LIFE OF LI PO, FROM THE “NEW HISTORY OF THE T’ANG DYNASTY,” COMPOSED IN
THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.
Li Po, styled T’ai-po, was descended in the ninth generation from
the Emperor Hsing-shēng.[2] One of his ancestors was charged with a
crime at the end of the Sui dynasty,[3] and took refuge in Turkestan.
At the beginning of the period Shēn-lung[4] the family returned and
settled in Pa-hsi.[5] At his birth Po’s mother dreamt of the planet
Ch’ang-kēng [Venus], and that was why he was called Po.[6]
[2] _I.e._, Li Kao.
[3] A.D. 581-618.
[4] A.D. 705-707.
[5] In Szechwan.
[6] “Po,” “white,” was a popular name of the Planet Venus.
At ten he had mastered the Book of Odes and Book of History. When he
grew up he retired to the Min Mountains, and even when summoned to the
provincial examinations he made no response. When Su T’ing[7] became
Governor of I-chou, he was introduced to Po, and was astonished by
him, remarking: “This man has conspicuous natural talents. If he had
more learning he would be a second Ssŭ-ma Hsiang-ju.”[8] However, he
was interested in politics and fond of fencing, becoming one of those
knight-errants who care nothing for wealth and much for almsgiving.
[7] Giles, Biog. Dict., No. 1,789.
[8] Giles, No. 1,753.
Once he stayed at Jēn-ch’ēng[9] with K’ung Ch’ao-fu, Han Chun, P’ei
Chēng, Chang Shu-ming, and T’ao Mien. They lived on Mount Ch’u Lai, and
were dead drunk every day. People called them the Six Hermits of the
Bamboo Stream.
[9] In Shantung.
At the beginning of the T’ien-pao period[10] he went south to Kuei-chi,
and became intimate with Wu Yün. Wu Yün was summoned by the Emperor,
and Po went with him to Ch’ang-an. Here he visited Ho Chih-chang.
When Chih-chang read some of his work, he sighed and said: “You are
an exiled fairy.” He told the Emperor, who sent for Po and gave him
audience in the Golden Bells Hall. The poet submitted an essay dealing
with current events. The Emperor bestowed food upon him and stirred
the soup with his own hand. He ordered that he should be unofficially
attached to the Han Lin Academy, but Po went on drinking in the
market-place with his boon-companions.
[10] _Circa_ A.D. 742.
Once when the Emperor was sitting in the Pavilion of Aloes Wood, he had
a sudden stirring of heart, and wanted Po to write a song expressive of
his mood. When Po entered in obedience to the summons, he was so drunk
that the courtiers were obliged to dab his face with water. When he had
recovered a little, he seized a brush and without any effort wrote a
composition of flawless grace.
The Emperor was so pleased with Po’s talent that whenever he was
feasting or drinking he always had this poet to wait upon him. Once
when Po was drunk the Emperor ordered [the eunuch] Kao Li-shih to take
off Po’s shoes. Li-shih, who thought such a task beneath him, took
revenge by affecting to discover in one of Po’s poems a veiled attack
on [the Emperor’s mistress] Yang Kuei-fei.
Whenever the Emperor thought of giving the poet some official rank,
Kuei-fei intervened and dissuaded him.
Po himself, soon realizing that he was unsuited to Court life, allowed
his conduct to become more and more reckless and unrestrained.
Together with his friends Ho Chih-chang, Li Shih-chih, Chin, Prince of
Ju-yang, Ts’ui Tsung-chih, Su Chin, Chang Hsü, and Chiao Sui, he formed
the association known as the Eight Immortals of the Winecup.
He begged persistently to be allowed to retire from Court. At last the
Emperor gave him gold and sent him away. Po roamed the country in every
direction. Once he went by boat with Ts’ui Tsung-chih from Pien-shih to
Nanking. He wore his embroidered Court cloak and sat as proudly in the
boat as though he were king of the universe.
When the An Lu-shan revolution broke out, he took to living sometimes
at Su-sung, sometimes on Mount K’uang-lu.
Lin, Prince of Yung, gave him the post of assistant on his staff. When
Lin took up arms, he fled to P’ēng-tsē. When Lin was defeated, Po was
condemned to death. When Po first visited T’ai-yüan Fu, he had seen
and admired Kuo Tzŭ-i.[11] On one occasion, when Tzŭ-i was accused of
breaking the law, Li Po had come to his assistance and had him released.
[11] A famous General, the saviour of the dynasty.
Now, hearing of Po’s predicament, Tzŭ-i threatened to resign unless Po
were saved. The Emperor remitted the sentence of death and changed it
to one of perpetual exile at Yeh-lang.[12] But when the amnesty was
declared he came back to Kiukiang. Here he was put on trial and sent to
gaol. But it happened that Sung Jo-ssŭ was marching to Honan with three
thousand soldiers from Kiangsu. He passed through Kiukiang on his way,
and released the prisoners there. He gave Li Po an appointment on his
staff. Po soon resigned.
[12] In Yunnan.
When Li Yang-ping became Governor of T’ang-tu, Po went to live near him.
The Emperor Tai Tsung[13] wished to raise him to the rank of Senior
Reviser. But when the order came Po was already dead, having reached
the age of somewhat over sixty. His last years were devoted to the
study of Taoism.
[13] Reigned 763-780.
He once crossed the Bull Island Eddies and, reaching Ku-shu, was
delighted by a place called the Green Hill, which lay in the estate of
the Hsieh family. He expressed a desire to be buried there, but when he
died they buried him at Tung-lin.
At the end of the period Yüan-ho,[14] Fan Ch’uan-chēng, Governor of the
districts Hsüan and Shē [in Anhui], poured a libation on his grave and
forbade the woodmen to cut down the trees which grew there.
[14] 806-821.
He sought for Li Po’s descendants, but could only find two
grand-daughters, who had both married common peasants, but still
retained an air of good breeding. They appeared before the Governor
weeping, and said: “Our grandfather’s wish was to be buried on top of
the Green Hill. But they made his grave at the eastern hill-base, which
is not what he desired.”
Fan Ch’uan-chēng had the grave moved and set up two tombstones. He
told the ladies they might change their husbands and marry into the
official classes, but they refused, saying that they were pledged to
isolation and poverty and could not marry again. Fan was so moved by
their reply that he exempted their husbands from national service. A
rescript of the Emperor Wēn Tsung created the category of the Three
Paragons: Li Po, of poetry; P’ei Min, of swordsmanship; and Chang Hsü,
of cursive calligraphy.
Most of the accounts of Li Po’s life which have hitherto appeared are
based on the biography given in vol. v. of the “Mémoires Concernant
Les Chinois.” It is evident that several of the frequently quoted
anecdotes in the “Mémoires” are partly based on a misunderstanding of
the Chinese text, partly due to the lively imagination of the Jesuits.
The Sung writer Hsieh Chung-yung arranged in chronological order all
the information about the poet’s life that can be gleaned not only from
the T’ang histories, but also from the poems themselves.
In the communications of the Gesellschaft für Natur und Völkerkunde,
1889, Dr. Florenz makes some rather haphazard and inaccurate selections
from this chronology.
The Life in the “New T’ang History” has, I believe, never before been
translated in full. The Life in the so-called “Old T’ang History” is
shorter and contains several mistakes. Thus Li is said to have been a
native of the Province Shantung, which is certainly untrue.
The following additional facts are based on statements in the poet’s
own works.
With regard to his marriage in A.D. 730 he writes to a friend: “The
land of Ch’u has seven swamps; I went to look at them. But at His
Excellency Hsü’s house I was offered the hand of his grand-daughter,
and lingered there during the frosts of three autumns.” He then seems
to have abandoned Miss Hsü, who was impatient at his lack of promotion.
He afterwards married successively Miss Lin, Miss Lu, and Miss Sung.
These were, of course, wives, not concubines. We are told that he
was fond of “going about with the dancing-girls of Chao-yang and
Chin-ling.” He had one son, who died in A.D. 797.
With regard to his part in the revolution, the “New History” seems
somewhat confused. It is probable that his sojourn in the prison at
Kiukiang took place before and not after his decree of banishment. It
is also uncertain whether he knew, when he entered the service of Lin,
that this prince was about to take up arms against the Emperor. The
Chinese have reproached Po with ingratitude to his Imperial patron,
but it would appear that he abandoned Prince Lin as soon as the latter
joined the revolution.
A mysterious figure mentioned in the poems is the “High Priest of
Pei-hai” [in Shantung], from whom the poet received a diploma of Taoist
proficiency in A.D. 746.
Li Yang-ping gives the following account of Po’s death: “When he
was about to hang up his cap [an euphemism for “dying”] Li Po was
worried at the thought that his numerous rough drafts had not been
collected and arranged. Lying on his pillow, he gave over to me all his
documents, that I might put them in order.”
The “Old T’ang History” says that his illness was due to excessive
drinking. There is nothing improbable in the diagnosis. There is a
legend[15] that he was drowned while making a drunken effort to embrace
the reflection of the moon in the water. This account of his end has
been adopted by Giles and most other European writers, but already in
the twelfth century Hung Mai pointed out that the story is inconsistent
with Li Yang-ping’s authentic evidence.
[15] The legendary Li Po is the subject of the sixth tale in “Chin Ku
Ch’i Kuan”, translated by T. Pavie in “Contes et Nouvelles,” 1839. He
also figures in the Mongol dynasty play, “The Golden Token.”
The truth may be that he contracted his last illness as the result of
falling into the water while drunk.