Li Bai, the Immortal of Poetry: Moonlight, Wine and the Tang Poet Every Chinese Child Knows

Li Bai (c. 701–762), also known as Li Po and by his courtesy name Taibai, was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty, acclaimed as one of the greatest poets in all of Chinese history; he wrote about friendship, nature, solitude, the moon and the joys of wine, and around 1,000 poems attributed to him survive. He was nicknamed the "Immortal of Poetry" (Shixian), and together with his friend Du Fu he is regarded as one of the two towering figures of Tang verse.

A wanderer from the west

Li Bai is generally said to have been born in 701, but his birthplace has long been debated; some place it in Sichuan, others far to the west in Central Asia. When he was four, his family moved to Sichuan, near Chengdu, where he grew up. As a young man he read widely, from Confucian classics to more unusual books, practised swordsmanship and loved the mountains. In his mid-twenties, around 725, he left Sichuan and sailed down the Yangtze River, beginning a life of wandering that would last for decades.

At the emperor's court

Li Bai spent years trying to win an official post. His chance came when praise from a Taoist friend led Emperor Xuanzong to summon him to the capital, Chang'an. His personality charmed aristocrats and common people alike; the older poet He Zhizhang gave him the nickname "the Immortal Exiled from Heaven". The emperor gave him a post at the Hanlin Academy, which provided scholarship and poetry for the court. But Li Bai was too free-spirited, and too fond of wine, for court life, and after a short time he left the capital and returned to wandering.

Meeting Du Fu

In the autumn of 744 Li Bai met the younger poet Du Fu. They shared a room, travelled, hunted, drank and wrote poetry together, and became close friends. They met again the next year, but those were the only times they ever met in person, though they continued to write poems to and about each other. Later readers loved to contrast the two: Li Bai the carefree, romantic genius and Du Fu the serious, compassionate realist.

War, prison and exile

At the end of 755, the An Lushan Rebellion threw the empire into chaos. Li Bai joined the staff of a prince who was later defeated by his brother, the new emperor. In 757 Li was captured, imprisoned and sentenced to death, but the famous general Guo Ziyi and others spoke up for him, and his sentence was changed to exile. He was later pardoned and died in 762. A much-loved legend says he drowned after leaning out of a boat, drunk, to embrace the reflection of the moon, but this is a story rather than history.

The poem every child knows

Li Bai's Thoughts on a Quiet Night (静夜思) is probably the best-known poem in the Chinese-speaking world:

床前明月光，疑是地上霜。举头望明月，低头思故乡。 Before my bed, bright moonlight; I wonder if it is frost on the ground. I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon, and lower it, thinking of home.

In just twenty characters it moves from a simple image to a deep feeling of homesickness. Children in China learn it by heart, often before they can read.

Why his poems last

Li Bai's poems celebrate friendship, the depth of nature, solitude and the pleasures of drinking. Many are about places he visited and friends he saw off on long journeys, perhaps never to meet again. Thirty-four of his poems appear in the classic anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems. His work has been translated into many languages and influenced poets far beyond China, including in Japan, where his name is read Ri Haku.

Learn with Li Bai: Chinese words

Chinese	Meaning	Example
月亮 (yuèliang)	the moon	今晚的月亮很亮。
故乡 (gùxiāng)	hometown	我想念故乡。
诗人 (shīrén)	poet	李白是诗人。
朋友 (péngyou)	friend	他是我的好朋友。
举头望明月	"I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon"	我们一起背这句诗。

Try this: Memorise the four lines of 静夜思, then write three English sentences about a place you miss.