Editing Li Bai (section)

==Influence==
[[Image:Leng Mei - Figures - Spring Evening Banquet.jpg|thumb|right|''Spring Evening Banquet at the Peach and Pear Blossom Garden'' with quoted text by Li Bai, painted by [[Leng Mei]], late 17th or early 18th century, [[National Palace Museum]], Taipei]]

===In the East===
Li Bai's poetry was immensely influential in his own time, as well as for subsequent generations in China. From early on, he was paired with Du Fu. The recent scholar Paula Varsano observes that "in the literary imagination they were, and remain, the two greatest poets of the Tang—or even of China". Yet she notes the persistence of "what we can rightly call the 'Li-Du debate', the terms of which became so deeply ingrained in the critical discourse surrounding these two poets that almost any characterization of the one implicitly critiqued the other".{{sfnb|Varsano|2014}} Li's influence has also been demonstrated in the immediate geographical area of Chinese cultural influence, being known as Ri Haku in Japan. This influence continues even today. Examples range from poetry to painting and to literature.

In his own lifetime, during his many wanderings and while he was attending court in Chang'an, Li Bai met and parted from various contemporary poets. These meetings and separations were typical occasions for versification in the tradition of the literate Chinese of the time, a prime example being his relationship with Du Fu.

After his lifetime, Li Bai's influence continued to grow. Some four centuries later, during the [[Song dynasty]], for example, just in the case of his poem that is sometimes translated "Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon", the poet [[Yang Wanli]] wrote a whole poem alluding to it (and to two other Li Bai poems), in the same ''gushi'', or old-style poetry form.<ref>Frankel, 22</ref>

In the 20th century, Li Bai even influenced the poetry of [[Mao Zedong]].

In China, his poem "[[Quiet Night Thought]]s", reflecting a nostalgia of a traveller away from home,<ref>''How to read Chinese poetry: a guided anthology'' By Zong-qi Cai p. 210. Columbia University Press [https://books.google.com/books?id=u-oTHkUit_kC&q=%22Li+Bai%22&pg=PA211]</ref> has been widely "memorized by school children and quoted by adults".<ref>Speaking of Chinese By Raymond Chang, Margaret Scrogin Chang p. 176 WW Norton & Company [https://books.google.com/books?id=i2xrmK_GZ4kC&dq=Chinese+Poet+%22Li+Bai%22&pg=PA174]</ref>

He is sometimes worshipped as an immortal in [[Chinese folk religion]] and is also considered a divinity in [[Vietnam]] [[Caodaism|Cao Dai religion]].

===In the West===
Austrian composer [[Gustav Mahler]] used [[German language|German]] adaptations of four of Li's poems as texts for four of the songs in his song-symphony [[Das Lied von der Erde]] in 1908. American composer [[Harry Partch]] based his ''Seventeen Lyrics by Li Po'' (early 1930s, his earliest surviving acknowledged work) for intoning voice and Adapted Viola (an instrument of Partch's own invention) on texts in ''The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet'' translated by Shigeyoshi Obata.<ref>Obata, Shigeyoshi (1923). ''The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet'' (J.M. Dent & Co, ). {{ASIN|B000KL7LXI}}</ref> Around the same time (1931), Swiss composer [[Volkmar Andreae]] set eight poems as ''Li-Tai-Pe: Eight Chinese songs for tenor and orchestra, op. 37''. In Brazil, the songwriter Beto Furquim included a musical setting of the poem "Jing Ye Si" in his album "Muito Prazer".<ref>(2008, ISRC BR-OQQ-08-00002)</ref>

====Ezra Pound====
Li Bai is influential in the West partly due to [[Ezra Pound]]'s versions of some of his poems in the collection ''[[Cathay (poetry collection)|''Cathay'']]'',<ref name="Pound" /> (Pound transliterating his name according to the Japanese manner as "Rihaku"). Li Bai's interactions with nature, friendship, his love of wine and his acute observations of life inform his more popular poems. Some, like ''Changgan xing'' (translated by [[Ezra Pound]] as "[[The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter]]"),<ref name="Pound" /> record the hardships or emotions of common people. An example of the liberal, but poetically influential, translations, or adaptations, of Japanese versions of his poems made, largely based on the work of [[Ernest Fenollosa]] and professors Mori and Ariga.<ref name="Pound">Pound, Ezra (1915). ''Cathay'' (Elkin Mathews, London). {{ASIN|B00085NWJI}}.</ref>

====Gustav Mahler====
[[Gustav Mahler]] integrated four of Li Bai's works into his symphonic song cycle ''[[Das Lied von der Erde]]''. These were derived from free German translations by [[Hans Bethge (poet)|Hans Bethge]], published in an anthology called {{lang|de|Die chinesische Flöte}} (''The Chinese Flute''),<ref>Bethge, Hans (2001). ''Die Chinesische Flöte'' (YinYang Media Verlag, Kelkheim, Germany). {{ISBN|978-3-9806799-5-4}}. Re-issue of the 1907 edition (Insel Verlag, Leipzig).</ref> Bethge based his versions on the collection ''Chinesische Lyrik'' by Hans Heilmann (1905). Heilmann worked from pioneering 19th-century translations into French: three by the [[Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys|Marquis d'Hervey-Saint-Denys]] and one (only distantly related to the Chinese) by [[Judith Gautier]]. Mahler freely changed Bethge's text.

====Reference in Beat Generation====
Li Bai's poetry can be seen as having an influence on [[Beat Generation]] writer [[Gary Snyder]] during Snyder's years of studying Asian culture and Zen. Li Bai's style of descriptive writing contributed to the diversity within the Beat writing style.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://spiritualecology.info/supplemental-information/research-notes/snyder/|title = Snyder| work=Spiritual Ecology }}</ref><ref>[[Beat Generation]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=May 2019}}