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Bai Li 701 - 762 (61)

What is there to value in this life's vaporous glory?


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selected poems



Li Bai (李白, 701–762 AD) was a great Chinese poet of the Golden Age of China during the Tang Dynasty. He was born in present-day Turkestan in Central Asia, which was then in Chinese territory. His parents lived there in exile. When Li was 5 years old, they were allowed to return to their homeland, Sichuan Province, which was one of the most civilized areas in China. According to descriptions, Li Bai was taller than the average Chinese man and had big eyes and big lips. He trained in martial arts but at the age of 20 he decided to become a hermit and turn to meditation. He climbed a high mountain where he focused on the study of literary and religious texts and quickly gained a reputation for his wisdom and poetic talent.

After 4 years of isolation and study of Taoism, which he adopted against Confucianism, feeling spiritually ready, he began to travel in China. He lived his life traveling, spreading Taoism, writing poems and visiting other poets and intellectuals. It seems that during his travels he had 4 marriages and according to reports he had at least 10 children. In 740, he spent a period of one year with 5 other writers, forming an informal group dedicated to poetry and wine, called the "Six Lazy in the Bamboo River".

In 742, when he visited the capital Changan, he was warmly received by the imperial court and appointed to a high-ranking position at the Han Lin Academy. He was ousted in 744, either because some people were annoyed and accused him that one of his poems was directed against the regime, or according to other sources, because he was drunk and creating episodes.

Thus, Li Bai resumed wandering in the mountains and cities of China, which were abruptly halted when he became involved in an uprising. He was then tried and sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to exile in the far south-west of the empire. In 758 he was granted amnesty and returned to eastern China, where he died in 762. According to legend, he died of drowning when, drunk in his boat, he tried to catch the reflection of the moon in the water. His poetry has remained alive to this day, influenced by Taoist mysticism, with an obvious love for wine, love and the joys of life.