Li Bai: Wine, Exile & China’s Greatest Poet

Li Bai (701 – 762 AD) is – along with his friend, Du Fu (712 – 770 AD) – considered to be China’s greatest poet.

But he spent most of his life pursuing a position in the government.

And it wasn’t until after he died that his reputation as a great poet truly flourished.

But during his lifetime, his reputation as an otherworldly ‘banished immortal’ began to grow.

And for the past 1,300+ years, billions of Chinese have read and recited his poems.

Contents

Biography

Family background

Not much information exists on Li Bai’s family background. His family’s surname might not even have really been Li.

His father, Li Ke, was a wealthy Han Chinese merchant working in the Western fringes of the Tang empire. 

Merchants could become wealthy and locally influential in Tang society. However, their social status was low in comparison to the elite.

That said, Li Ke appears to have been literate and self-educated.

He possibly invented the family surname for prestige and claimed descent from the Western Han dynasty general Li Guang (184 – 119 BC) (‘The Flying General’).

(His son also liked to self-mythologise the family’s origins, which complicates matters.)

Li Bai’s mother was likely of Central-Asian Turkic origin, which would mean Li Bai was mixed race. 

Some contemporary descriptions of him seem to confirm that his appearance matched this.

‘Li’ was also the same surname as the Tang royal family, who were similarly descended from non-Han Chinese ethnicities (and similarly falsified their genealogy to obscure this).

Early life

Li’s exact birthplace is not uncertain. Many believe it was likely the town of Suyab (in today’s Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan), then a town along the Silk Road.

By the time he was about 5 years old, the family had moved to Changming County (in today’s Jiangyou, Sichuan Province), back into a predominantly Han Chinese environment. 

His brothers appear to have been recruited into trading, whereas an exception was made for Li Bai.

Educated to be an official

Li’s talent was noticed early on. As a son of a merchant, he didn’t qualify to be a candidate of the imperial examination. 

This was one of the main ways to become a government official. However, it wasn’t the only way. 

Both aristocrats and other educated men could enter the civil service via recommendations.

So, networking and impressing officials with talent (including poetry) was a realistic – albeit difficult – possibility.

Like Du Fu, and countless other educated and talented men, Li would spend the greater part of his life searching for success this way.

718 – 720 AD (aged 19 – 20): Leaves home

Aged 17, Li Bai left home. 

He had money from his father and travelled with a manservant, Dansha.

His goal was to travel and eventually meet an official who would recommend him for government service.

Zi Prefecture

His first destination was the commercial town of Zi Prefecture (today’s Zizhong Country, Sichuan Province), about 170 miles (275 km) south of his home.

Soon he left here and spent between 3 – 4 months with a reclusive scholar living nearby in Changping Mountain, Zhao Rui (ca. 659 – 742).

Chengdu

In the spring of 719, Li Bai arrived in Chengdu, the largest city in the region of Shu (today’s Sichuan Province).

He soon managed to secure an introduction to an important official, Su Ting. He also presented him with a fu(a kind of prose-poem rhapsody). 

However, Su failed to help Li Bai secure any official positions.

This is perhaps understandable. After all, officials would be held responsible for any missteps or mishaps of anyone they recommended.

And, it appears that Li Bai was showing signs of his eccentricity, including mixing with common people and openly practising traditional medicine.

Furthermore, his poetry, though brilliant, was exuberant and at times unorthodox.

To an official in the dangerous world of Tang politics, any signs of unconventional or rash behaviour were red flags.

After a few months of waiting around, Li Bai moved on.

Why didn’t Li Bai fit in?

It’s difficult to know exactly what it was about Li Bai that may have put off so many officials from recommending him for official positions.

In theory, the Confucian ideal of an official was of a modest and reserved man. This clearly wasn’t Li Bai’s character.

In fact, Li even once wrote a poem mocking Confucianists:

Of course, this is only mocking a specific group of Confucians (those in Lu), and not Confucianism itself. But it gives us a glimpse of Li’s irreverence and outspokenness.

However, his friend Du Fu has long been held up as an ideal of this type. And his search for a career was ultimately just frustrating and unsuccessful.

In practice, competition to be an official was as fierce. 

And as valued as poetic skills were (and good for building one’s reputation), they did not supersede the long list of other qualities – and factors – needed to gain and maintain an official position.

Yuzhou

Li next travelled to Yuzhou (today’s Chongqing), approximately 210 miles (337 km) southwest of Chengdu, and the furthest he had ever been away from home.

Here he managed to secure an appointment with another official, Li Yong (674 – 746 AD). Li Yong was well-known for his literary interests, including his calligraphy.

However, it appears that Li Bai once again fumbled his opportunity, this time by presenting an inappropriate poem.

巴水急如箭，巴船去若飞。
十月三千里，郎行几岁归。
The Ba River’s water flows like arrows, 
Ba’s boats fly with it.
10 months and three thousand li [932 miles/1,500 km],
what year will [he] return?
– Li Bai, ‘The Song of the Woman of Ba’

720 – 724 AD (aged 21 – 25): Returns home

Li returned home in the autumn of 720. He no doubt felt disappointed facing his family after his failure to secure a position.

However, his trip hadn’t been a total waste of time. Li had no doubt gained valuable experience and begun to spread his reputation.

After all, Su Ting (the official he had met in Chengdu) had openly praised Li’s poetry. And years later, Li would meet Li Yong again (and become friends with him).

A local official near his hometown was now aware of him and Li was given a job as a relatively low-level official in the nearby Dang County. 

After a couple of years, he left this job. He moved to Daming temple in Kuang Mountain, where he spent the next two years studying.

724 – 727 AD (aged 25 – 27): Leaves home again, travels Southern Tang empire

In 724 AD, Li set out once again. 

After passing through Chengdu again, he headed east towards the central areas of Chu (today’s Hubei Province) and later on Chu (today’s southern Jiangsu Province and Northern Zhejiang Province).

These areas prospered with trade and culture. The Tang empire was at its peak in political power and cultural flourishing. (Later on, this would become known as the High Tang period).

Li’s abilities and reputation as a poet grew rapidly during this time. However, he also appears to have begun drinking heavily and spending money recklessly.

About three centuries later, the famously serious Song statesman and essayist Wang Anshi (1021 – 1086 AD) wrote that Li’s poems from this period: 

太白词语迅快[…]然其识污下，十句九句言妇人、酒耳。
Taibai’s [Li Bai’s] poems were written quickly, but they lowered in tone, nine out of ten were about women and drinking.
– Wang Anshi

During this period, Li continued befriended another great Tang poet: Meng Haoran (689 – 740 AD).

727 – 730 AD (aged 28 – 31): Family wealth is gone, marries

Around the mid 720s, Li Bai’s family had lost much of its wealth. Li Bai seemed unable to adapt to his new means. In fact, this would be a theme throughout his life.

Fortunately for him, he often managed to meet patrons. 

The network of officials across China generally supported other members of elites with at least temporary shelter and food. Sometimes they gifted money, too. 

Li Bai was fortunate to be introduced to the daughter of a family with means in Anlu (in today’s Hubei Province). Madame Xu, as she is known today, was the daughter of an official.

The Xu family wasn’t particularly wealthy, but Li Bai and Madam Xu were given a home and land after marriage. 

It was uncommon for the families of Tang elite females to provide for newlyweds. 

However, if could have been that Li Bai’s promise represented a chance for the family to improve its standing in the future.

Li’s relationship with his brother-in-law, an official, was not good. 

And he even fell afoul of another local official, Li Jingzhi, after accidently scaring their horse, causing their carriage to fall off a track.

730 AD (aged 31): Sets off again

In 730, Li set off once again. This time he went alone (not even taking his manservant).

Li Bai would later write poems for his wife. However, his constant travelling meant they were apart for long stretches of time.

730 – 732 (aged 31 – 33): Chang’an

Li was heading for Chang’an, the Tang dynasty’s western and main capital city. (There was also an eastern capital, Luoyang, which was just slightly smaller.)

Here he once again began networking and building up his reputation as a poet and – more importantly for him – candidate for government office.

At one point, an official in the capital suggest Li travel to one of the Princess Yuzhen’s rural villas in the Zhongnan mountains, about 25 miles (approx. 40km) outside of the capital. 

The princess was the reigning emperor’s sister, and known for her pious Buddhism and interest in the arts.

She was a patron to the famous poet Wang Wei (ca. 701 – 761 AD).

Li waited here for months to no avail. The princess never arrived. He had likely been purposely duped into wasting his time waiting for her here. 

Li Bai and Wang Wei: Contemporaries and rivals?

Wang Wei is generally considered the third great Tang poet, after Li Bai and Du Fu. Interestingly, despite their many friends in common, Li Bai and Du Fu appear to have not been friends. 

Some have speculated that competition over the Princess Yuzhen’s patronage was part of the reason.

Others that their different backgrounds – Wang was an aristocrat – and temperaments may have led dislike of one another.

732 – 742 AD (aged 33 – 43): Returns home, visits Jing Prefecture

Li left the Chang’an in 732. 

Before he returned home, he briefly visited the Tang dynasty’s other great city, the eastern capital of Luoyang (228 miles [368 km] east of Chang’an). 

Along the way here he stopped off at Bianliang (today’s Kaifeng, Henan Province) and Mount Song (today famous as the home of the Shaolin temple).

Over the following decade, Li Bai’s search for a career as an official followed the same frustrating path.

He travelled across the empire, relying largely on the goodwill of the network of officials in each city he came to. 

He intermittently returning home to An Lu, to a poor domestic situation. His – and his wife’s – only income came from land they rented out nearby.

Family life

In 739 his first child, a daughter was born. And in 741, he had a son – but in the same year, his wife passed away. 

After this, he formed significant relationships with at least three other women, including:

• Liu: They did not marry, and she appears to have left him after a brief relationship soon after Li’s wife died. She appears to have been younger than Li and from a lower class.
• Lu: They also did not marry but had a son together. She may have been a widow before she met Li.
• Zong: They married in 750 AD.

742 – 744 AD (aged 43 – 45): Serves in Chang’an

In 742, a year after his first wife passed away, Li was finally summoned to the Tang court for an audience with the emperor, Xuanzong (r. 712 – 756 AD).

He received his summons in a letter whilst he was travelling in the Tai mountains. 

This was no ordinary summons, either. He had been summoned by the emperor himself. Li’s reputation as a poet was likely the driving force of the emperor’s interest.

Li must have felt enormous excitement at this point. So many years or travel, networking and writing had come to fruition. This would also likely be the answer to all of his financial hardships and uncertainties.

白酒新熟山中归，黄鸡啄黍秋正肥。
呼童烹鸡酌白酒，儿女嬉笑牵人衣。
高歌取醉欲自慰，起舞落日争光辉。
游说万乘苦不早，著鞭跨马涉远道。
会稽愚妇轻买臣，余亦辞家西入秦。
仰天大笑出门去，我辈岂是蓬蒿人。
Fresh, ripe baijiu [an alcoholic drink] waits for me on my return from the mountain.
Yellow chickens have got fat this autumn, they peck at grains.
I call the servant to bring prepare the baijiu and chicken.
My son and daughter laugh and play around me, pulling at my robes.
I comfort myself by signing and dancing in the brilliant setting sunlight.
It’s said great men often lack time. 
I must get on my horse and travel a long way.
That foolish woman looked down on this official; 
Now I’m leaving home to head west [and enter office].
I throw my head back in laughter as I leave my gate. 
How could I have been left out in the wilderness for so long?
– Li Bai, ‘In Nanling saying Farewell to my Children before Heading to the Capital’ 《南陵别儿童入京》

In the capital

After a private audience with the emperor, Li was appointed as an academician in the Imperial Library. 

This role was held by several other talented artists, calligraphers, etc. They were all essentially on retainer for the emperor if needed.

The problem was, however, that the emperor was not particularly interested in governance at this stage in his life. 

Most affairs of the state were run by the notoriously dangerous chief minister, Li Linfu (d. 753 AD).

Li Bai’s initial problem was that he felt he would quickly become a great statesman. He even wrote an essay entitled ‘A Grand Plan for Our Dynasty’, which the emperor likely never saw.

Li seems to have realised his powerlessness. He took to drinking with other officials.

Perhaps the most famous snapshot of him from this time comes from Du Fu’s poem ‘The Eight Immortals of the Cup’.

In the poem, Li is mentioned amongst other famous poets, including He Zhizhang and the calligrapher-poet Zhang Xu (ca. 675 – 759 AD).

Li did have some political successes during his time in Chang’an. 

For example, at one point he helped draft a diplomatic letter in the Yuezhi script for the emperor. (This incident further highlights Li’s foreign heritage.) 

And he also helped secure the pardon an army officer named Guo Ziyi who was about to be summarily executed.

However, after less than two years serving the court, Li Bai requested to be let go from his position. The emperor consented. 

Both parties were likely relieved. 

Li was clearly tired of the difficult and dangerous intrigue in the high court. And the emperor was likely relieved that the drunken poet didn’t have to be managed further.

Had Li stayed, he would also have risked trouble from Li Linfu, the chief minister. 

‘Trouble’ in this context means torture, prison, exile or execution – all tools Li liberally applied to his real and imagined enemies alike.

744 – 755 AD (aged 45 – 56): More wandering

Rather than return directly home after his time in the court, Li took to travel again.

Meeting Du Fu

At his first stop, in Luoyang, he befriended Du Fu. This would go on to become the most famous friendship in Chinese literature.

Du Fu was 11 years younger than Li Bai and a big fan of his work. The two poets would go on to travel together to Biangliang (today’s Kaifeng) and meet again later in Yangzhou. 

When they went their separate ways, Du Fu would still write poems recalling Li Bai.

Wandering and wondering what to do

Throughout these years, Li Bai travelled the empire as usual. But now that he had experienced politics at the highest level, his goal now seemed less clear.

He clearly still considered himself as not having realised any ambitions. 

Of course, throughout the whole period, he continued to write some history’s greatest poetry. But he still harboured political and even military ambitions. 

Like Du Fu, being a poet was only meant to be a secondary part of who he was.

In 752, he travelled to the north-eastern part of the empire (not far from today’s Beijing). There was a great concentration of military power here. 

Li didn’t stay long. He would soon realise that he had glimpsed the beginnings of something catastrophic: the brewing civil war.

755 – 762 AD (aged 56 – 63): War and death

In 755, the military governor of north-eastern China, An Lushan (703 – 757 AD), rebelled against the ruling dynasty. 

This led to the An Lushan Rebellion, a civil war that would last for approximately 8 years and cause millions of deaths. 

(Some have even labelled it ‘the worst event in human history’ because of the alleged death toll vs. world population at the time. However, many other argue that these calculations are based on faulty logic.)

Like tens of millions of others, Li and his family struggled through hardship during this time. Millions fled the two capitals and their surrounding areas in the north of China. 

Li Bai and his family ended up in Jiujiang (in today’s Jiangxi Province).

A nearly fatal miscalculation

During the early part of the rebellion, the emperor’s brother, Prince Yong, declared a new separate dynasty. 

Li found himself in the territory under the prince’s control. He was even persuaded to join the new self-declared government by an emissary sent to him. 

He agreed, which gave the prince a valuable propaganda victory. Li’s thinking was likely more impractical than malevolent. 

As far as Li knew, the prince’s dynasty could have served as a natural successor to the Tang dynasty if imperial forces were defeated by the rebels (as was looking likely early on). 

Less than a month into Li’s new position, the prince’s forces were defeated. Li Bai was amongst those captured and placed in prison.

Spared death and exile

Li was eventually released from prison and sentenced to three years’ exile in Yelang (in what is now Guizhou Province).

Many officials put in a good word for him with the imperial leadership, which no doubt spared him from execution. (One of those who did was the officer whose life he had saved a few years before, Guo Ziyi.)

Throughout Chinese history, officials sent into exile often risked death from various causes, including malnutrition and malaria. 

Besides this, they often had to content with a deep loneliness at being cut off from familiar company and culture. 

Li had got as far as Fengjie (today a county in Chongqing) when a message reached him that he had been pardoned. He back east to reunite with his family.  

He was not in good health, but he still maintained his ambition to serve the imperial dynasty. Imperial forces had the upper hand, but fighting still hadn’t finished.

At one point, Li visited the famous calligrapher Li Yangbing (ca. 721 – 777 AD).

Here, he got so ill he thought he would die and asked the younger man to help him collate his poems and take down autobiographical notes.

After a few more months wandering, Li passed away. He was buried by his son in Dangtu (today a part of Anhui Province).

Embracing the moon

It’s not known exactly how or where Li died. 

However, a popular story has long circulated that he died in Dangtu (where his son lived) after drunkenly stepping out of his boat to embrace the moon’s reflection in a lake.