Brief biography or... Li Bo - Biography - a relevant and creative path

Li Bo is one of the most revered Chinese poets. Why are there any Chinese ones - his name is put on a par with Dante and Petrarch, Goethe and Schiller, Pushkin and Shakespeare.

The brilliant madman Li Bo drew his inspiration from wine. He refused service, went to the mountains, gathering six like-minded people - Six soaring by a stream in a bamboo grove (or Six careless ones from a bamboo valley). The company spent time talking and drinking a glass of wine. Later there were eight of them - the Eight Drunken Immortals (or the Eight Wine Xians).

As contemporaries said:

The poet Li Bo has wine on his dhow -
One Hundred Excellent Poems.

Then there were long years of wandering and short service at the emperor's court. Li Bo was expelled from the palace because he did not appear before the ruler because he was very drunk:
In Chang'an they know him in the markets
Owners of all taverns.
The Son of Heaven invited him to his place -
He couldn't get to his feet.

And he wandered again and wrote poetry:
Clouds are floating
Relax after a hot day,
Swift birds
The last flock has flown away.
I look at the mountains
And the mountains look at me
And we look for a long time,
without boring each other
* * *
I am Jushi from Qinglian, an exiled Xian.
I’ve been burying my name in taverns for thirty years now.
And you, ruler of Huzhou, why should you ask?
I am Jinsu Buddha, his incarnation.

I drink alone under the moon
(translated by A.I. Gitovich)
I placed among the flowers
Jug in the silence of the night
And I drink wine alone
And my friend is not with me.

But drinking buddies the moon
I called in good time,
And I invited my shadow -
And there were three of us.

But, I ask,
Can the moon drink?
And the shadow, although always behind me
Will she follow?

And you can’t share the shadow with the moon,
And I'm in the silence of the night
I agree to feast with them,
At least until spring itself.

I start to sing - and to the beat
The moon is swaying
I dance and my shadow dances,
Silent and long.

We had fun until
The three of us got drunk.
And they got drunk and went their separate ways,
Whoever - in his own way.

And again in life alone
I have to wander
See you - the one between the stars,
Near the Milky Way.

According to legend, Li Bo drowned in the Guxi River, a tributary of the Yangtze, falling out of a boat drunk while trying to catch the reflection of the moon in the water - a worthy death for a great poet!

Poet Li Bo admiring the moon, 13th century.

Here's more about Li Bo:

Li Bo or Li Bai or Li Tai-po (701-762) was a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty.

Known as the Immortal Poet (translation options - “poet-saint”, “ genius poet"), Li Bo is one of the most revered poets in the history of Chinese literature. He left behind about 1,100 works (including about 900 poems).

The Western world became acquainted with his works thanks to the free translations of Japanese versions of Li Bo's poems made by Ezra Pound, and Nikolai Gumilyov, Anna Akhmatova and others translated it into Russian.

Li Bo is known for his irrepressible imagination, shocking demeanor, deep philosophy and vivid images of Taoists in his poetry, as well as, according to popular legend, his love of alcohol. Like Du Fu, he spent a lot of time traveling.

Li Bo was born into the family of a wealthy merchant. There are quite a lot different versions, about the area in which the poet was born. Today, a significant part of researchers suggests that Li Bo may come from the region of the former Turkestan (Turkic Khaganate), near the modern city of Tokmak (Tokmok), in the north of Kyrgyzstan.

Subsequently, his family moved to Jiangyu (Jiangyu) (now called also), Sichuan Province) when he was 5 years old. His background could not provide him with much opportunity during the Tang Dynasty.

Despite strong desire to become an official, he did not prepare for exams for public service. Instead, at the age of 25, he traveled to China, behaving as a wayward freethinker, contrary to the generally accepted image of a noble man according to Confucius. Li Bo was later presented to the emperor's court and given a position at Hanlin Academy.

Li Bo spent less than two years as court poet, and then left the court by at will. Subsequently he traveled around China until the end of his life. In the fall of 744, and also in subsequent years, he met with Du Fu. During the An Lushan Rebellion, he was involved in a rebellion against the emperor and was condemned as a "state criminal". After the defeat of the uprising, he was exiled to Yelan, but never received official forgiveness until his death.

Li Bo died in Dantu (now Anhui Anhui Province). It is generally accepted that he died of lung disease at his uncle's house in Dantu. According to the legendary version, he drowned in the Gusi River, a tributary of the Yangtze, falling out of a boat in a state of intoxication while trying to catch the reflection of the moon in the water, and then flew into the sky. There is also a version of death from mercury poisoning as a result of consuming Taoist longevity elixirs.

Creativity and legacy

About 1,000 poems are attributed to Li Bo, but the authenticity of this is in many cases questionable. His works are best known in the yuefu genre, emotional and often fantastic. It is also often associated with Taoism: it is important element his works. Although in his “Spirit of Antiquity” (Gu feng) he often takes the point of view of a Confucian moralist, and many of his poems are quite traditional for the culture of that time.

Like most geniuses (such as Mozart), there are many legends about how easy it was for Li Bo to write poetry; they said that he composed at an unprecedented speed and without subsequent editing.

His favorite size is a verse of 5 and 7 words, and he has written more than 160 works. Li Bo drew inspiration from thoughts of pure Antiquity, as well as from observations of nature and human life. With his remarkable imagination, Li Bo could create elegant examples of the full use of elements of the Chinese language.

His works are impressive not only because of the author’s reading and erudition (like Du Fu), but also due to his uncontrollable imagination and the reader’s identification with the free-thinking personality of the author.

Li Bo is known in the West for the works of Ezra Pound, the music of Gustav Mahler, and the translations of Hans Bethge, which Mahler used. His works were published in Russian in translations by N. Gumilev, A. Akhmatova, A. I. Gitovich, V. M. Alekseev, as well as L. Z. Eidlin, L. E. Bezhin.

A crater on Mercury is named after Li Bo.

Literature

Poetry of the Tang era (7th - 10th centuries): Translation from Chinese. /Ed. R. Delyusin, T. Redko, V. Sorokin and others; comp. and entry Art. L. Eidlin. - M.: Artist. lit., 1987. - 479 p.

Sorokin V.F., Eidlin L.Z.: Chinese literature. M., 1962

A book about the Great Whiteness. M., 2002 (compiled and translated by S. Toroptsev)
Li Bo. Spirit of antiquity. M., 2004 (compiled and translated by S. Toroptsev)
Li Bo. Landscape of the soul. St. Petersburg, 2005 (compiled and translated by S. Toroptsev)
Chu Madman Li Bo. M., 2008 (compiled and translated by S. Toroptsev)
S. A. Toroptsev. Biography of Li Bo - Poet and Celestial. M., 2009.

Li Bo or Li Bai or Li Tai-po (701-762) was a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty.

Known as the Immortal Poet (variably translated as “poet-saint”, “poet of genius”), Li Bo is one of the most revered poets in the history of Chinese literature. He left behind about 1,100 works (including about 900 poems).

In the silence of the night in Jinling
A fresh wind is blowing.
Alone I climb the tower,
I look at Wu and Yue.
Clouds reflected in the waters
And they rock the deserted city,
Dew, like grains of pearls,
It sparkles under the autumn moon.
I'm sad under the bright moon
And I don’t come back for a long time.
It's not often possible to see
What the ancient poet said.
Xie Tiao spoke about the river:
"More translucent than white silk" -
And this line is enough,
To remember him forever.
(“On the Western Tower in the city of Jinling I read poetry under the moon”, translation by A. Akhmatova)

Li Bo was born into the family of a wealthy merchant. There are quite a few different versions about the area in which the poet was born. Today, a significant part of researchers suggests that Li Bo may come from the region of the former Turkestan (Turkic Kaganate), near the modern city of Tokmak (Tokmok), in the north of Kyrgyzstan.

Subsequently, his family moved to Jiangyu (Jiangyu) (now called also), Sichuan Province) when he was 5 years old. His background could not provide him with much opportunity during the Tang Dynasty.

Despite his strong desire to become an official, he did not prepare for the civil service exams. Instead, at the age of 25, he traveled to China, behaving as a wayward freethinker, contrary to the generally accepted image of a noble man according to Confucius. Li Bo was later presented to the emperor's court and given a position at Hanlin Academy.

Li Bo spent less than two years as court poet, and then left the court of his own free will. Subsequently he traveled around China until the end of his life. In the fall of 744, and also in subsequent years, he met with Du Fu. During the An Lushan Rebellion, he was involved in a rebellion against the emperor and was condemned as a "state criminal". After the defeat of the uprising, he was exiled to Yelan, but never received official forgiveness until his death.

I stand... At the jasper steps
Frost appears in autumn.
The night is long and long... Already with dew
My lace stocking is damp.
I returned to myself and, sad,
She lowered the crystal curtain.
But behind him I see: so clear
Far autumn moon!
("Melancholy at the Jasper Steps", translation by Yu. Shchutsky)

EITHER
(705-762)

In 618, the reign of the Tang Dynasty began in China, which lasted almost three hundred years. As a result of the unification of the warring principalities, a strong government was created.

Until that time, the unprecedented breadth of communication with the outside world contributed to acquaintance with various religious views hitherto unfamiliar to China. This breadth promoted religious patience, and with it freedom of expression.
The usual respect for literature took on a practical character: one of the main subjects in exams for official positions was poetry. Poetry was often encouraged in every possible way by the rulers of the country, who themselves wrote poetry. People from families of middle and small landowners who grew up in villages and were closer to the people than the ancient aristocratic elite came into politics and literature. This could not but influence literature.

The worldview of the Tang writer expanded greatly. The poet’s current experience was no longer limited to his native village and a nearby town, but embraced a huge country with different standards of life in its various corners. The poet, who was increasingly a municipal bureaucrat, was obliged to participate in the life of the country both through his own service and creativity.
When we turn to Tang literature, we first talk about lyric poetry. She continued and developed the great merits of the past and rose to unprecedented heights.

Overcoming the inner emptiness and beauty of the poems of the 5th - 6th centuries, the first Tang poets, although they were carriers of these vices, but the stamp of the new had already fallen on their work: the future simplicity of form and the depth of poetic thought.
In Tang times, 5- and seven-word poems with a two-row stanza, with a conditioned alternation of tones, and a single rhyme, experienced their own heyday. They gave a huge opportunity for application in poetry colloquial speech. The innovation of Tang poetry mixed with tradition visual arts and expressed itself not only in the discovery of a new one, but - often - in the deepening of an ordinary topic. Mountains and rivers, pledge and month, traveler, willow and spring - all this has been and developed in Chinese poetry since ancient times, and all this has acquired new colors over the centuries. The movement of poetry from the sublime to the everyday and concrete reflected the general direction of the poetry of the Tang time, in which its greatest victories were achieved.
At the beginning of Tang poetry were such outstanding masters as Wang Bo, Lu Zhao-lin, Chen Ji-an, Meng Hao-ran, Gao Shi and others. In addition to the “quiet” poetry of those times, there was another - the poetry of battles and wanderings, which depicted a person in violent, stormy circumstances. Each of these various poets in one way or another preceded the work of their excellent contemporaries - Li Bo and Du Fu.

Li Bo, a recognizable poet of old China, was born in 701 and was from what is today Sichuan Province. Chinese biographers portray Li Bo as a superb madman who finds his inspiration in a glass of wine, in the company of other poets who form a poetic community, first of 6 members ("The 6 Wise Ones of the Beech Stream"), and then of eight ("The Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup") "). Such societies in that era played the role of literary schools. Even at a young age, the poet dreamed of helping people, and so he chose an unusual path for a young man of his generation: he did not pass exams, left home, lived away from human habitation, traveled, and was carried away by solitude. He was 40 years old when the ruler called him to his own palace and awarded him the title of Hanlin, which means at the moment we would consider it an academic degree. Li Bo remained a poet, independent in his beliefs and actions, and this did not coincide with the court rules. Three years later, Li Bo left the capital for new travels and meetings with the poets Du Fu, Gao Shi and others. Since then, An Lu-shan's revolt occurred, and the troops of Li Lin, the younger brother of the ruler Su-tsung, passed through Lushan, where the poet stopped. Li Bo agreed to go to his service when Li Len encroached on the throne, and the poet, as his follower, was thrown into prison, and then exiled to distant Yelan. Later he was forgiven and returned to the middle of the road. A couple of years after these events, in 762, Li Po died in the house of his own relative Li Yang-bin, to whom we owe a collection of the poet’s works. More than nine hundred of his poems remain.

Li Bo stood out among his contemporaries for his uniqueness. He praised brave travelers, defended the disadvantaged and felt like a winner who knew no obstacles. Other poets were upset by troubles and blamed everyday troubles. Li Po, even in his youth, cast aside these petty worries and lived in continuous poetic burning, comprehending the whole world within himself and therefore not being afraid of loneliness.
The power of the images of Li Bo's poems amazed his contemporaries. As a poet, he is in the very thick, in the most crowded crowd of people, and he can be seen from everywhere, and he himself sees the entire world of his time - nothing can hide from his gaze. Li Bo wrote everything that was in the circle of Tang poetry. In his “borderline” poems we find courage, severity and charming lyricism, we feel the romance of the campaign, but he writes bold poems against wars, there were huge amount in the 40-50s of the 8th century. The creator of fifty-nine “Old” poems, he associates himself with Confucius and denounces falsehoods. In his work one can trace a connection with old folk poetry. He constructed his poems, successfully spreading the limits of the rules, giving hints to new poets on the way forward, restoring Chinese versification, bringing the vocabulary of poetry closer to the vocabulary of life. Li Bo's independence was a logical development of the standard of freedom; he was confident in his own mission as a poet-prophet, poet-teacher, and she sought complete dedication from him. The poet was majestic, but in his attitude towards people he did not have even a shadow of vanity: he is absorbed by human concerns, he gives people consolation, enlightens them, teaches them empathy.

Li Bo's lyrical motifs are characteristic of all ancient Chinese poetry. In the poetry of Li Bo, a famous stylist of his time, this is a celebration of wine, flowers, the moon, friendship, and nature in general.