The One Chinese Poem YOU NEED to know

Today we'll learn about the greatest and most celebrated poets in Chinese history. He was as free-spirited as Byron, as visionary as Walt Whitman, and as influential as Shakespeare. Li Bai, known as Shi Xian, the immortal poet, shaped the golden age of Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty. Did you know that in all of Chinese history, no poet was more romantic, wild, or mythical than Li Bai? Born in 701 AD, legend says that his mother dreamt of Venus, known in Chinese as the Tai Bai Xing, falling into her womb before his birth. Because of this, he was also known as Li Tai Bai. If you want to learn more about why ancient Chinese people had so many names, do go check out this video. Li Bai's mother wasn't actually Han Chinese. She may have been of Turkic, Uyghur, or Persian descent. In the cosmopolitan Tang Dynasty, such mixed heritage wasn't unusual, but it gave Li Bai a striking appearance. He was tall, beautiful, with brilliant eyes, and always seen wearing a sword. His father was a wealthy merchant on the Silk Road and was a self-taught scholar who loved books and hoped that Li Bai would become an official. He spent a fortune on Li Bai's education, and it paid off. By 10, Li Bai had read all the classics, but Li Bai hated Confucian rules and rituals. He often imagined himself as a mythical bird soaring across heaven and sea. His lifelong idea was gōng chéng, míng suì, shēn tuì, achieve success, gain fame, and retreat. Though the Tang Dynasty was rich and open-minded, its rules and bureaucracy grew rigid. Poetry was increasingly, believe it or not, regulated, matched lines, strict formats, and polished diction. To Li Bai, this was poetry without soul. So instead, he loved folk ballads, tales of hardship, love, and myth. He wrote for the common people, admired women, and even adopted female perspectives in his poems, something unheard of at the time. He was likely the first major poet to write directly to his wife. His poems were sung by entertainers and spread through taverns, tea houses, and inns across the great Tang nation, Dà Táng Guó. He became one of the most famous poets of his age, yet Li Bai couldn't take the civil service exam due to his status. He had to seek an official's recommendation, but he was too gifted, bold, and emotional, but more importantly, he was far too honest. He scorned out-of-touch bureaucrats, loved debating, and spoke out for justice. In such a strict society, few dared to support him. His official career failed without sponsorship and his family fortune dried up. He could no longer travel freely. It was during this dark time that Li Bai wrote one of the most famous poems in the Chinese language. We'll do our best with the translations, but they don't quite capture the beauty of the original. And if there is one poem you are going to learn in Mandarin, this is the one. Chuáng qián míng yuè guāng, yí shì dì shàng shuāng, jǔ tóu wàng míng yuè, dī tóu sī gù xiāng. Before my bed floods moonlight, it might be frost, I thought to myself. I raise my head towards the moon shining ever so bright, then lower it, thinking of my hometown. Imagine how he must have felt, ashamed, defeated, worried about his family, blaming himself for failing them. Unable to sleep, he sees the moonlight shining cold and bright. And for a moment, he mistakes it for frost. Then he looks up and the sight of the moon brings a flood of memory and longing. If you want to learn the vocabulary covered in today's poem, you can check out our Li Bai deck in the Skritter app. One of the most notable stories of his defiance and reckless drinking was the boot incident. Just when Li Bai hit rock bottom, the emperor, Tang Xuanzong, personally summoned him to court. He was brought into the Hanling Shuyuan, the Hanling Academy, a place not just for scholars, but actually a strange mix of artists, monks, fortune tellers, and even one man who claimed to be 1,000 years old. Impossible. We were young men together. But anyway, in that one day, the emperor staged a play to entertain his beloved consort, the very famous Yang Guifei, and summoned Li Bai to help. But Li Bai, being drunk and disillusioned, was passed out at the time. So a servant doused him in cold water, stuffed him into a chair, and carried him to the palace where he promptly threw up. And the emperor ordered him to compose a poem on the spot. Li Bai, barely coherent, raises his foot and demanded that the most powerful eunuch in court, Gao Lishi, remove his boot. Gao Lishi was stunned by the sudden turn of events and in a daze, just kind of followed along without thinking. Li Bai, in a drunken haze, looked not at the performance, but at the radiant Yang Guifei, and wrote three poems in praise of her beauty. They were so breathtaking that they shook the empire, but they earned him Gao Lishi's eternal hatred. Eventually, Li Bai was exiled from court and he left the capital in a Taoist robe, symbolizing his retirement or self-exile from court. Not long after, political chaos struck. Yang Guifei, Gao Lishi, and even the emperor Tang Xuanzong were implicated in Anshi Zhiluan, the An Lushan Rebellion. Li Bai was imprisoned, he lost everything, and in his final years, while he returned home, he died quietly, without even a tombstone. Some say that Li Bai was drunk one evening and he tried to fish the moon's reflection out from the river, falling in and drowning. They called him Zhe Xian, the banished immortal, a celestial being punished to live on earth. They also called him Jiu Xian, the wine immortal, for his love of drinking. His friend and fellow poet, Du Fu, which we are going to make a video about, so do watch this space if you're interested in his story, praised Li Bai with these immortal lines. When his brush strikes, wind and storm arise. When his poems are done, even the gods and ghosts are moved to tears. In a thousand years since, there has never been another Li Bai and a poet more worthy of our study. Check out our scritter deck for all the vocab covered in today's video and many other decks similar to this one. Let us know in the comments if there are any other poets that you would like to learn more about. We'll see you next time. Zai jian.