 | The works of Li Po, the Chinese poet |  |
LI PO—A BIOGRAPHY by SUNG CHI
(From the "New Book of Tang"[1])
Li Po, surnamed Tai-po, is a descendant in the ninth
generation from the emperor Hsing-sheng. His ancestor
in the latter part of the Sui dynasty was for some
wrong-doing exiled to the west barbarian land; but the
family escaped and returned in the beginning of the
Shen-lung era. They sojourned in Pa-hsi.
At the time of Po's birth his mother dreamed of the
planet of Chang-keng, and because of this he was named
after the star. At ten years of age he was versed in
"the Odes" and "the History." When he was grown up,
he hid himself in the Min Mountain, and would not respond
though the province called for men of talent.
Su Ting became Governor of I-chou. On seeing Po,
he wondered and said: "This lad is a genius, he is brilliant
and singular. If a little more learning be added,
he may be compared with Hsiang-ju." But Po delighted
in strategems of crisscross alliances, took to swordsmanship,
and to errantry, scorning riches but esteeming
alms-giving.
Later he sojourned in Jen-cheng; and with Kung
Chao-fu, Han Chun, Pei Cheng, Chang Shu-ming, and
Tao-mien, dwelt in the Chu-lai Mountain, daily drinking
"the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Valley."
At the beginning of the Tien-pao era he journeyed
south to Kuei-chi, where he made a friend of Wu-Yun.
Yun was summoned to court. So arrived Po also at
Chang-an. He went to see Ho Chi-chang. Chi-chang
saw his writing and said with a sigh, "You are a god in
exile." He spoke to the emperor Hsan Tsung. Po was
given audience in the Hall of Golden Bells; he discoursed
upon the affairs of the world, and presented an
ode. The emperor made him eat, seasoning the soup
for him. A rescript was issued, by which Po was appointed
to serve in the Han-ling Academy.
Po still went with his drinking companions, and
drowsed in the market place.
The emperor sat in the Pavilion of Aloes. Stirred
by a fancy, he desired to obtain Po to write songs to
music. Po was summoned in, and he was drunk. The
attendants took water and washed his face. When he
recovered somewhat, he was handed a writing brush,
and made compositions. Exquisite and graceful and
finely finished they were, yet he made them without
stopping to think. The emperor liked Po's talent, and
often banqueted with him.
Once while attending upon the emperor, Po grew
drunk and made Kao Li-shih pull off his shoes for him.
Li-shih, a favorite of the throne, was humiliated thereby.
He pointed out to Yang Kuei-fei a poem of Po, and
caused her wrath. So when the emperor desired to appoint
Po to office, then she stopped him.
Po himself, knowing he could not be taken in by those
near the throne, all the more abandoned himself to
recklessness. With Ho Chi-chang, Li Shih-chi, Chin,
and Chiao Sui, he made up the "Eight Immortals of the
Wine-cup." He implored for permission to return to
the mountains; and the emperor gave gold and let him go.
Po roamed hither and thither. One time he took a
boat with Tsui Tsung-chi from Tsai-shih to Chin-ling.
Arrayed in the palace robe of brocade, he sat in the
boat as though there were no mortal near him.
At the time of Au Lu-shan's rebellion Po lingered between
the Su-sung and the Kuang-luh mountains. Ling,
Prince of Yung, called him and made him a subordinate
of his staff. When Ling started war, Po fled to Peng-tse.
But with the fall of Ling, Po was sentenced to death.
Ere this, when Po was stopping in Ping-chou, he met Kuo
Tsu-i and admired him. Once Tsu-i broke the law, and
Po came to rescue and had him freed. So now Tsu-i
petitioned to ransom Po with his own rank and title
whereupon a rescript was issued for his perpetual banishment
at Yeh-lang.
He received pardon, and returned to Hsin-yang. There
he was imprisoned on account of a certain affair,[2] when
Sung Jo-ssu on his way to Honan with his army of three
thousand men of Wu came to Hsin-yang, released the
prisoner, and placed Po on his general staff. But before
long he resigned. When Li Yang-ping became
Governor of Tang-tu, Po went to live with him.
Emperor Tai Tsung ascended the throne,[3] and he summoned
Po to take the office of the censor of the court;
little more.
In his old age Po was fond of Taoism. He crossed
the Bull Rock Shoal and reached Ku-shu,[4] where the
Green Hill of the House of Hsieh pleased him, and he
wished to make it the place of his last rest. But when
he died, he was buried at the East Base.
In the beginning of the Yuan-ho era[5] Fan Chuan-cheng,
Inspector of Hsuan-she, performed rites at his
grave, and forbade woodcutting at the place. He
sought for descendants of his. There were only two
granddaughters, who were married and were wives of
peasants, but who carried with them an air of refinement.
They wept and said, "Our grandfather wanted the Green
Hill; but is buried at the East Base, that is not his
true wish." Whereupon Chuan-cheng made a reburial
and erected two monuments. He told the two women
that he would marry them into the official class. They
declined, saying, "It is our destiny to end in poverty
and isolation. We desire not to re-marry." Chuan-cheng
approved them, and relieved their husbands from
the conscript labor for the state.
In the reign of the emperor Wen Tsung[6] by imperial
edict Po in songs and odes, Pei-min in sword dance,
and Chang Hsu in cursive calligraphy, were declared
"the Three Paragons."
The "New Book of Tang" was finished in 1060 by Ou-yang
Hsiu and Sung Chi. Sung Chi, who did all the biographies
in this book died in 1061.
| The works of Li Po, the Chinese poet | |