Editing Li Bai (section)

====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>