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Li Bai
High Tang poet who served briefly in the Hanlin Academy, was banished to Yelang for joining Prince Yong, and was hailed by He Zhizhang as a banished immortal
Mural of Thoughts in the Quiet Night, a work by this person.
Within a moonlit inn, a traveler sits beside the open window as pale light falls across the floor and distant hills. The quiet contrast between looking up at the moon and longing for home gives the scene its stillness.
Also known as Zi Taibai · Hao Qing Lian Ju Shi · Shi Xian · Zhe Xianren
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Li Bai, courtesy name Taibai, styled Qinglian Jushi, claimed ancestry from Chengji in Longxi; he was born either at Suyab in Central Asia or at Changlong in Mianzhou, and grew up in Shu. He left Sichuan around 725 to travel, and in 742 was summoned to Chang'an to serve in the Hanlin Academy, where He Zhizhang, reading his work, called him a banished immortal. In 744 he was sent away with a gift of gold, and afterwards met Du Fu at Luoyang and travelled with Gao Shi. During the An Lushan rebellion he joined the staff of Prince Yong, Li Lin, and after the prince's defeat was sentenced to exile in Yelang, but was pardoned on the way in 759. He died at Dangtu in 762, and his kinsman Li Yangbing gathered his poems as the Caotang ji. About a thousand poems survive, the best known including Hard Is the Road to Shu, Bring In the Wine and the quatrain Quiet Night Thoughts.
Life and times
Dates 701 CE–762 CE