Poetry of Li Po

Li Po

One of the most esteemed Chinese poets, Li Po was born in Central Asia in the early 8th century. Though his family later moved to China, its heritage did not allow Li Po opportunity to closely serve the aristocracy of the Tang Dynasty. Though he expressed mild interest in pursuing an official career, he never sat for the Civil Service Exam and instead traveled throughout China as a poet and reveller. He eventually garnered the patronage of the emperor and began composing poetry for the imperial court. His poems are characterized by imagination and breadth, implementing Taoist philosophies to defend his free-spirited love of wine, women, and friendship.

A Poem to His Wife

I respect you for this--that though descended from a Minister
You study Tao and love Spirits and Immortals,
In your white hands scooping the blue clouds,
Your gauze skirt trailing through the purple mists,
And that now you have gone to the Folding Screen Hill
Mounted on a phoenix and wielding a whip of jade.

Li Po wrote this poem to his fourth wife, who shed her nobility in order to become a nun in a Toaist temple. The purity of her motives is seen in the beauty of "scooping the blue clouds" and the power in "wielding a whip of jade." In relinquishing her social and material concerns, she has found heaven, and become holy.

Chuang Tzu And The Butterfly

Chuang Tzu in dream became a butterfly,
And the butterfly became Chuang Tzu at waking.
Which was the real—the butterfly or the man?
Who can tell the end of the endless changes of things?
The water that flows into the depth of the distant sea
returns anon to the shallows of a transparent stream.
The man, raising melons outside the green gate of the city,
was once the Prince of the East Hill.
So must rank and riches vanish.
You know it, still you toil and toil,—what for?

This story is from the Taoist book Chuang Tzu, titled after the author's name. According to the story, having dreamt that he was a butterfly and waking to find himself a man, Chuang Tzu didn't know which was his true form, but knew there must be a distinction between existing as man and butterfly. Li Po uses this anecdote to express in the final lines of this poem his philosophy that all men reach the same end, and that struggling for a transitory reward is pointless. Li Po was well known for spending most of time in the haze of wine. He believed that life was meant to be enjoyed, that hardship was meant to be accepted or ignored. It is said that he drowned on a drunken evening, trying to embrace the reflection of the moon in the surface of a lake. Though the anecdote is unlikely, it portrays Li Po's focus on immediate pleasure, and his concern that so much importance be placed on mutable elements in the world.

The above image is Li Bai (Li Po) Chanting a Poem, a brush painting completed in the 13th century by Liang Kai. It can be found here.