Li Bai (February 8, 701 - December 762), also known as Taibai, also known as Qinglian Jushi, also known as "Exiled Immortal". He was a great romantic poet in the Tang Dynasty and was hailed as the "Immortal of Poetry" by later generations. Together with Du Fu, they are called "Li Du". In order to distinguish them from the other two poets, Li Shangyin and Du Mu, namely "Little Li Du", Du Fu and Li Bai are also collectively called "Big Li Du". He is cheerful and generous, loves drinking, writing poetry, and making friends.

Li Bai’s "Collection of Li Taibai" has been handed down from generation to generation. Most of his poems were written when he was drunk. His representative works include "Wang Lushan Waterfall", "The Road is Difficult", "The Road to Shu is Difficult", "About to Drink", "Liang Fu Yin", "Early Departure from Baidi City" and many other songs.

Song people have biographies of Li Bai’s poems and poems (such as the first volume of Wen Ying’s Xiangshan Wild Records). In terms of its pioneering significance and artistic achievements, Li Bai’s poems enjoy an extremely high status.

Personal Overview

Li Bai’s Yuefu, Ge Xing and Quatrains are the highest. The lines of his songs completely break all the inherent patterns of poetry creation. They are empty and have many styles of writing, reaching a magical realm of unpredictable and swaying at will. Li Bai's quatrains are natural, lively, elegant and unrestrained, and can express endless emotions in concise and clear language. Among the poets of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei and Meng Haoran were good at the Five Jue, and Wang Changling and other Qi Jue wrote very well. Li Bai was the only one who was good at both the Five Jue and the Seven Jue and reached the same extreme level.

Li Bai's poems are majestic and elegant, and his artistic achievements are extremely high. He eulogized the mountains, rivers and beautiful natural scenery of the motherland, with a majestic and unrestrained style, handsome and fresh, full of romantic spirit, and achieved the perfect unity of content and art. He was called "Exiled Immortal" by He Zhizhang, and most of his poems mainly described landscapes and expressed inner emotions. Li Bai's poems have the artistic charm of "the pen falls in the storm, and the poem becomes the weeping ghosts and gods". This is also the most distinctive artistic feature of his poetry. Li Bai's poems are rich in self-expression and have a strong subjective lyrical color, and his emotional expression has an overwhelming momentum. He and Du Fu are both called "Big Li Du", (Li Shangyin and Du Mu are called "Little Li Du").

Li Bai’s poems often combine imagination, exaggeration, metaphor, personification and other techniques to create a magical, magnificent and moving artistic conception. This is why Li Bai’s romantic poems give people a heroic, unrestrained, elegant and fairy-like feeling. Here's why.

Li Bai's poems have had a profound impact on future generations. Famous poets such as Han Yu, Meng Jiao, and Li He in the mid-Tang Dynasty, Su Shi, Lu You, and Xin Qiji in the Song Dynasty, and Gao Qi, Yang Shen, and Gong Zizhen in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were all greatly influenced by Li Bai's poetry.

Style

Bold and unrestrained, fresh and elegant, rich in imagination, wonderful artistic conception, wonderful language, romanticism, and clear intention.

Li Bai lived in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. He had a heroic character and loved the mountains and rivers of his motherland. He traveled all over the north and south and wrote a large number of magnificent poems praising famous mountains and rivers. His poems are bold and unrestrained, fresh and elegant, rich in imagination, wonderful in artistic conception, and brisk in language. People call him the "Poetic Immortal". Li Bai's poems not only have the typical romantic spirit, but also have typical romantic artistic characteristics from image creation, material intake, genre selection and the use of various artistic techniques.

Li Bai succeeded in shaping himself in the poem, expressing himself strongly and highlighting the unique personality of the lyrical protagonist. Therefore, his poems have distinctive romantic characteristics. He likes to use majestic images to express himself, and expresses his emotions unabashedly and without restraint in his poems, expressing his joy, anger, sorrow, and joy. To the powerful and powerful, he held a chrysanthemum and made fun of two thousand stones (one of the two poems "Sending Cui Shiyu after Drunk"); when he saw the hard work of the working people, his heart burst into tears. When the country was overthrown and people's livelihood was in ruins, he crossed the river and vowed to flow, aiming to clear the Central Plains. Drawing a sword and hitting the front pillar, the tragic song is difficult to repeat ("Lampen Shuhuai"), so impassioned; when drinking happily with friends, the two of them drank together, and the flowers bloomed, one cup after another.

I'm so drunk that I'm about to fall asleep, please go away. Do you want to come tomorrow with a qin in your arms? ("Drinking with a Quiet Man in the Mountains"), he is so innocent and straightforward. In short, his poems vividly express his unrestrained character and suave image.

Boldness is the main feature of Li Bai's poetry. In addition to factors such as thought, personality, talents, emotions, experiences, and other factors, the artistic expression techniques and genre structure used in Li Bai's poems are also important reasons for the formation of his bold and elegant style. Being good at relying on imagination and expressing objectivity subjectively is an important feature of the romantic artistic technique of Li Bai's poetry. Almost every article contains imagination, and some even use a variety of imagination throughout the article. Real things, natural landscapes, myths and legends, historical allusions, and dreams and illusions have all become the medium of his imagination. Often with the help of imagination, transcending time and space, intertwining reality with dreams and fairyland, nature and human society, and recreating objective reality. The images he paints are not direct reflections of objective reality, but the externalization of his inner subjective world, the reality of art.

One of the romantic artistic techniques of Li Bai's poems is the clever combination of personification and metaphor, empathizing with things and comparing things to people.

Another romantic artistic technique of Li Bai's poetry is to seize a certain characteristic of things and add bold imagination and exaggeration based on the reality of life. His exaggeration is not only imaginative and strange, but also always combined with specific things. The exaggeration is so natural and invisible; so bold, yet true and believable, it plays the role of highlighting the image and strengthening the emotion. Sometimes he also combines bold exaggeration with sharp contrast to enhance the artistic effect by increasing the artistic contrast.

Li Bai's best genres are seven-character songs and quatrains. Li Bai's seven-character song line adopts the structure of large opening and closing, jumping and swinging. The beginning of the poem is often abrupt, like a sudden surge, while the middle images of the poem change suddenly, often omitting transitional references, and there seems to be no trace to follow. The end of the poem often ends abruptly at the emotional climax.

Li Bai's five or seven character quatrains more represent the fresh and bright style of his poetry. Such as "Early Departure from Baidi City", "Farewell to Meng Haoran in Guangling", "Quiet Night Thoughts", etc. What is wonderful is that the foreground and spoken words have overtones and external flavors, which make people feel far away. ? (Part 1 of "Shuo Shi Yu Yu").

Language

Some of the languages ????of Li Bai’s poems are as fresh as spoken language, and some are bold and uninhibited, almost prose, but they are all unified in that hibiscus emerges from clear water, and natural ornaments are removed ?among the natural beauty. This is related to his conscious pursuit of natural beauty. He inherited Chen Zi'ang's literary ideas and took it as his duty to restore the tradition of poetic poetry. He once said: "Since the Liang and Chen Dynasties, beauty has been extremely rare, but Shen Xiu's prose still relies on rhythm and will restore the Taoism. Who but me can do it?" (Meng Qi) "Poetry of Skills - Gao Yi") He advocates "halal" and satirizes "ugly girls who lose their innocence" and imitate their frown, learning to walk in Handan. The natural beauty of his poetic language is the result of his careful study of folk songs to understand their popular characteristics. They are as clear as words, popular and vivid.

Representative works

"About to Enter Wine", "The Road to Shu is Difficult", "Sleepwalking Tianmu Says Farewell", "Thoughts on a Quiet Night", "Wang Lushan Waterfall", "A Knight's Journey", "Spring Thoughts" Autumn Song" etc.

, there are about 20 poems, such as "Bodhisattva Man", "Recalling Qin'e", etc.

In terms of its pioneering significance and artistic achievements, "Li Bai's Ci" enjoys an extremely high status in the history of Ci. This status is like the status of ancient Greek mythology in Western art. As an "unattainable" standard, Li Bai's poetry has become an eternal idol in people's minds. Li Bai made significant contributions to the formation of the textual model of Ci and the creation model of Ci.

In fact, since the "Hua Jian Ji" in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, all anthologies and collections of Tang and Song poetry will not forget Li Bai in their specific operations, or at least mention him in the preface and postscript. One sentence.

As the first great lyricist in the history of literature, although he only has a few lyrics whose copyright is often doubted, no one has ever expressed any dissatisfaction or criticism against him. If one were to select the best poet in the world, Li Bai would undoubtedly be elected as the "Cipher King" by a unanimous vote.

Calligraphy

"Tie to the Balcony" is Li Bai's own four-character cursive poem, and it is also his only authentic calligraphy handed down from generation to generation. Paper, length 28.5 cm, width 38.1 cm. 5 lines of cursive script, 25 words. The word "Taibai" is used for the payment department. It is preceded by the four-character regular script inscription "Qinglian Yihan" written by Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, and the seven-character inscription written in thin gold by Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty on the upper right of the text: "Li Taibai of the Tang Dynasty went to the balcony". On the back are inscriptions and inscriptions by Zhao Ji, Huizong of the Song Dynasty, Zhang Yan, Du Ben, Ouyang Xuan, Wang Yuqing, Wei Su, Zou Lu of the Yuan Dynasty, and Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. The seals on the front and back of the volume include Zhao Mengjian's "Zigu", "Yizhai", Jia Sidao's "Qiuhe Book" in the Song Dynasty, "Zhang Yan's private seal" and "Ouyang Xuan's seal" in the Yuan Dynasty, as well as Xiang Yuanbian in the Ming Dynasty, Qingbiao, Anqi, and Nei in the Qing Dynasty. Mansion, seal collected by Zhang Boju and others in modern times.

Swordsmanship

Li Bai was not only brilliant in literary talent, but also very skilled in swordsmanship. He is said to be good at swordsmanship for fifteen years, and he has mastered swordsmanship by himself. His attainments are extraordinary. Li Bai's poems, Pei Min's swordsmanship, and Zhang Xu's cursive calligraphy are collectively called the Three Wonders of the Tang Dynasty. Although Li Bai's swordsmanship is not among the "Three Wonders", his swordsmanship is only lower than Pei Min, ranking second in the Tang Dynasty.

According to statistics, the word "Jian" appears 107 times in Li Bai's poems in "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty". Excluding the place name "Jiange" three times, "Jianbi" once, and the word "Jianbi" as a weapon. Sword? There are still 103 times. The sword belonging to the sword appeared once, Wu Gou once, Wu Hong once, Zhan Lu once, Gan Jiang once, Mo Xie once, and Qing Ping twice. , "Qiu Lian" twice, "Shuangxue" twice, "Dagger" three times, and "Longquan" four times. In total, the word "Jian" appeared 118 times (when counting, "Wu Gou Shuang Xue Ming", "Kong Yu Zhan Lu Jian", "Sword Flower Autumn Lotus Light Out of the Box", "Clumsy Wife Mo Xie Jian", My Qingping Sword? Counted once each), distributed in 106 poems, accounting for about 10 of the total number of poems.

Taoist Scriptures

Since Li Bai was a boy, he often went to Daitian Mountain to find Taoist priests from Taoist temples to talk about Taoist scriptures. Later, he lived in seclusion in Minshan Mountain with a hermit named Dong Yanzi and devoted himself to study. They raised many exotic birds and became animal breeders in the mountains and forests where they lived. These beautiful and docile birds, because they are used to being raised, fly here regularly to beg for food. They seem to understand people's language. With a call, they fly down from all directions and fall in front of the steps. They can even peck at grains from people's hands. Grain, not afraid at all. This incident was rumored as an anecdote, and eventually the governor of Mianzhou went to the mountains to watch the birds eating. Seeing that they could command the movements of birds, the governor thought that they had Tao skills, so he wanted to recommend them to take the Tao exam. However, both of them politely refused. Zhao Rui, a famous political strategist at that time, was also Li Bai's teacher. In the fourth year of Kaiyuan (716), he wrote ten volumes of "The Long and Short Classics". Li Bai was only fifteen years old at that time. Zhao Rui's strategist-style work studied the similarities and differences of the Six Classics, analyzed the world situation, and emphasized the rise and fall of chaos, which aroused Li Bai's great interest. In the future, he was determined to make great achievements and loved to talk about the ways of kings and dominators. It was also influenced by this book.

Thoughts

In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the country was strong, and most scholars were eager to make contributions. Li Bai regarded himself as an unparalleled talent, and used his wisdom to stimulate his intelligence. He was willing to serve as an assistant to make the whole region settled and Hai County clear. Finally, the ideal of peace and prosperity. He compares himself with a big roc, a celestial horse, and a majestic sword: The big roc rises with the wind in one day and soars up to ninety thousand miles. If the wind stops and comes down, it can still blow away the water. ?("Shang Li Yong"). He hopes to be like Jiang Shang in assisting Mingjun and like Zhuge Liang in reviving the Han Dynasty. "Yin of Liang Fu", "Reading Zhuge Wuhou's Biography and Expressing His Feelings", "Song of Yong Wang's Eastern Patrol", and "The Road Is Difficult" (Part 2) all reflect his thoughts of this kind.

Li Bai felt that with his own talents, he could be on equal terms with the princes when he came out, and overlook the nest when he escaped ("Preface to "Send Yanzi Yuan Yan Yinxian City Mountain"), for those who rely on family status He showed strong contempt for the powerful and powerful people who enjoyed high positions and generous salaries, showing an arrogant and unyielding character. He despised the feudal hierarchy, was unwilling to flatter people, and disdained to live up to the world. The darkness of reality disillusioned him, and the shackles of the feudal ethical hierarchy suffocated him. He longed for the freedom and liberation of his personality, so he adopted a wild and uninhibited attitude towards life to break free from the shackles and strive for freedom. The way of expression is to drink and sing wildly, to seek immortals and learn Taoism. However, wine cannot relieve sorrow, and immortals are even more illusory, so he "will spend his whole life traveling to famous mountains" ("The Ballad of Mount Lu"), taking the beautiful nature as the sustenance of his ideals. , the embodiment of freedom to sing. Emei, Huashan, Lushan, Taishan, Huangshan, etc. in his works are majestic and majestic, absorbing the wind and clouds, and converging with rivers; the rushing Yellow River and the surging Yangtze River in his works cleanse everything and sweep everything, showing the poet's unruly and unruly spirit. Character and strong desire to break through bonds.

This is Li Bai's angry struggle against society and an important manifestation of his rebellious spirit. He opposed Xuanzong's ambition to achieve great results, resorted to military violence, and exposed the generals who were not his, causing the people and soldiers to die in vain. Due to Xuanzong's arrogance, the power of the eunuchs was extremely popular. Through the analysis of the political agenda and the on-the-spot observation in Youyan, Li Bai used the sensitivity of a poet to understand You Zhuwei, among the poets at that time, he and Du Fu were the first to reveal the coming disaster. The Anshi Rebellion broke out, and his patriotic enthusiasm was sublimated, and he got rid of the contradiction of hiding the source. His rebellious character and rebellious spirit have profound patriotic connotations and are full of social significance and characteristics of the times. Chapters 3, 15, 24, and 39 of "Ancient Style" all make profound revelations and powerful criticisms of social reality.

Li Bai has both a noble and arrogant side and a secular side. His ideals and freedom can only be sought in mountains, forests, fairyland, and drunken countryside. Poems such as "Song of Xiangyang" and "Song of Xiangyang" reveal that life is like a dream, carpe diem, and escape from reality, which are also representative among the upright and aloof literati in feudal society.

Li Bai’s famous sayings

1. When the wind blows and the waves break, sometimes you can hang your sails directly across the sea. "The Road Is Difficult"

2. Cut off the water with a knife, and the water will flow more, and raise a cup to eliminate the sorrow, and the sorrow will become even more sorrowful. "Farewell to Secretary Shu Yun at Xietiao Tower in Xuanzhou"

3. The snowflakes on Yanshan Mountain were as big as a mat, and they blew down Xuanyuan Terrace. "Traveling to the North Wind"

4. I am born with talents that will be useful, and I will come back after all my gold is gone. "About to Enter the Wine"

5. If you don't see it, the water of the Yellow River comes up from the sky and rushes to the sea never to return; if you don't see it, the mirror in the high hall has sad white hair, and it looks like blue silk in the morning and turns to snow in the evening. "About to Enter the Wine"

6. If you are proud of life, you must have all the fun, and don't let the golden bottle stand empty against the moon. "About to Enter the Wine"

7. The green mountains on both sides of the strait come out facing each other, and the lone sail is coming from the sun. "Looking at Tianmen Mountain"

8. The shadow of the lone sail in the distance is gone in the blue sky, and only the Yangtze River can be seen flowing in the sky. "Yellow Crane Tower Sends Meng Haoran to Guangling"

9. The flying stream falls three thousand feet, which is suspected to be the Milky Way falling from the sky. "Wanglu Mountain Waterfall"

10. Beyond the blue sky and the three mountains, Bailuzhou is divided into a body of water. "Climbing the Phoenix Tower of Jinling"

11. Let's go out and laugh at the sky. How can I be a Penghao person? "Nanling Farewell Children Entering Beijing"

12. Even if the peaks are gone, the sky is not full, and withered pines hang upside down and lean on the cliff. "The Road to Shu is Difficult"

13. Floating clouds can always block the sun, and the absence of Chang'an makes people sad. "Climbing the Phoenix Tower of Jinling"

14. The wandering clouds are like a wandering child, and the setting sun is about old friends. "Send Off a Friend"

15. The mountains end with the plains, and the river flows into the wilderness. "Farewell at the Jingmen Gate"

16. The plain forest is woven with smoke in the desert, and the Hanshan area is sad and green.

"Bodhisattva Barbarian"

17. I send my sorrowful heart to the bright moon and follow you until the end of the night. "I heard that Wang Changling moved to the left and sent this message to Long Biaoyuan"

18. The water in Peach Blossom Pond is a thousand feet deep, and it is not as deep as Wang Lun's gift to me. "Gift to Wang Lun"

19. The white hair is three thousand feet, and the fate is as long as the worry. "Qiupu Song"

20. On what day when the Hu barbarians are defeated, the good man will stop his expedition. "Midnight Wu Song"

21. Raise your glass to invite the bright moon, and look into the shadows of three people. "Drinking Alone under the Moon"

22. The apes on both sides of the strait can't stop crying, and the boat has passed the Ten Thousand Mountains. "Early Departure from Baidi City"

23. The maids filled the Spring Palace like flowers, but now only partridges are flying. "Visiting the Ancients in Yuezhong"

24. Today's people cannot see the moon in ancient times, but today's moon once illuminated the ancients. "Walking with Wine and Asking the Moon"

25. An Neng is able to bend his eyebrows and bend his waist to serve the powerful, which makes me unhappy. "Mengyou Tianmu Yin Farewell"