Life of Li Bai
Li Bai (701～762), a poet of the Tang Dynasty. The courtesy name is Taibai, and the name is Qinglian Jushi. A native of Mianzhou Changlong (now Jiangyou, Sichuan).
Li Bai studied a wide range of subjects in his boyhood. In addition to Confucian classics and ancient literary and historical masterpieces, he also browsed the books of hundreds of schools of thought, and was "good at swordsmanship." He believes in Taoism and has otherworldly thoughts; at the same time, he also has political ambitions to make contributions. Few of the poems he wrote in Shu during his youth remain, but he has shown outstanding talent. When Li Bai was about twenty-five or six years old, he traveled to the east of Shu. In the next ten years, he roamed many places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River. Around the 18th year of Kaiyuan (730), he once arrived in Chang'an to strive for a political way out, but returned frustrated. In the first year of Tianbao (742), he was summoned to Chang'an by Xuanzong to serve in the Hanlin Academy. As a literary attendant, he participated in drafting documents and other work. Less than two years later, he was forced to resign and leave Beijing. During this period, Li Bai's poetry creation became mature. In the next 11 years, he continued to roam in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and Yangtze River, "traveling around the world and adapting himself to poetry and wine." He still cares about state affairs and hopes to regain his appointment in the court. In the third year of Tianbao, Li Bai met Du Fu in Luoyang and became friends. They broke up the following year and did not meet again. In the fourteenth year of Tianbao, the Anshi Rebellion broke out, and Li Bai was living in seclusion in Xuancheng (now part of Anhui) and Lushan. In December of the following year, he was invited to join the Yongwang Li Mufu with the desire to eliminate the rebellion and restore national unity. After King Yong was angry and killed Suzong, Li Bai was also convicted and imprisoned in Xunyang (today's Jiujiang, Jiangxi), and was soon exiled to Yelang (today's Tongzi, Guizhou). On the way, he was pardoned and returned home at the age of 59. In his later years, he lived in the Jiangnan area. When he was 61 years old, he heard that Taiwei Li Guangbi was leading an army out of Linhuai to attack the Anshi rebels. He also went north to prepare to join the army to kill the enemy, but he turned back due to illness on the way. The following year, he died of illness at his residence in Li Yangbing, the county magistrate of Congshu Dangtu (now part of Anhui).
Many of Li Bai's poems have been lost, but more than 900 of them are still in existence today, with rich and colorful content. Li Bai cared about national affairs throughout his life, hoping to make contributions to the country, but was dissatisfied with the dark reality. His 59 "Ancient Styles" are representative works in this regard. The dark corruption of Tang Xuanzong's late politics was extensively exposed and criticized, reflecting the sorrow and indignation of the virtuous people who had no way out. Talking too much makes you happy, and your spirit is high. Although Li Bai urgently wanted to make achievements and serve the country, he did not envy the glory and wealth, but believed that "bells, drums, food and jade are not expensive enough" ("Jian Jin Jiu"). After making great achievements, he should follow the example of Lu Zhonglian, a great scholar from the Warring States Period, and retire without any reward. His thoughts were obviously influenced by Taoism, especially Zhuangzi. Many of Li Bai's poems express his concern and sympathy for people's lives. This content is often combined with criticism of the rulers. Some of his Yuefu poems reflect the lives and pains of women. They focus on the memories of missing women and their conquests. They also write about the resentments of merchant wives, abandoned wives and palace maids. His "Xun Ni's Family at the foot of Wusong Mountain", "Ding Duhu Song", "Qiupu Song" and "Heaven and Earth Illuminated by Fire" respectively depict the lives of farmers, boatmen and miners, and show his care for the working people. Li Bai wrote many poems describing natural scenery throughout his life. His "The Road to Shu is more difficult than climbing to the blue sky" ("The Road to Shu is Difficult"), "If you don't see it, the water of the Yellow River comes up from the sky and rushes to the sea and never returns" ("Jian Jin Jiu"), "The water of the Yellow River flows down three thousand "Child, it is suspected that the Milky Way falls from the sky" ("Wanglu Mountain Waterfall"), etc., with majestic images and majestic momentum, are famous sayings that have been passed down through the ages. This type of poem, just like some of his works singing about the roc, expresses his heroic ambition and broad-mindedness, and reflects his desire to pursue extraordinary things from the side. Other poems, such as "Ascend the Xie Tiao North Tower in Xuancheng in Autumn", "Sitting Alone on Jingting Mountain", and "Longing on the Qingxi River", are good at depicting quiet scenery, fresh and meaningful, and their style is close to that of Wang Wei and Meng Haoran. Li Bai also wrote many poems singing about love and friendship. His Yuefu poems often express euphemistic and deep love from the perspective of a woman's cherishing someone. There are also a number of poems written in memory of his wife and his wife, which are quite emotional. Li Bai sent a large number of works to his friends, including many excellent articles. Some of the poems express a clear political attitude, and more express the daily farewell and lovesickness, such as "Farewell to Meng Haoran at the Yellow Crane Tower in Guangling", "Farewell to Du Fu at the Sand Dune City", "I heard that Wang Changling moved to the left and Long Biaoyuan had this" "Send", "Reminiscent of the Old Journey and Send to Qiao Jun Yuan to Join the Army", "Gift to Wang Lun" and so on. They are deeply emotional, vivid and have strong artistic appeal. The content of Li Bai's poems also contains some feudal dross, most of which promote the negative and nihilistic thoughts of life being like a dream, carpe diem, drunkenness and carnival, and the religious superstitions of seeking immortality, visiting Taoism, refining elixirs and taking medicine. A few of his poems describing women and love themes have vulgar sentiments. Li Bai uses a lot of exaggeration and vivid metaphors in his poems. His poems include "cutting off the water with a knife, the water will flow again, raising a cup to relieve sorrow, and the sorrow will become even more sorrowful" ("Xuanzhou Xie Tiaolou Farewell School Secretary Shu Yun"), "The white hair is three thousand feet long, and the fate is as long as the sorrow" ("Qiupu Song", etc. 15), which depicts his profound worries after the failure of Chang'an political activities, is a widely circulated famous line. He is like "Reciting poems and composing poems in the north window, ten thousand words are not worth a glass of water" ("Reply to Wang Twelve, Drinking Alone in the Cold Night and Feeling Concerned"). "), writes about his unappreciated talent; "If I want to cross the Yellow River, which is blocked by ice, I will climb the Taihang Mountains covered with snow" ("The Road is Difficult"), and writes about the difficulty of official career; "The water in Peach Blossom Pond is a thousand feet deep, and it is not as deep as Wang Lun's gift to me" ("Gift") Wang Lun"), writes about the deep friendship between friends, etc., all of which impress readers with vivid and prominent images. The imagination of Li Bai's poems is very rich and amazing.
His "The strong wind blows my heart, and the Xianyang tree hangs in the west" ("Jinxiang Sends Wei Ba to Xijing"), "I send my sorrowful heart and the bright moon, and follow the wind until Ye Langxi" ("Hearing that Wang Changling moved to the left and Longbiaoyuan had this" "Send"), all express the nostalgia for Chang'an and poet friends with unique imagination. "Liang Fu Yin", "Ancient Style" and "Westward to Lotus Mountain" respectively use fantasy to express the slander he suffered in Chang'an and the ravage of the Central Plains by the Anshi rebels; "Far and Away" also expresses the Tang Dynasty through confusing and confusing legends. The hidden worries of the political situation in the late Xuanzong period; they all appear vivid and profound. "The Road to Shu is Difficult" and "Sleepwalking Tianmu Yin Liu Farewell" use myths and legends to construct colorful and thrilling realms. The rich imagination of Li Bai's poetry is particularly prominent in the longer seven-character song line, in which the influence of Qu Yuan can be clearly seen. In terms of genre, Li Bai was good at ancient poems and quatrains with relatively free forms, and did not like to write rhythmic poems with strict rhythm. The 59 poems of "Ancient Style" are his representative works of the Five Ancients. His Five Ancients in Yuefu inherits the fine tradition of Yuefu folk songs in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties. His writing style is simple and vivid, and he is full of the poet's enthusiasm. His seven-character ancient poems (including Yuefu seven-character poems and general seven-character poems) are more creative. When describing scenes, the images are majestic, majestic and colorful, while when expressing emotions, the emotions are unrestrained and exciting, jumping out of ups and downs, and changing. In terms of literary origins, this type of poetry was most influenced by Qu Yuan's works and Bao Zhao's "The Journey Is Difficult". Li Bai is good at quatrains. His quatrains were refined and improved on the basis of Yuefu folk songs of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, making them more refined. The five unique works, such as "Thoughts on a Quiet Night" and "Resentment on the Jade Steps", are subtle and meaningful. There are more works among the Seven Best, with clear and concise language, harmonious and beautiful tones, lyrical descriptions of scenes, and simple explanations. Such as "Yellow Crane Tower Sends Meng Haoran to Guangling", "Looking at Lushan Waterfall" Part 2, "Looking at Tianmen Mountain", "Early Departure from Baidi City", "Gift to Wang Lun", etc., are all well-known masterpieces. Traditionally, when commenting on the seven-character quatrains of the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai and Wang Changling are considered to be the best at it; Li Bai has the fewest seven-character quatrains in his collection, with only more than ten poems, and few excellent works. There are more than 70 Wulu poems, and some of them are very well written, which shows that he can write rhythmic poems, but he just doesn't like to write too much. Although Li Bai's Yuefu poems used old Yuefu inscriptions, they were able to come up with new ideas. Among those who wrote poems with ancient Yuefu inscriptions in the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai's achievements should be considered the most outstanding. Although some of his song lines and quatrains do not use Yuefu titles, they are still full of the flavor of Yuefu poetry. The biggest feature of his poetic language can be said to be "hibiscus emerges from clear water, and natural carvings are removed." The concrete expression is that the language is straightforward and natural, the syllables are harmonious and smooth, natural, not artificial, exuding the atmosphere of folk songs. This is mainly due to the study of Yuefu folk songs from the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties. But he did not just study and imitate the language of folk songs, but improved on the basis of learning to make it more concise, beautiful and meaningful. His seven-character ancient poems are not only clear and natural, but also famous for their vigorous and unrestrained language. Du Fu's poem "Recalling Li Bai in Spring" praised Li Bai's poems as "fresh" and "elegant", which revealed the distinctive features of his language style. Li Bai's poems have a profound impact on future generations. Famous poets such as Han Yu and Li He in the Tang Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi and Lu You in the Song Dynasty, Gao Qi in the Ming Dynasty, Qu Dajun, Huang Jingren and Gong Zizhen in the Qing Dynasty all drew nourishment from Li Bai's poetry and were influenced by it to varying degrees. Li Bai also wrote several lyrics. "Zunqianji" contains 12 poems, and "Hua'an's Excellent Poems" contains 7 poems. Among them, three songs, "Qingping Diao" and "Clouds Think of Clothes, Flowers Think of Face", are actually seven-character quatrains and were sung with music at the time. Other long and short sentences attributed to Li Bai are not very credible. Among them, "Bodhisattva Barbarian", "Ping Lin Momo is like weaving smoke" and "Recalling Qin E", "Xiao Sheng Yan" are the most famous. However, whether these two poems are Li Bai's works has caused doubts in later generations. There are more than 60 of Li Bai's proses in existence. There are many couplets, but it does not break away from the parallel prose trend that was popular at that time. But the language is more natural and fluent, and there are similarities with his poetic style. Among them, "Book with Han Jingzhou" and "Spring Night Banquet from Di Peach Blossom (first author "Li") Garden Preface" were selected for later generations and are widely read.
The collection of Li Bai compiled by the Tang Dynasty has not been handed down. There are 30 volumes of "Collected Works of Li Taibai" in the Northern Song Dynasty, which were engraved in Suzhou and are known as "Suben" in the world. Later, the Shu version was reprinted based on the Su version, which is the earliest extant collection of Li Bai. During the Kangxi period, Miao Yueqi made a reprint based on it, and it is known as the Miao version. The first annotator of Li Bai's Collection was Yang Qixian of the Southern Song Dynasty who wrote 25 volumes of Li Hanlin's Collection, with rich annotations. The Collation and Annotation of the Collection of Li Bai by modern Qu Yuanyuan and Zhu Jincheng is by far the most detailed version of the annotations on the Collection of Li Bai. Regarding the works on the study of Li Bai: after the May 4th Movement and before the establishment of the People's Republic of China, there are "Taoist Poet Li Bai and His Pain" by Li Changzhi, "Study on Li Bai" by Qi Weihan, etc.; after the establishment of the People's Republic of China , including Zhan's "Li Bai Poetry Series", "Li Bai's Poetry Series", Wang Yunxi and others' "Li Bai Research", etc. In addition, there are many single papers. Zhonghua Book Company selected some of the more representative ones and compiled them into the "Collection of Research Papers on Li Bai" for publication in the 1960s.