Editing Li Bai (section)

==Life==
[[File:Nanling Wushuang Pu - Li Qinglian.jpg|thumb|Li Bai, as depicted in the ''Nanling [[Wu Shuang Pu|Wushuang Pu]]'' by Jin Guliang, Ming dynasty]]
The two "Books of Tang", [[Old Book of Tang|''The Old Book of Tang'']] and ''The New Book of Tang'', remain the primary sources of bibliographical material on Li Bai.<ref>Obata, Part III</ref> Other sources include internal evidence from poems by or about Li Bai, and certain other sources, such as the preface to his collected poems by his relative and literary executor, Li Yangbin.

===Background and birth===
Li Bai is generally considered to have been born in 701, in [[Suyab]] (碎葉) of ancient Chinese Central Asia (present-day [[Kyrgyzstan]]),<ref name="Beckwith, 127">Beckwith, 127</ref> where his family had prospered in business at the frontier.<ref name="Sun, 20">Sun, 20</ref> Afterwards, the family under the leadership of his father, Li Ke (李客), moved to [[Jiangyou]] (江油), near modern [[Chengdu]], in [[Sichuan]], when the youngster was about five years old. There is some mystery or uncertainty about the circumstances of the family's relocations, due to a lack of legal authorization which would have generally been required to move out of the border regions, especially if one's family had been assigned or exiled there.

====Background====
Two accounts given by contemporaries [[Li Yangbing]] (a family relative) and Fan Chuanzheng state that Li's family was originally from what is now southwestern [[Jingning County, Gansu]]. Li's ancestry is traditionally traced back to [[Li Gao]], the noble founder of the state of [[Western Liang (Sixteen Kingdoms)|Western Liang]].<ref>Obata, 8</ref> This provides some support for Li's own claim to be related to the Li dynastic royal family of the Tang dynasty: the Tang emperors also claimed descent from the Li rulers of West Liang. This family was known as the [[Longxi County|Longxi]] Li lineage ([[w:zh:隴西李氏|隴西李氏]]). Evidence suggests that during the [[Sui dynasty]], Li's own ancestors, at that time for some reason classified socially as commoners, were forced into a form of exile from their original home (in what is now Gansu) to some location or locations further west.<ref>Wu, 57–58</ref> During their exile in the far west, the Li family lived in the ancient [[Silk Road]] city of Suiye ([[Suyab]], now an archeological site in present-day Kyrgyzstan), and perhaps also in Tiaozhi ({{zh|t=條枝|s=条枝|p=Tiáozhī}}), a state near modern [[Ghazni]], Afghanistan.<ref>Elling Eide, "On Li Po", ''Perspectives on the T'ang'' (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1973), 388.</ref> These areas were on the ancient [[Silk Road]], and the Li family were likely merchants.<ref>Eide (1973), 389.</ref> Their business was quite prosperous.<ref>Sun, 1982, 20 and 21</ref>

===Early years===
In 705, when Li Bai was four years old, his father secretly moved his family to [[Sichuan]], near [[Chengdu]], where he spent his childhood.<ref name="Wu, 58">Wu, 58</ref> Currently, there is a monument commemorating this in [[Zhongba Town]], [[Jiangyou]], Sichuan province (the area of the modern province known then as Shu, after a former independent state which had been annexed by the Sui dynasty and later incorporated into the Tang dynasty lands). The young Li spent most of his growing years in [[Qinglian, Jiangyou|Qinglian]] (青莲; lit. "Blue [also translated as 'green', 'azure', or 'nature-coloured'] Lotus"), a town in Chang-ming County, Sichuan, China.<ref name="Sun, 20"/> This now nominally corresponds with Qinglian Town (青蓮鎮) of [[Jiangyou]] [[County-level city]], in [[Sichuan]].

The young Li read extensively, including [[Confucian classics]] such as ''[[Book of Songs (Chinese)|The Classic of Poetry (Shijing)]]'' and the ''[[Book of History|Classic of History (Shujing)]]'', as well as various astrological and metaphysical materials which Confucians tended to eschew, though he disdained to take the literacy exam.<ref name="Wu, 58"/> Reading the "Hundred Authors" was part of the family literary tradition, and he was also able to compose poetry before he was ten.<ref name="Sun, 20"/> The young Li also engaged in other activities, such as taming wild birds and fencing.<ref name="Wu, 58"/> His other activities included riding, hunting, traveling, and aiding the poor or oppressed by means of both money and arms.<ref name="Sun, 20"/> Eventually, the young Li seems to have become quite skilled in [[swordsmanship]]; as this autobiographical quote by Li himself both testifies to and also helps to illustrate the wild life that he led in the Sichuan of his youth:

{{Blockquote|"When I was fifteen, I was fond of sword play, and with that art I challenged quite a few great men."<ref>Wu, 58. Translation by Wu. Note that by [[East Asian age reckoning]], this would be fourteen rather than fifteen years old.</ref>}}

Before he was twenty, Li had fought and killed several men, apparently for reasons of [[chivalry]], in accordance with the knight-errant tradition (''[[youxia]]'').<ref name="Wu, 58"/>

In 720, he was interviewed by Governor Su Ting, who considered him a genius. Though he expressed a wish to become an official, he never took the [[Chinese civil service examination|civil service examination]].

===Marriage and family===
Li is known to have married four times. His first marriage, in 727, in [[Anlu]], Hubei, was to the granddaughter of a former government minister.<ref name="Sun, 20"/> His wife was from the well-connected [[Wu (surname)|Xu]] (许) family. Li Bai made this his home for about ten years, living in a home owned by his wife's family on Mt. Bishan (碧山).{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} In 744, he married for the second time in what now is the [[Liangyuan District]] of [[Henan]]. This marriage was to another poet, surnamed [[Zong (surname)|Zong]] (宗), with whom he both had children<ref>Sun, 24, 25, and 166</ref> and exchanges of poems, including many expressions of love for her and their children. His wife, Zong, was a granddaughter of [[Zong Chuke]] (宗楚客, died 710), an important government official during the Tang dynasty and the interregnal period of [[Wu Zetian]].

===On the way to Chang'an===
[[File:Dufuschina.jpg|thumb|left|300px|alt=Map of eastern interior Chinese cities of Luoyang, Chang'an, Qinzhou, Chengdu, Kuizhou, and Tanzhou|The China of Li Bai and Du Fu]]

====Leaving Sichuan====
In his mid-twenties, about 725, Li Bai left Sichuan, sailing down the [[Yangzi River]] through [[Dongting Lake]] to [[Nanjing]], beginning his days of wandering. He then went back up-river, to [[Yunmeng]], in what is now [[Hubei]], where his marriage to the granddaughter of a retired prime minister, [[Xu Yushi]], seems to have formed but a brief interlude.<ref>Wu, 58–59</ref> During the first year of his trip, he met celebrities and gave away much of his wealth to needy friends.

In 730, Li Bai stayed at Zhongnan Mountain near the capital Chang'an (Xi'an), and tried but failed to secure a position. He sailed down the Yellow River, stopped by Luoyang, and visited Taiyuan before going home. In 735, Li Bai was in [[Shanxi]], where he intervened in a court martial against [[Guo Ziyi]], who was later, after becoming one of the top Tang generals, to repay the favour during the An Shi disturbances.<ref name="Wu, 59">Wu, 59</ref> By perhaps 740, he had moved to [[Shandong]]. It was in Shandong at this time that he became one of the group known as the "Six Idlers of the Bamboo Brook", an informal group dedicated to literature and wine.<ref name="Wu, 59"/> He wandered about the area of [[Zhejiang]] and [[Jiangsu]], eventually making friends with a famous Daoist priest, Wu Yun.<ref name="Wu, 59"/> In 742, Wu Yun was summoned by the Emperor to attend the imperial court, where his praise of Li Bai was great.<ref name="Wu, 59"/>

===At Chang'an===
Wu Yun's praise of Li Bai led [[Emperor Xuanzong of Tang|Emperor Xuanzong]] (born Li Longji and also known as Emperor Minghuang) to summon Li to the court in [[Chang'an]]. Li's personality fascinated the aristocrats and common people alike, including another Taoist (and poet), [[He Zhizhang]], who bestowed upon him the nickname the "Immortal Exiled from Heaven".<ref name="Wu, 59"/> Indeed, after an initial audience, where Li Bai was questioned about his political views, the Emperor was so impressed that he held a big banquet in his honor. At this banquet, the Emperor was said to show his favor, even to the extent of personally seasoning his soup for him.<ref name="Wu, 59"/><ref>Obata, 201</ref>

Emperor Xuanzong employed him as a translator, as Li Bai knew at least one non-Chinese language.<ref name="Wu, 59"/> Ming Huang eventually gave him a post at the [[Hanlin Academy]], which served to provide scholarly expertise and poetry for the Emperor.

[[Image:L'empereur Minghuang regardant Li Bai.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Emperor Minghuang, seated on a terrace, observes Li Bai write poetry while having his boots taken off (Qing dynasty illustration).]]When the emperor ordered Li Bai to the palace, he was often drunk, but quite capable of performing on the spot.

Li Bai wrote several poems about the Emperor's beautiful and beloved [[Yang Guifei]], the favorite royal consort.<ref name="Wu, 60">Wu, 60</ref> A story, probably apocryphal, circulates about Li Bai during this period. Once, while drunk, Li Bai had gotten his boots muddy, and [[Gao Lishi]], the most politically powerful [[Eunuch#China|eunuch]] in the palace, was asked to assist in the removal of these, in front of the Emperor. Gao took offense at being asked to perform this menial service, and later managed to persuade Yang Guifei to take offense at Li's poems concerning her.<ref name="Wu, 60"/> At the persuasion of Yang Guifei and Gao Lishi, Xuanzong reluctantly, but politely, and with large gifts of gold and silver, sent Li Bai away from the royal court.<ref name="Wu, 61">Wu, 61</ref> After leaving the court, Li Bai formally became a Taoist, making a home in [[Shandong]], but wandering far and wide for the next ten some years, writing poems.<ref name="Wu, 61"/> Li Bai lived and wrote poems at Bishan (or Bi Mountain (碧山), today Baizhao Mountain (白兆山)) in [[Yandian, Hubei]]. Bi Mountain (碧山) in the poem ''Question and Answer Amongst the Mountains'' (山中问答 Shanzhong Wenda) refers to this mountain.<ref name="govyd">{{cite web|url=http://www.anlu.gov.cn/alweb/index/xiangzhen.shtml?subjectId=43de60f611854494b1187f0854e4144c|title=中国安陆网–乡镇 烟店镇简介|trans-title=Anlu, China Website-Township-Level Divisions Yandian Town Overview|website=中国安陆网|language=zh|publisher=中共安陆市委 安陆市人民政府 中共安陆市委宣传部 安陆市互联网信息中心|quote="烟店镇人文底蕴深厚，诗仙李白"酒隐安陆，蹉跎十年"，谪居于此。"问余何意栖碧山，笑而不答心自闲。桃花流水窅然去，别有天地非人间。"这首《山中问答》中的碧山就是位于烟店镇的白兆山，李白在白兆山居住期间，"|access-date=19 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419053601/http://www.anlu.gov.cn/alweb/index/xiangzhen.shtml?subjectId=43de60f611854494b1187f0854e4144c|archive-date=19 April 2018}}</ref>

===Meeting Du Fu===
{{Further|Du Fu}}
He met [[Du Fu]] in the autumn of 744, when they shared a single room and various activities together, such as traveling, hunting, wine, and poetry, thus established a close and lasting friendship.<ref name="Sun, 24 and 25">Sun, 24 and 25</ref> They met again the following year. These were the only occasions on which they met, in person, although they continued to maintain a relationship through poetry. This is reflected in the dozen or so poems by Du Fu to or about Li Bai which survive, and the one from Li Bai directed toward Du Fu which remains.

===Letters for political patronage===
A somewhat lesser known capital of Li Bai's life are the letters he wrote to various officials. In most of them, his aim was to seek political patronage. The famous letter to [[Han Jing Zhou]] (韩荆州) is maybe the most known example of his writing. Li Bai's style in his letters was very exaggerated, sometimes arrogant too. Contrary to what was the common practice at the time, I. e. self – depreciating tone for one's self and a praising tone for the candidate patron, Li Bai ornates his own personal image very vividly. Victor H. Mair translated some notable letters of Li Bai. An excerpt from the letter to Han Jing Zhou (与韩荆州书, pin yin: yǔ hán jīng zhōu shū), which Mair dates around 734 CE, illustrates Li Bai's perception of himself:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mair |first1=Victor |title=Li Po's Letters in Pursuit of Political Patronage |journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |date=1984 |volume=44 |issue=1 |page=130}}</ref>

''" At fifteen, I was fond of swordsmanship and ranged broadly in search of employ- ment [131] with various lords. At thirty, I became an accomplished litterateur and
contacted successively a number of high officers. Although I am not quite a six- footer I am braver than ten thousand men. Princes, dukes, and high ministers admit that I have moral courage and high principles. This, then, has been my
past spiritual biography. How could I venture not to explain it fully to Your
Lordship ?"''

===War and exile===
[[File:Riders on Horseback, Northern Qi Dynasty.jpg|thumb|Riders on Horseback, Northern Qi Dynasty, the general area of the rebel heartland, although of an earlier date.]]
At the end of 755, the [[An Lushan rebellion|disorders]] instigated by the rebel general [[An Lushan]] burst across the land. The Emperor eventually fled to Sichuan and abdicated. During the confusion, the Crown Prince opportunely declared himself Emperor and head of the government. The An Shi disturbances continued (as they were later called, since they lasted beyond the death of their instigator, carried on by [[Shi Siming]] and others). Li Bai became [[Mufu|a staff adviser]] to Prince Yong, one of [[Ming Huang]]'s (Emperor Xuanzong's) sons, who was far from the top of the primogeniture list, yet named to share the imperial power as a general after Xuanzong had abdicated, in 756.

However, even before the empire's external enemies were defeated, the two brothers fell to fighting each other with their armies. Upon the defeat of the Prince's forces by his brother the new emperor in 757, Li Bai escaped, but was later captured, imprisoned in [[Jiujiang]], and sentenced to death. The famous and powerful army general [[Guo Ziyi]] and others intervened; Guo Ziyi was the very person whom Li Bai had saved from court martial a couple of decades before.<ref name="Wu, 61"/> His wife, the lady Zong, and others (such as Song Ruosi) wrote petitions for clemency.<ref name="Sun, 26 and 27">Sun, 26 and 27</ref> Upon General Guo Ziyi's offering to exchange his official rank for Li Bai's life, Li Bai's death sentence was commuted to exile: he was consigned to [[Yelang]].<ref name="Wu, 61"/> Yelang (in what is now [[Guizhou]]) was in the remote extreme southwestern part of the empire, and was considered to be outside the main sphere of Chinese civilization and culture. Li Bai headed toward Yelang with little sign of hurry, stopping for prolonged social visits (sometimes for months), and writing poetry along the way, leaving detailed descriptions of his journey for posterity. Notice of an imperial pardon recalling Li Bai reached him before he even got near Yelang.<ref name="Wu, 61"/> He had only gotten as far as [[Wu Gorge|Wushan]], traveling at a leisurely pace, as recorded in the poem "Struggling up the Three Gorges", intimating that it took so long that his hair turned white during the trip up river, towards exile. Then, news of his pardon caught up with him in 759.<ref name="Sun, 26 and 27 and 318">Sun, 26 and 27 and 318</ref>

===Return and other travels===
When Li received the news of his imperial pardon, he returned down the river to [[Jiangxi]], passing on the way through [[Baidicheng]], in [[Kuizhou]] Prefecture, still engaging in the pleasures of food, wine, good company, and writing poetry; his poem "[[s:Translation:Departing from Baidi in the Morning|Departing from Baidi in the Morning]]" records this stage of his travels, as well as poetically mocking his enemies and detractors, implied in his inclusion of [[Simians (Chinese poetry)|imagery of monkeys]]. Although Li did not cease his wandering lifestyle, he then generally confined his travels to [[Nanjing]] and the two [[Anhui]] cities of [[Xuancheng]] and Li Yang (in modern [[Zhao County]]).<ref name="Wu, 61"/> His poems of this time include nature poems and poems of socio-political protest.<ref name="Sun, 24 and 25"/> Eventually, in 762, Li's relative [[Li Yangbing]] became magistrate of [[Dangtu]], and Li Bai went to stay with him there.<ref name="Wu, 61"/> In the meantime, Suzong and Xuanzong both died within a short period of time, and China had a new emperor. Also, China was involved in renewed efforts to suppress further military disorders stemming from the Anshi rebellions, and Li volunteered to serve on the general staff of the Chinese commander [[Li Guangbi]]. However, at age 61, Li became critically ill, and his health would not allow him to fulfill this plan.<ref>Sun, 26–28</ref>

===Death===
[[File:LiBaimemorialhall000.jpg|thumb|right|Li Bai Memorial Hall in [[Jiangyou]], Sichuan]]
The new [[Emperor Daizong]] appointed Li Bai as a court counsellor in January 764, but by the time the imperial edict arrived in [[Dangtu County|Dangtu, Anhui]], Li Bai had already been reported dead for more than a year. Local authorities, however, were only able to ascertain that he died sometime in 762, with the date and cause of his death lost to history.<ref name="Paris Review">{{cite news|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/01/23/the-poet-with-many-names-and-many-deaths/|first=Jin|last=Ha|newspaper=[[The Paris Review]]|title=The Poet with Many Names—and Many Deaths|date=23 January 2019|access-date=9 April 2024}}</ref>

Later writers speculated about Li's death. The ninth-century Tang poet [[Pi Rixiu]] suggested in a poem that Li had died of chronic thoracic suppuration (pus entering the chest cavity).<ref name="Paris Review"/> According to another source, Li Bai drowned after falling from his boat one day while drunk, as he tried to embrace the reflection of the moon in the Yangtze River.<ref name="Wu, 61"/>

===Calligraphy===
[[File:Libai shangyangtai.jpg|thumb|400px|The only surviving calligraphy in Li Bai's own handwriting, titled ''Shangyangtai'' (To Yangtai Temple), located at the [[Palace Museum]] in Beijing, China.<ref name="mag">{{cite web|url=http://www.flashpointmag.com/libai10.htm|title=Going Up To Sun Terrace by Li Bai: An Explication, Translation & History|author=Belbin, Charles and T.R. Wang|work=Flashpoint Magazine|quote=It is now housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing. Scholars commonly acknowledge it as authentic and the only known surviving piece of calligraphy by Li Bai.|access-date=6 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006075209/http://www.flashpointmag.com/libai10.htm|archive-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>]]
Li Bai was a skilled [[Chinese calligraphy|calligrapher]]. One surviving piece of his calligraphy work in his own handwriting exists today.<ref name=mag/> The piece is titled ''Shàng yáng tái'' (''Going Up To Sun Terrace''), a {{convert|38.1|×|28.5|cm}} long scroll (with later addition of a title written by [[Emperor Huizong of Song]] and a postscript added by the [[Qianlong Emperor]]); the calligraphy is housed in the [[Palace Museum]] in Beijing, China.<ref name=arts>{{cite magazine |title=Selected paintings and calligraphy acquired by the Palace Museum in the last fifty years|volume=30|magazine=Arts of Asia|year=2000|page=56}}</ref>

===Surviving texts and editing===
Even Li Bai and Du Fu, the two most famous and most comprehensively edited Tang poets, were affected by the destruction of the imperial Tang libraries and the loss of many private collections in the periods of turmoil ([[An Lushan Rebellion]] and [[Huang Chao]] Rebellion). Although many of Li Bai's poems have survived, even more were lost and there is difficulty regarding variant texts. One of the earliest endeavors at editing Li Bai's work was by his relative [[Li Yangbing]], the magistrate of [[Dangtu]], with whom he stayed in his final years and to whom he entrusted his manuscripts. However, the most reliable texts are not necessarily in the earliest editions. Song dynasty scholars produced various editions of his poetry, but it was not until the Qing dynasty that such collections as the ''[[Complete Tang Poems]]'' made the most comprehensive studies of the then surviving texts.<ref>Paul Kroll, "Poetry of the T'ang Dynasty," in [[Victor H. Mair]], ed., ''The Columbia History of Chinese Literature.'' (New York: Columbia University Press,  2001). {{ISBN|0-231-10984-9}}), pp. 278–282, section "The Sources and Their Limitations" describes this history.</ref>