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Li Bai

Li Bai (Chinese: 李白; pinyin: Lǐ Bái, 701–762), formerly pronounced Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (太白), was a Chinese poet acclaimed as one of the greatest and most important poets of the Tang dynasty and in Chinese history as a whole. He and his friend Du Fu (712–770) were two of the most prominent figures in the flourishing of Chinese poetry under the Tang dynasty, which is often called the "Golden Age of Chinese Poetry". The expression "Three Wonders" denotes Li Bai's poetry, Pei Min's swordplay, and Zhang Xu's calligraphy.[2]

For other uses, see Li Bai (disambiguation) and Li Bo (disambiguation).

Li Bai

李白

701
Jiangyou, Sichuan, Tang China[1]
or
Suiye, Tang China (now Chüy Region, Kyrgyzstan)

762 (aged 60–61)
Dangtu, Tang China (now Ma'anshan, Anhui, China)

Poet

Chinese

Tang poetry

李白

Lǐ Bái (col.)
Lǐ Bó (lit.)

Lǐ Bái (col.)
Lǐ Bó (lit.)

Li3 Pai2 (col.)
Li3 Po2 (lit.)

[lì pǎɪ] (col.)
[lì pwǒ]  (lit.)

Lij Baq

Léih Baahk

Lei5 Baak6

[lei˩˧ paːk̚˨]

Lí Pe̍k

Ljɨ Bɐk, or Lǐ Bhæk

太白

Taìbaí

Taìbaí

青蓮居士

青莲居士

Lotus Householder

Qīnglián Jūshì

Qīnglián Jūshì

Lý Bạch

이백

李白

Yi Baek

Yi Baek

I P'aek

李白

りはく

Ri Haku

Ri Haku

Around 1,000 poems attributed to Li are extant. His poems have been collected into the most important Tang dynasty collection, Heyue yingling ji,[3] compiled in 753 by Yin Fan. Thirty-four of Li Bai's poems are included in the anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems, which was first published in the 18th century.[4] Around the same time, translations of his poems began to appear in Europe. The poems became models for celebrating the pleasures of friendship, the depth of nature, solitude, and the joys of drinking. Among the most famous are "Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day" (Chinese: 春日醉起言志), "The Hard Road to Shu" (Chinese: 蜀道难),[5] "Bring in the Wine" (Chinese: 将进酒),[6] and "Quiet Night Thought" (Chinese: 静夜思), which are still taught in schools in China. In the West, multilingual translations of Li's poems continue to be made. His life has even taken on a legendary aspect, including tales of drunkenness and chivalry, and the well-known tale that Li drowned when he reached from his boat to grasp the moon's reflection in the river while he was drunk.


Much of Li's life is reflected in his poems, which are about places he visited; friends whom he saw off on journeys to distant locations, perhaps never to meet again; his own dream-like imaginings, embroidered with shamanic overtones; current events of which he had news; descriptions of nature, perceived as if in a timeless moment; and more. However, of particular importance are the changes in China during his lifetime. His early poems were written in a "golden age" of internal peace and prosperity, under an emperor who actively promoted and participated in the arts. This ended with the beginning of the rebellion of general An Lushan, which eventually left most of Northern China devastated by war and famine. Li's poems during this period take on new tones and qualities. Unlike his younger friend Du Fu, Li did not live to see the end of the chaos. Li Bai is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu (無雙譜, Table of Peerless Heroes) by Jin Guliang.

Translation[edit]

Li Bai's poetry was introduced to Europe by Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, a Jesuit missionary in Beijing, in his Portraits des Célèbres Chinois, published in the series Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages, &c. des Chinois, par les missionnaires de Pekin. (1776–1797).[63] Further translations into French were published by Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys in his 1862 Poésies de l'Époque des Thang.[64]


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.[65] The early sinologist Herbert Allen Giles included translations of Li Bai in his 1898 publication Chinese Poetry in English Verse, and again in his History of Chinese Literature (1901).[66] The third early translator into English was L. Cranmer-Byng (1872–1945). His Lute of Jade: Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China (1909) and A Feast of Lanterns (1916) both featured Li's poetry.


Renditions of Li Bai's poetry into modernist English poetry were influential through Ezra Pound in Cathay (1915) and Amy Lowell in Fir-Flower Tablets (1921). Neither worked directly from the Chinese: Pound relied on more or less literal, word for word, though not terribly accurate, translations of Ernest Fenollosa and what Pound called the "decipherings" of professors Mori and Ariga; Lowell on those of Florence Ayscough. Witter Bynner with the help of Kiang Kang-hu included several of Li's poems in The Jade Mountain (1939). Although Li was not his preferred poet, Arthur Waley translated a few of his poems into English for the Asiatic Review, and included them in his More Translations from the Chinese. Shigeyoshi Obata, in his 1922 The Works of Li Po, claimed he had made "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."[63] A translation of Li Bai's poem Green Moss by poet William Carlos Williams was sent as a letter to Chinese American poet David Rafael Wang where Williams was seen as having a similar tone as Pound.[67]


Li Bai became a favorite among translators for his straightforward and seemingly simple style. Later translations are too numerous to discuss here, but an extensive selection of Li's poems, translated by various translators, is included in John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau, Classical Chinese Literature (2000)[68]

Portrayed by Wong Wai-leung in the 2000 television series

The Legend of Lady Yang

An actor playing Li Bai narrates the and Reflections of China films at the China Pavilion at Epcot

Wonders of China

Li Bai's poem 'Hard Roads in Shu' is sung by a Chinese singer AnAn in a Liu Bei trailer for a game [69]

Total War: Three Kingdoms

He appears as a "great writer" in the game [70]

Civilization VI

He appears as the main character in the 2023 Movie Chang'an

Light Chaser Animation Studios

(1973). Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems Selected and Translated with an Introduction and Notes (Penguin Classics, 1973). ISBN 978-0-14-044272-4.

Cooper, Arthur

(2008). Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-10536-7, 978-0-374-10536-5

Hinton, David

(1998). The Selected Poems of Li Po (Anvil Press Poetry, 1998). ISBN 978-0-85646-291-7

Hinton, David

(translator) (2007). Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu. (Durham, NH: Oyster River Press). ISBN 978-1-882291-04-5

Holyoak, Keith

Obata, Shigeyoshi (1922). The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet. (New York: Dutton). Reprinted: New York: Paragon, 1965. .

Free E-Book

(1996). An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-97106-6.

Owen, Stephen

(1915). Cathay (Elkin Mathews, London). ASIN B00085NWJI

Pound, Ezra

Smith, Kidder and Zhai, Mike (2021). Punctum Press. ISBN 1953035418

Li Bo Unkempt.

(1976). Fifty-five T'ang Poems. Far Eastern Publications: Yale University. ISBN 0-88710-026-0

Stimson, Hugh M.

(translator) (1992). Three Chinese Poets: Translations of Poems by Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu. (London: Faber & Faber). ISBN 0-571-16653-9

Seth, Vikram

. The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry. (New York: New Directions, 2004). ISBN 0-8112-1605-5. Introduction, with translations by William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, and David Hinton.

Weinberger, Eliot

. Chinese Lyricism: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-03464-4

Watson, Burton (1971)

Mao, Xian (2013). . eBook: Kindle Direct Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4685-5904-0.

Children's Version of 60 Classical Chinese Poems

[孫瑜], translation, introduction, and commentary (1982). Li Po-A New Translation 李白詩新譯. Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, ISBN 962-07-1025-8

Sun, Yu

Hsieh, Chinghsuan Lily. "" (Archive) (PhD thesis). Ohio State University, 2004.

Chinese Poetry of Li Po Set by Four Twentieth Century British Composers: Bantock, Warlock, Bliss and Lambert

/ Kidder Smith, Mike Zhai // Punctum Books, 2021. — ISBN 9781953035417, 9781953035424; doi:10.21983/P3.0322.1.00.

Li Bo Unkempt

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Li Bai

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