Biography of Li Bai

Author: Zhou Xunchu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: Li Bai is known as the "Poet Immortal," and his poetry is ethereal, enduring, and full of grandeur, serving as an outstanding representative of the high spirit of the Tang Dynasty. Why did such a legendary talent emerge in Chinese history? The author positions him as the crystallization of multicultural influences. Li Bai had a unique background, born in Suoye, the Western Protectorate of Anxi in the Western Regions, and raised in Changlong County, Mianzhou, in the western suburbs of Shu, an area inhabited by ethnic minorities and the birthplace of Taoism. Therefore, Li Bai was deeply influenced by the cultures of the Qiang, Rong, and Southern Barbarians, growing up immersed in the atmosphere of a mythical world. At the same time, he lived during the vibrant Tang Dynasty, deeply influenced by the strategies of the (Zonghengjia), loved wandering and chivalry, and was proud and unconventional, thus favoring the image of the great Peng as a symbol of transcending the mundane. This book cites extensive literature and employs interdisciplinary cultural knowledge to explain Li Bai's unique behaviors, such as his dismemberment burial for a friend and his second marriage into a high-ranking family, using empirical methods. Li Bai's bold personality, heterodoxical thoughts, and the "Jin Dynasty complex" are all given new interpretations. As shown above, this book offers fresh insights and is an academic work that provides a new interpretation of the "Poet Immortal" Li Bai, a figure of this specific period in Chinese history.