Poetry of the Tang Dynasty

  libai

du fu

The Tang Dynasty witnessed the zenith of Chinese ancient poetry, with many renowned poets and famous works appearing over a period of less than 300 years. Some 50,000 poems and the names of 2,300 poets of that period remain widely known today.

The best-known poets of the Tang Dynasty are Li Baia (701-762 AD) and Du Fub (712-770 AD).

Being unconstrained and most talented, Li Bai traveled all over China. With lofty sentiments and powerful imagination, he created many poems in praise of its magnificent mountains and mighty rivers. He also showed deep concern for state affairs, refuting corrupt politics, or expressing his wishes for the realization of his lofty aspirations. Some 900 poems of Li Bai have been preserved, of which the most famous are Invitation to Wine, The Sichuan Road, and Watching the Waterfall at Lushan.

When Du Fu was young, he visited many scenic spots and places of historical interest. Later, he lived among the poor at the bottom of society. His turbulent experiences enabled him to know better the darkness of human society and people's sufferings. In his poems, he boldly exposed the rottenness of the feudal court, profoundly portrayed people's miserable lives and the social upheavals of the day. About 1,400 of his poems have been preserved today, of which the best-known are Looking out on Spring, Ballad of the Army Carts, The Conscripting Officer at Shihao, The Conscripting Officer at Tongguan, The Conscripting Officer at Xin'an, Farewell to My Husband, Farewell to My Old Wife and Farewell of a Lonely Soul.

Eminent poets of the Tang also include Wang Wei, Bai Juyi, Li He, Li Shangyin, to name but a few.

Chinese people are very fond of Tang poetry, and even children can recite some from memory, such as Thoughts in the Silent Night by Li Bai, Good Rain on a Spring Night by Du Fu, etc. Verses like "if you want to widen your view three hundred miles / Go up one more flight of stairs", "Do you not see the Yellow River pouring from the sky" are often quoted. The book of Three Hundred Tang Poems is a bestseller at home and abroad, making Tang poetry also part of the world treasury of great verse.

Here are two examples:

Thoughts in the Silent Night Li Bai

Beside my bed a pool of light

Is it hoarfrost on the ground?

I lift my eyes and see the moon,

I bend my head and think of home.

Short Impressions Du Fu

From vivid green willows

Comes the call of two orioles;

A file of white water birds

Rises into the clear blue heavens; as if

Held in the mouth of my window

Are the mountains ranges with

Their snows of many autumns;

Anchored by our gate are

The long distance boats of Wu.

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libai

Li Bai is probably the best known Chinese poet in the West, and with Du Fu is considered the finest poet of the Tang dynasty. He has attracted the best translators。

His brashness and bravado are characteristic of a tradition of poets from this region, including the great Song dynasty poet Su Shi. He claimed he was related to the imperial family, though this claim is likely to be spurious. Perhaps he wondered as a Taoist hermit in his teens; certainly Taoist fantasy permeates his work. He left his home in 725 and wondered through none Yangtze River Valley, hoping to gain recognition for his talents, though he was alone among the great Tang poets in never taking the Imperial Examination. He married the first of his four wives during this period. In 742, he was summoned to the capital of Changan, modern Xian, and was appointed to the Hanlin Academy (meaning "the writing brush forest") by Emperor Xuanzong, and during his time in the capital he became close friends with Du Fu, who addresses a number of poems to him. Within a few years he was expelled from the court and made to leave Changan, and he began presenting himself as an unappreciated genius, or as one friend named him, "a banished immortal." In 755, the An Lushan rebellion took place, in which a Turkish general led his group of Chinese border armies against the emperor. Li Bai was forced to leave Hunan for the South, where he entered the service of the Prince of Yun, sixteenth son of the Emperor, who led a secondary revolt. Eventually, Li was arrested for treason, sent into exile, and was later given amnesty. He continued his wanderings in the Yangtze Valley, seeking patrons, until his death at sixty-two.

About one thousand poems attributed to Li Bai have come down to us, though some of them were probably written by imitators. While most of his poems were occasional poems (poems written for specific occasions), others incorporated wild journeys, Sichuan colloquial speech, and dramatic monologues such as his famous "A Song of Zhanggan Village." Perhaps the most remarkable subject for his poems, however, was himself. He portrays himself as a neglected genius, a drunk, a wanderer through Taoist metaphysical adventures, and a lover of moon, friends, and women. His colloquial speech, and confessional celebration of a sensual flamboyance and fallible self made him the best loved and most imitated Chinese poet in English and helped to establish a conversational, intimate tone in modern American poetry. Ezra Pound's Cathay put him at the center of the revolution in modern verse. All these qualities, plus an extraordinary lucidity of image, made him extremely popular in China as well, in his day and to this day. A number of his poems are in the Han dynasty yuefu form, which allowed him to indulge in radically irregular lines that gave his imagination free play. He was an influential figure in the Chinese cult of spontaneity, which emphasized the poet's genius in extemporizing a poem: "Inspiration hot, each stroke of my pen shakes the five mountains." Among the many legends about Li Bai, the most enduring is the account of his death. Like Ishmael in the crow's nest, wanting to penetrate the illusory world that he saw reflected in the water, Li Bai was said to be so drunk in a boat that he fell overboard and drowned, trying to embrace the moon reflected in the water. Since the "man in the moon" is a woman in Chinese myth, the legend of Li's death takes on an erotic meaning, mixing thanatos and eros. As in Moby Dick, to "strike through the mask" and see the face of truth is to embrace death.
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