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sahdia's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
emoryp's review against another edition
3.0
A well researched and thorough biography of a remarkable life. The downside is that the author idolizes the "genius" of Li Bai, who seems to be a somewhat deluded/foolish man who was good at poetry; the author offers little in the way of critique.
For example, when Li Bai doesn't get a gvt position, Jin says that society wasn't ready to accept the genius of Li Bai, ignoring the fact that Li Bai seems to cause most of his own problems.
For example, when Li Bai doesn't get a gvt position, Jin says that society wasn't ready to accept the genius of Li Bai, ignoring the fact that Li Bai seems to cause most of his own problems.
siria's review
3.0
Li Bai (also sometimes Anglicised as Li Po) was a major poet of the Tang Dynasty, whose work is still a cultural touchstone in China today although he's a fairly obscure figure in the West. I knew nothing more about Li Bai before I began Ha Jin's biography of him than his name. Ha Jin does a good job in conveying Li Bai's gregarious nature and his travels, and writes with clear affection about his subject. However, I found myself wishing for a little more sense of how Li Bai's fame finally grew and more of a sense of how his work has been so influential on later Chinese culture.
Ha Jin includes translations of a number of Li Bai's works throughout. Some other reviews that I've read praise them for their fidelity to Li Bai's verse; not reading Chinese, I have no way of assessing that myself. I can say that the imagery and voice of Li Bai's poetry must come through stronger in the original, because I can't say that any of the imagery I read here has really stuck with me.
Ha Jin includes translations of a number of Li Bai's works throughout. Some other reviews that I've read praise them for their fidelity to Li Bai's verse; not reading Chinese, I have no way of assessing that myself. I can say that the imagery and voice of Li Bai's poetry must come through stronger in the original, because I can't say that any of the imagery I read here has really stuck with me.
ebb_and_flow's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
kitt_katt's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
4.0
nini23's review against another edition
informative
5.0
Li Bai is a legendary Chinese Tang Dynasty poet, this non-fiction book by Professor Ha Jin is a comprehensive treatise on his poetry and life. Prior to reading this, I knew only Li Bai's most famous works like 靜夜思 and 將進酒 (Bring In The Wine). A https://chajournal.blog/2019/03/24/li-bai review in the Asian literary journal Cha had critiqued this book for being too much like a 'Chinese Poetry 101' university course class. For me, this is the precise entry level introduction I needed into the Chinese poetry academic sphere. Ha Jin sourced bibliographies, research and other scholarly treatises on Li Bai in this work, mostly written in Chinese by Chinese historians.
Shortly into the background and childhood of Li Bai, Ha Jin drops his first bombshell: Li Po is actually half Chinese! His mother was Turkish and he was born in Kyrgyzstan (later in life his knowledge of Kazakh Tocharian script would play an important turning point in his career). Also Li Bai in his youth sounds like a young xianxia cultivator: skilled at swordsmaship, communion with birds, alchemist - made immortality pills and elixers, accomplished in calligraphy and lute playing. Even from his youth, he travelled a lot, developing into a lifelong wanderlust. Ha Jin gives very precise details, the year Li Bai arrived or left a place, the historical and current geographical nomenclature names of places given e.g. Jinling - Hubei, Binzhou Shan - County Shaanxi, Bianzhou - Kaifeng. Li Bai's early influences - Zhuang Zhou (Chuang Tzu), Sima Xiang-Ru, Zhang Rui (man in seclusion on mountain, teacher), Buddhist monk on Emei, Yellow Crane competing poet Cui Hao, living nature poets Meng Haoran and Wang Wei - are also faithfully chronicled.
There's analysis of Li Bai's poetry style, he abhorred strict regimented stylized forms and preferred a free flowing, fluid style with vitality. He was known as a common people poet, his poems about women, folk poems (gu feng) sung and loved along the Yang-tze. Later on in life his poems changed with his life experience, becoming more lamenting and embittered. Ha Jin lays out the poem in traditional Chinese, then the English translation embedded in Li Bai's life chronicles and it was particularly enlightening to me on what kind of life circumstances he was encountering when he wrote a particular poem. For example, he wrote 靜夜思 when he was ill, destitute and homesick in Yangzhou. At that time, if he hadn't been saved by Meng Rong, the world would have been deprived of the rest of his poems that came after. Oh, fate's caprice indeed.
The other thing that surprised me was Li Bai's fierce worldly ambition of fame and glory, he dreamt of blazing like a supernova then retiring into nature but his quests for a high court official post were repeatedly thwarted. He had grandiose dreams of being a "great roc" serving his country but was deemed arrogant by some. Here again Ha Jin's explanation of the Tang court system of patronage or sponsorship is helpful. In short, there’s two ways to a Tang official position - civil examination or recommendation by a fifth level official. Li Bai did a lot of carousing, attending banquets and parties, writing poems praising officials, trying to get an in. At the same time, it sounds like in opposition to these worldly desires, he also aspired to be a dedicated Daiost cultivator, in harmony with nature, in solitude high up in the mountains. His second wife, also a Daoist cultivator, succeeded in going up the mountains for secluded meditation with her master however. I would have loved to hear more of this thread.
Li Bai married twice both to aristocratic ladies and in between the two marriages, had a woman attached deemed too low birth to marry to look after the children from his previous marriage. Ha Jin gives an easy pass, in my view, to him being a wilful absentee husband and father. The author also capitulates easily to the blaming of beautiful women in the toppling of dynasties, in this case the infamous Imperial concubine Yang Guifei. History has been almost exclusively written by men and this casting of women into either goddesses or seductive vixens is an age-old tired trope.
The last part of this biography is actually very exciting and adventurous during the time of the An Lushan rebellion and subsequent throne succession chaos. The importance of Luoyang and Chang'an cities in the power tussle was illuminating.
Li Bai's genius and talent is undeniable and reading his poems, his moniker of 诗仙 Poet Immortal is richly deserved. Like so many brilliant trailblazers, he died a rather ignominious death with a humble grave, immortalized through the body of work left behind. While some of his later vainglorious attempts to gain a military post in later life are cringeworthy especially in hindsight, he connected with many people in his lifetime and inspired generations after. In particular, I was really stoked to read about his steadfast friendship with Du Fu, another extremely famous Tang poet, and other talented well-known poets like Bai Juyi paying homage. I learnt tremendously from this book, hence the high rating and feel that it's a valuable resource to English readers interested in Li Bai's poetry and life.
Shortly into the background and childhood of Li Bai, Ha Jin drops his first bombshell: Li Po is actually half Chinese! His mother was Turkish and he was born in Kyrgyzstan (later in life his knowledge of Kazakh Tocharian script would play an important turning point in his career). Also Li Bai in his youth sounds like a young xianxia cultivator: skilled at swordsmaship, communion with birds, alchemist - made immortality pills and elixers, accomplished in calligraphy and lute playing. Even from his youth, he travelled a lot, developing into a lifelong wanderlust. Ha Jin gives very precise details, the year Li Bai arrived or left a place, the historical and current geographical nomenclature names of places given e.g. Jinling - Hubei, Binzhou Shan - County Shaanxi, Bianzhou - Kaifeng. Li Bai's early influences - Zhuang Zhou (Chuang Tzu), Sima Xiang-Ru, Zhang Rui (man in seclusion on mountain, teacher), Buddhist monk on Emei, Yellow Crane competing poet Cui Hao, living nature poets Meng Haoran and Wang Wei - are also faithfully chronicled.
There's analysis of Li Bai's poetry style, he abhorred strict regimented stylized forms and preferred a free flowing, fluid style with vitality. He was known as a common people poet, his poems about women, folk poems (gu feng) sung and loved along the Yang-tze. Later on in life his poems changed with his life experience, becoming more lamenting and embittered. Ha Jin lays out the poem in traditional Chinese, then the English translation embedded in Li Bai's life chronicles and it was particularly enlightening to me on what kind of life circumstances he was encountering when he wrote a particular poem. For example, he wrote 靜夜思 when he was ill, destitute and homesick in Yangzhou. At that time, if he hadn't been saved by Meng Rong, the world would have been deprived of the rest of his poems that came after. Oh, fate's caprice indeed.
The other thing that surprised me was Li Bai's fierce worldly ambition of fame and glory, he dreamt of blazing like a supernova then retiring into nature but his quests for a high court official post were repeatedly thwarted. He had grandiose dreams of being a "great roc" serving his country but was deemed arrogant by some. Here again Ha Jin's explanation of the Tang court system of patronage or sponsorship is helpful. In short, there’s two ways to a Tang official position - civil examination or recommendation by a fifth level official. Li Bai did a lot of carousing, attending banquets and parties, writing poems praising officials, trying to get an in. At the same time, it sounds like in opposition to these worldly desires, he also aspired to be a dedicated Daiost cultivator, in harmony with nature, in solitude high up in the mountains. His second wife, also a Daoist cultivator, succeeded in going up the mountains for secluded meditation with her master however. I would have loved to hear more of this thread.
Li Bai married twice both to aristocratic ladies and in between the two marriages, had a woman attached deemed too low birth to marry to look after the children from his previous marriage. Ha Jin gives an easy pass, in my view, to him being a wilful absentee husband and father. The author also capitulates easily to the blaming of beautiful women in the toppling of dynasties, in this case the infamous Imperial concubine Yang Guifei. History has been almost exclusively written by men and this casting of women into either goddesses or seductive vixens is an age-old tired trope.
The last part of this biography is actually very exciting and adventurous during the time of the An Lushan rebellion and subsequent throne succession chaos. The importance of Luoyang and Chang'an cities in the power tussle was illuminating.
Li Bai's genius and talent is undeniable and reading his poems, his moniker of 诗仙 Poet Immortal is richly deserved. Like so many brilliant trailblazers, he died a rather ignominious death with a humble grave, immortalized through the body of work left behind. While some of his later vainglorious attempts to gain a military post in later life are cringeworthy especially in hindsight, he connected with many people in his lifetime and inspired generations after. In particular, I was really stoked to read about his steadfast friendship with Du Fu, another extremely famous Tang poet, and other talented well-known poets like Bai Juyi paying homage. I learnt tremendously from this book, hence the high rating and feel that it's a valuable resource to English readers interested in Li Bai's poetry and life.