Li Bai
2 min readLi Bai（701-762），Chinese style name Taibai（太白），was a List of Chinese poet living in Tang Dynasty.
Renowned as the Poet Immortal，Li Bai was among the most well-respected poets in China’s literary history.Approximately 1100 poems of his remain today.
Li Bai is best known for the extravagant imagination and striking Taoismimagery in his poetry，as well as for his great love for liquor.
Early Life
Li Bai was the son of a rich merchant；his birthplace is uncertain.His family moved to Jiangyou，near modern Chengdu in Sichuan province，when he was 5 years old.
He was influenced by Confucianism and Taoism thought，but ultimately his family heritage did not provide him with much opportunity in the aristocratic Tang dynasty.
Though he expressed the wish to become an official，he did not sit for the Chinese civil service examination.Instead，beginning at age 25，he travelled around China，affecting a wild and free persona very much contrary to the prevailing ideas of a proper Confucian gentleman.This portrayal fascinated the aristocrats and common people alike and he was introduced to the Emperor Xuanzong of Tang around 742.
He was given a post at the Hanlin Academy，which served to provide a source of scholarly expertise for the emperor.Li Bai remained less than two years as a poet in the Emperor’s service before he was dismissed for an unknown indiscretion.
Thereafter he wandered throughout China for the rest of his life.
Poetry
Over a thousand poems are attributed to him，but the authenticity of many of these is uncertain.He is best known for his yue fu poems，which are intense and often fantastic.He is often associated with Taoism:there is a strong element of this in his works，both in the sentiments they express and in their spontaneous tone.Nevertheless，his gufeng（“ancient airs”）often adopt the perspective of the Confucian moralist，and many of his occasional verses are fairly conventional.
Much like the genius of Mozart there exist many legends on how effortlessly Li Bai composed his poetry，even（or some say，especially）when drunk；his favorite form is the jueju（five-or seven-character quatrain），of which he composed some 160 pieces.Using striking，unconventional imagery，Li Bai is able to create exquisite pieces to utilize fully the elements of the language.His use of language is not as erudite as Du Fu’s but equally effective，impressing through an extravagance of imagination and a direct connection of a free-spirited persona with the reader.Li Bai’s interactions with nature，friendship，and his acute observations of life inform his best poems.Some of the rest，like Changgan xing，records the hardships or emotions of common people.Like the best Chinese poets，Li Bai often evades translation.
One of Li Bai’s most famous poems is”Drinking Alone under the Moon”，which is a good example of some of the most famous aspects of his poetry-a very spontaneous poem，full of natural imagery and anthropomorphism.
