto Furquim included a musical setting of the poem "Jing Ye Si" in his album "Muito Prazer" (2008, ISRC BR-OQQ-08-00002).
Li Bai is influential in the West partly due to Ezra Pound's versions of some of his poems in the collection Cathay.[35] 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",[35] record the hardships or emotions of common people. An example of the liberal, but poetically influential, translations, or adaptations, of Japanese versions of his poems made, largely based on the work of Ernest Fenollosa and professors Mori and Ariga.[35]
Simon Elegant novelized Li Bai's life in his 1997 work, A Floating Life.[36] 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.[37] A crater on the planet Mercury has been named after him.
MacDonald Harris' novel 'Herma' (Atheneum, 1981) refers to Li Bai under the name of Li Po, citing one of his poems and describing the reports of his death (page 175).
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.
Text of Li Bai's poem
Drinking Alone by Moonlight, in the classical top-to-bottom, right-to-left order.
First information of Li Bai in modern Europe is documented in Jean Joseph Marie Amiot's in his Portraits des Célèbres Chinois of his Mémoires (1776–1797).[2] Further translations into French were accomplished by Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys in his 1862 Poésies de l'Époque des Thang.[33]
Joseph Edkins read a paper, "On Li Tai-po", to the Peking Oriental Society in 1888, which was subsequently published in that society's journal.[2] The English-speaking world was introduced to Herbert Allen Giles translations of Li Bai in Gile's 1898 publication Chinese Poetry in English Verse, and again in his History of Chinese Literature, in 1901.[38] The third "old school"[39] translator of Li Bai into English was L. Cranmer-Byng (Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng, (1872–1945), whose Lute of Jade: Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China appeared in 1909 and whose A Feast of Lanterns was published in 1916 – both volumes featuring translations of "Li Po".
More modern renditions of Li Bai's poetry into English were performed by Ezra Pound (in Cathay, 1915) and Amy Lowell (in Fir-Flower Tablets, 1921), though neither directly from the Chinese: Pound relying on the work of Ernest Fenollosa and professors Mori and Ariga, and Lowell on Florence Ayscough. Witter Bynner with the help of Kiang Kang-hu made some translations (in The Jade Mountain); and, Arthur Waley made a few translations of Li Bai, although not his preferred poet, into English (in the Asiatic Review, and included in his More Translations from the Chinese). Shigeyoshi Obata, in his 1922 The Works of Li Po, made what he claimed to be "the first attempt ever made to deal with any single Chinese poet exclusively in one book for the purpose of introducing him to the English-speaking world.[2] In the 1979 album China, by electronic composer Vangelis, the poem Drinking Alone by Moonlight is re-titled as "Little Fete" and is recited against a background of chimes, flutes and synthesizers.
Li Bai's poem Drinking Alone by Moonlight (月下獨酌, pinyin: Yuè Xià Dú Zhuó), translated by Arthur Waley, reads:[40]
- 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, together 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 a friend and the shadow as a slave
- 行樂須及春。 I must make merry before the spring has ended
- 我歌月徘徊。 to the songs that I sing, the moon flickers her beams;
- 我舞影零亂。 with 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 own way
- 永結無情遊。 may we long share our eternal friendship,
- 相期邈雲漢。 and, meet be together again in paradise
- ^ a b c d e Watson, 141
- ^ a b c d Obata, v
- ^ Obata, Part III
- ^ Beckwith, 127
- ^ Obata, 8
- ^ Wu, 57-58
- ^ Elling Eide, "On Li Po", Perspectives on the T'ang (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1973), 388.
- ^ Eide (1973), 389.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wu, 59
- ^ a b c d Wu, 58
- ^ Wu, 58. Translation by Wu. Note that by East Asian age reckoning, this would be fourteen rather than fifteen years in terms of age.
- ^ Wu, 58-59
- ^ Obata, 201
- ^ a b Wu, 60
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wu, 61
- ^ "黃大仙靈簽11至20簽新解". http://www.fengshuihk.net/master-fate/896-1120-.html.
- ^ a b Belbin, Charles and T.R. Wang. "Going Up To Sun Terrace by Li Bai: An Explication, Translation & History". Flashpoint Magazine. http://www.flashpointmag.com/libai10.htm. "It is now housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing. Scholars commonly acknowledge it as authentic and the only known surviving piece of calligraphy by Li Bai."
- ^ a b Arts of Asia: Volume 30 (2000). Selected paintings and calligraphy acquired by the Palace Museum in the last fifty years. Arts of Asia. p. 56.
- ^ Watson, 141-142
- ^ a b c d Watson, 142
- ^ Watson, 145
- ^ Watson, 88
- ^ Wu, 66
- ^ a b c Watson, 143
- ^ Waley, Arthur (1919). Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day
- ^ Watson, 144
- ^ Watson, 146
- ^ Watson, 147
- ^ Frankel, 22
- ^ How to read Chinese poetry: a guided anthology By Zong-qi Cai p. 210. Columbia University Press [1]
- ^ Speaking of Chinese By Raymond Chang, Margaret Scrogin Chang p. 176 WW Norton & Company [2]
- ^ Bethge, Hans (2001). Die Chinesische Flöte (YinYang Media Verlag, Kelkheim, Germany). ISBN 978-3-9806799-5-4. Re-issue of the 1907 edition (Insel Verlag, Leipzig).
- ^ a b 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 978-0-231-09676-8.
- ^ Obata, Shigeyoshi (1923). The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet (J. M. Dent & Co, ). ASIN B000KL7LXI
- ^ a b c Pound, Ezra (1915). Cathay (Elkin Mathews, London). ASIN B00085NWJI.
- ^ Elegant, Simon (1997). A Floating Life (Ecco Press, ). ISBN 978-0-88001-559-2
- ^ New York: ROC/Penguin (ISBN 978-0451463302), 2010
- ^ Obata, v-vi
- ^ Obata, vi
- ^ 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.
- Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009): Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2.
- Cooper, Arthur (1973). Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems Selected and Translated with an Introduction and Notes (Penguin Classics, 1973). ISBN 978-0-14-044272-4.
- Eberhard, Wolfram A history of China (online), February 7, 2006 [EBook #17695], ISO-8859-1
- Edkins, Joseph (1888). "Li Tai-po as a Poet", The China Review, Vol. 17 No. 1 (1888 Jul) <http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/26/2602182.pdf>. Retrieved from <http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/result.jsp?noOfRec=20&totalRec=182&img=h&firstRec=61>, 19 January 2011.
- Eide, Elling (1973). "On Li Po", in Perspectives on the T'ang. New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 367-403.
- Frankel, Hans H. (1978). The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) ISBN 0-300-02242-5.
- Hinton, David (2008). Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-10536-7 / ISBN 978-0-374-10536-5.
- Hinton, David (1998). The Selected Poems of Li Po (Anvil Press Poetry, 1998). ISBN 978-0-85646-291-7 .
- Holyoak, K. (translator) (2007). Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu. (Durham, NH: Oyster River Press). ISBN 978-1-882291-04-5.
- Pound, Ezra (1915). Cathay (Elkin Mathews, London). ASIN B00085NWJI
- Obata, Shigeyoshi (1923). The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet (J. M. Dent & Co, ). ASIN B000KL7LXI.
- Stimson, Hugh M. (1976). Fifty-five T'ang Poems. Far Eastern Publications: Yale University. ISBN 0-88710-026-0* Seth, V. (translator) (1992). Three Chinese Poets: Translations of Poems by Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu. (London: Faber & Faber). ISBN 0-571-16653-9.
- Varsano, Paula M. (2003). "Tracking the Banished Immortal: The Poetry of Li Bo and its Critical Reception" (University of Hawaii Press, 2003). ISBN 978-0-8248-2573-7
- Waley, Arthur (1950). The poetry and career of Li Po (MacMillan Co., New York, 1950). ASIN B0006ASTS4.
- Weinberger, Eliot. The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry. (New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004). ISBN 0-8112-1605-5. Introduction, with translations by William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, and David Hinton.
- Watson, Burton (1971). CHINESE LYRICISM: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-03464-4
- Wu, John C. H. (1972). The Four Seasons of Tang Poetry. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle. ISBN 978-0-8048-0197-3
Online translations (some with original Chinese, pronunciation, and literal translation):
- Li Bai's poems at University of Michigan
- Li Bai Poems in English
- Poems by Li Bai at Poems Found in Translation
- Li Bai: Poems Extensive collection of Li Bai poems in English
- 20 Li Bai poems, in Chinese using simplified and traditional characters and pinyin, with literal and literary English translations by Mark Alexander.
- 34 Li Bai poems, in Chinese with English translation by Witter Bynner, from the Three Hundred Tang Poems anthology.
- Complete text of Cathay, the Ezra Pound/Ernest Fenollosa translations of poems principally by Li Po (J., Rihaku) together with public domain recordings (MP3) of the same
- 27 Recordings of "Drinking Alone by Moonlight," from the LibriVox website. Retrieved July 1, 2007.
- Das Lied von der Erde: The Literary Changes – synopsis of original Chinese poems, Bethge's translations and Mahler's changes
- Profile Variety of translations of Li Bai's poetry by a range of translators, along with photographs of geographical sites relevant to his life.
- At Project Gutenberg from More Translations From The Chinese by Arthur Waley, 1919 (includes six titles of poems by Li Po).
- The works of Li Po, the Chinese poet, translated by Shigeyoshi Obata Google books version of Obata's 1922 translation.
Guqin related
| Persondata |
| Name |
Bai, Li |
| Alternative names |
Li Po; 李白 (Chinese); Lǐ Bái (pinyin) |
| Short description |
Chinese Poet |
| Date of birth |
701 |
| Place of birth |
Suiye in Central Asia |
| Date of death |
762 |
| Place of death |
Yangtze River |
![French literary figures. Clockwise from top left: Molière is the most played author in the Comédie-Française;[280] Victor Hugo is one of the most important French novelists and poets, and is sometimes seen as the greatest French writer of all time.[281] 19th century poet, writer, and translator Charles Baudelaire; 20th century philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre.](http://web.archive.org./web/20120915014251/http://cdn6.wn.com/pd/70/ad/bbf651962c4f3ed5f2ed355bedd3_medium.jpg "French literary figures. Clockwise from top left: Molière is the most played author in the Comédie-Française;[280] Victor Hugo is one of the most important French novelists and poets, and is sometimes seen as the greatest French writer of all time.[281] 19th century poet, writer, and translator Charles Baudelaire; 20th century philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre.")
![French literary figures. Clockwise from top left: Molière is the most played author in the Comédie-Française;[280] Victor Hugo is one of the most important French novelists and poets, and is sometimes seen as the greatest French writer of all time.[281] 19th century poet, writer, and translator Charles Baudelaire; 20th century philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre.](http://web.archive.org./web/20120915014251/http://cdn2.wn.com/pd/54/08/24993da19f819917c88dc211c6ef_medium.jpg "French literary figures. Clockwise from top left: Molière is the most played author in the Comédie-Française;[280] Victor Hugo is one of the most important French novelists and poets, and is sometimes seen as the greatest French writer of all time.[281] 19th century poet, writer, and translator Charles Baudelaire; 20th century philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre.")
