Li Bai and Du Fu are often regarded as the two greatest poets in China’s literary history.
Li Bai: The "Poet Immortal" and His Poetic World
Li Bai or Li Po (701— 762), known as the “Poet Immortal”, lived during the Tang Dynasty. Approximately 1,100 of his poems remain today. Li Bai is best known for the extravagant imagination and striking Taoist imagery in his poetry, as well as for his great love for liquor. Like Du Fu, he spent much of his life travelling, although in his case it was because his wealth allowed him to, rather than because his poverty forced him. He is said to have drowned in the Yangtze River, having fallen from his boat while drunkenly trying to embrace the reflection of the moon.
One of Li Bai’s most famous poems is Drinking Alone by Moon- light , which is a good example of some of the most famous aspects of his poetry.
A cup of wine, under the flowering trees,
I drink alone, for no friend is near.
Raising my cup, I beckon the bright moon;
For he, with my shadow, will make three men.
The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;
Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.
Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave,
I must make merry before the spring is spent.
To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;
In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.
While we were sober, three shared the fun;
Now we are drunk, each goes his way.
May we long share our odd, inanimate feast;
And meet at last on the Cloudy River of the sky.
Du Fu: The "Poet Historian" Reflecting the Tang Dynasty's Vicissitudes
Du Fu (712— 770) was a prominent poet of the Tang Dynasty. The Anthology of Du Gongbu is the collected works of Du Fu, including over 1400 poems and 30-odd articles.
Living in a time of decline and turmoil of the Tang Dynasty, Du Fu’s poems reflect the tribulations of common people during the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion, and extensive aspects of social life of that time. Such poems as the Ballad of the Chariots, the “Three Petty Offi- cials”, i.e. , the Official at Shihao, the Official at Xin’an and the Official at Tongguan, and the “Three Separations”, i.e. , the Separation upon Marriage, the Separation Due to the Loss of Home and the Separation at a Senior Age, are imbued with his intense concern about his country and people, mirroring the decline of the Tang Dynasty from its prime time. He has been, therefore, called Poet Historian and the Poet Sage by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as “the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, or Hugo”. There have been a number of notable translations of Du Fu’s work into English.
