Author: Linkai
Last update: 2022, December 6th
床前明月光，
Beside the bed, a pool of moonlight comes
疑是地上霜。
Took it to be frost on the ground.
舉頭望明月，
Raise my head I gaze at the moon,
低頭思故鄉。
Looking down I miss my dear hometown.
That is one of the most classical poems of Li Bai, 静夜思/"Quiet Night Thoughts". The poem's type is 五言四絶 (Wu Yan Si Jue), a common ancient poem type in China where there are 4 lines, each line has 5 words, and the last words of 1st, 2nd, and 4th line, or 2nd and 4th line must rhyme with each other. There is no translation on the internet that seems to satisfy the rule so this is my attempt. The moon in China has a special meaning. And when it's full, that represents the fullness and reunification of the family.
Talking about Li Bai, there are only 3 words to describe him: Liquor, Travel, and Poem. If you have ever watched the series "Pirates of the Caribbean", you can imagine he's like the ancient China version of Jack Sparrow, traveling on his own journey, not caring about anything, trolling people, and being drunk and savage most of the time, completely opposite of his image in "Fate of The Empress".
While Li Bai's mother was pregnant with him, she had a dream of a great white star falling from heaven. This seems to have contributed to the idea of his being a fallen immortal God (one of his nickname) and explains his courtesy name: "Tai Bai" (means "Venus").
Li Bai was able to compose poetry before he was ten and became famous widely as a prodigy when he was fifteen. The young Li also engaged in other activities, such as taming wild birds and fencing, riding, hunting, traveling, and aiding the poor but he was most famous for the talent of "making excellent poems while being drunk". He also seemed to have become quite skilled in swordsmanship and was described as a cocky impulsive young guy who loved to show off:
"When I was fifteen, I was fond of swordplay, and with that art, I challenged quite a few great men.", said cocky teenage Li Bai.
There are many folktales about Li Bai, but the funniest and most interesting one that can be listed as "Pro revenge" is when he went to Chang'an (Tang dynasty's capital) to take the civil service examination, he met He Zhizhang. Both of them loved liquor and poetry so they became best friends quickly. He Zhizhang was afraid that if Li Bai wouldn't bribe, he would fail so as a friend, he tried to help Li Bai by sending a letter to the examiners. However, that year's examiners were Yang Guozhong and Gao Lishi. These two hated He Zhizhang, so they hated Li Bai too after reading the letter and decided to make Li Bai fail with the feedback "This person is so stupid, only worth removing mud on people's boots."
After leaving the exam, Li Bai wandered about the area of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, eventually making friends with a famous Daoist priest, Wu Yun. In 742, Wu Yun was summoned by the Emperor to attend the imperial court, where his praise of Li Bai was great. Not long later, the emperor summoned Li Bai to the court as well and he was completely impressed by Li Bai's talent to the extent of personally seasoning his soup for him.
Emperor Xuanzong employed him as a translator, as Li Bai knew at least one non-Chinese language. When the emperor ordered Li Bai to the palace, he was often drunk, but quite capable of performing on the spot. One day, the emperor had an important letter that needed to be translated into a foreign language so he summoned Li Bai. Li Bai entered the Palace in a state of being very drunk, he saw Yang Guozhong and Gao Lishi were also there and told them to remove the mud on his boots before he translated the letter. These two officials had no other choice and had to fulfill his command in shame.
(The painting of Li Bai had muddy boots cleaned)
After serving in the Palace for a few years, being surrounded by hatred and jealousy of other people, Li Bai felt like missing the travel and he decided to retire and say farewell to the emperor. The emperor was very sad but he respected his decision and offered him a lot of ingots.
However, Bai "Sparrow", didn't want to take the ingots, but only asked to drink liquor for free at anywhere for the rest of his life. Rumors said that for a long time, the government had to pay a significant amount of money for his drinking expense, while our drunken God, wandered out there, again and again writing poems that were critical of the regime.
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