儿子的新作
热度 6 已有 92 次阅读 2022-8-8 11:09 系统分类:成长记录
Who was Li Bai?
The Tang Dynasty was one of the greatest in Imperial Chinese history. It was a time when Chinese culture was growing and becoming more advanced. Poetry of the Tang Dynasty was at it’s highest in Chinese history, and its premier poet was, no doubt Li Bai.
Li Bai, also known as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai, art name Qinglian Jushi, was a Chinese poet, acclaimed as a brilliant and romantic figure who took traditional Chinese poetry beyond existing level.
Li Bai was born in 701 in Qinglian, Sichuan. Although some accounts say that he was born in Suyab, in present-day Kyrgyzstan, it’s generally known that Li spent most of his childhood in Sichuan and that his father led a great migration from northwestern China to Sichuan sometime around Li’s birth.
Li’s family was wealthy from selling salt. They supported his study in poetry, literature, and art. When Li was ten, his father had already taught him most of the well-known poems and essays written by Chinese scholars. At 15, he could write his own.
When Li turned 18, he went out of his hometown for the first time to find a good teacher. In the Tang Dynasty, if you want to attend the government exams, you had to belong to an important family or get a recommendation from a respected person. Li’s family wasn’t important, just rich. So, his way was to pay visits to famous writers, teachers, and scholars, then show them his works in literature and ask for a recommendation. The first individual he went to was Li Yong, a famous writer at that time. Li Bai was certain that he could receive Yong’s appreciation. Instead, Yong thought he was wildly arrogant, and chased him away for good.
Li was beaten back but not defeated. He wrote a poem to express his discontent. Then he took his first step on a journey that would take him out of Sichuan and across China. He had an attractive personality, so he made friends wherever he went. Then he married the chancellor’s granddaughter in 728. He still tried to find someone that could and would recommend him, but in the meantime he could settle down. That doesn’t last long. Li left home again just the second year after his marriage. He met the poet Meng Haoran, who became his best friend.
The year 730 was not a good year Li Bai. First, he was framed by some really bad government officials, then his letter to the emperor didn’t clear his name. He wasn’t really punished, but he lost his money and fame. In 731, he was living on the streets.
Li was quick to regain what he had lost, though. At the start of 734, he began writing poems to the emperor in an effort to be recognized by the emperor. The emperor liked what he wrote and arranged for him to be an official in court. Li’s dream of politics was finally coming true. The emperor really liked Li and invited him to all ceremonies. However, many people were jealous, again. Li was framed for a second time. This time he didn’t hesitate to move away. He went home and lived like a hermit and wrote poems. He made friends with Du Fu and hung out with him all the time.
In 761, he moved to Jinling and died there in 762 at the age of 61. He was poor and alone.
To get how good Li’s poetry was, let’s have a look at The Three Hundred Tang Poems, a respected collection of the best Chinese poems. There are 27 poems written by Li in it. Although it only ranked the third, its ratio is the highest. Li only wrote about 900 poems. On the other hand, Du Fu wrote more than 1500, Lu You wrote around 9000. Their ratio is much lower than Li’s. Li was the best know poet in Chinese history ever. When I was three, I didn’t even know who the chairman of China is, but I know Li Bai. I’ve learned his poems and recited them over and over again in my own will, once I was so touched by one of his poems that I cried (happened when I was only two or three). It would be many years later that I began to learn about other poets and there works.
