Li Bai

Tang dynasty poet celebrated for nature, friendship, and drinking.

Li Bai (701–762) was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty, also known by his courtesy name Taibai.^[1] Du Fu (712–770) and Li Bai were both key poets during the Tang dynasty's poetic flourishing, an era frequently termed the "Golden Age of Chinese Poetry".^[1]

Quick Facts

Born: 701
Died: 762, 701
Occupation: Poet
Movement: Tang poetry
Notable works: Quiet Night Thought

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Before he was twenty, Li had fought and killed several men for reasons of chivalry.^[2] In his mid-twenties, about 725, Li Bai left Sichuan and began his days of wandering.^[3] He met Du Fu in the autumn of 744, and they established a close and lasting friendship.^[4] Scholars generally accept 701 as Li Bai's birth year, but his birthplace remains disputed: some argue for Mianyang in Sichuan, while others claim Suyab in ancient Chinese Central Asia (present-day Kyrgyzstan).^[5]

When Li Bai was roughly five, his father Li Ke relocated the family to Jiangyou, a place near what is now Chengdu in Sichuan.^[5] Before turning ten, Li Bai could already compose poetry; he also read Confucian classics and took part in fencing, riding, and hunting.^[6] Emperor Xuanzong (Li Longji) summoned Li Bai to the court at Chang'an in 742 after Wu Yun had praised him.^[7][8] Li Bai authored multiple poems concerning Yang Guifei, the emperor's favored consort.^[9]

What the cited sources add

Ezra Pound called Li Bai "Rihaku" in his Cathay translations because Pound worked from notes by Ernest Fenollosa, who studied Li Bai's poetry in Japanese.^[10] The same source states that Li Bai was the first Chinese poet to use the image of the moon abundantly in his poetry.^[10] The chinawhisper.com article lists "Thoughts in the Silent Night" as one of the most well-known Chinese poems by Li Bai.^[11] That article provides a translation by Yang Xianyi and Dai Naidie of the poem "Thoughts in the Silent Night".^[11]

The New Tang History records that Li Bai's mother dreamed of the star Venus while giving birth, leading to his being named Taibai (meaning Venus).^[10] One version of Li Bai's death describes him drowning while drunk, as he jumped from a boat trying to catch the moon's reflection on a river.^[10]

References

Wikipedia, "Li Bai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: The New Book of Tang 文宗時，詔以白歌詩、裴旻劍舞、張旭草書為「三絕」 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Li Bai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wu, 58 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Li Bai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wu, 58–59 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Li Bai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sun, 24 and 25 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Li Bai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Clive Barstow, "Connecting Ideas, Cultures, and Communities", CRC Press, 2025, p. 162; Beckwith, 127; Sun, 20 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Li Bai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wu, 58; Sun, 20; Wu, 58; Sun, 20 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Li Bai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wu, 59; Wu, 59; Wu, 59 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Li Bai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wu, 59 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Li Bai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wu, 60 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Ha, "The Poet with Many Names—and Many Deaths", The Paris Review, 23 January 2019. facts only, no text reused. theparisreview.org
"Top 10 most influential Chinese classical poems", chinawhisper.com, 13 January 2013. facts only, no text reused. chinawhisper.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Li Bai (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.