1. Li Changzhi, A Biography of Li Bai, 199.
2. An Qi, Li Bai Zongheng Tan (Xi’an: Shanxi People’s Press, 1981), 77. In fact, there is a history of this version of Li Bai’s death in which he rode a whale returning to the moon. For instance, Guo Xiangnian of the Song dynasty says about Li Bai in his poem “Caishi Ferry,” “He rides the whale away and will never return, / Leaving behind his tomb covered by green grass.” Li Junmin of the Jin dynasty writes in his “Portrait of Li Taibai,” “Bai was banished to the world for some years / Where he became an immortal of wine. / If not because of the moon on Caishi River, / he wouldn’t have ridden a whale back to heaven.” The contemporary romanticization has continued this conventional legend.
1. Wei Hao, “Preface to Collected Works of Academician Li.”
2. Gao Shi, “Farewell to Gentlemen Zhou, Liang, and Li in the Central Song Land.”
3. The Tang dynasty’s administrative divisions fell into this tri-tier order: circuits—prefectures—counties.
4. Li Bai, “On an Autumn Day, at Jingting Pavilion, Seeing My Nephew Off for Lushan.”
5. Li Changzhi, A Biography of Li Bai, 144.
6. Zhou Xunchu, A Critical Biography of Li Bai, 29.
7. Zhou Xunchu, The Mystery of the Poet Immortal Li Bai (Taipei: Commerce Press, 1996), 116
8. The Tang Law: Clause 306. Li Bai’s wife’s grandfather Xu Yushi (?–679) was a chancellor at court, but his eldest son killed a man by accident while hunting. Xu Yushi covered up for his son, and as a result he was imprisoned for three months and then banished to a remote prefecture. Evidently, the Tang dynasty took manslaughter very seriously.
9. Li Changzhi, The Daoist Poet Li Bai and His Suffering (Tianjin: Tianjin People’s Press, 2018), 18–19.
1. In Li Bai’s essay “To Deputy Prefect Pei of Anzhou.”
2. Some people believe that Li Bai was a short man. I agree with those who hold that he was quite tall, because his essay “To Han Jingzhou” says about himself, “Although I’m not seven feet tall / My ambition surpasses ten thousand men’s.” A foot in his time was a bit shorter than ours, so his “seven feet” should be close to our six feet.
1. Quoted by Jiang Zhi, Li Bai and the Regional Culture (Chengdu: Bashu Book House, 2011), 100.
2. Jiang Zhi devoted a whole chapter to Li Bai as a petty bureaucrat in his book Li Bai and Geographic Places (Chengdu: Bushu Book House, 2011), 98–106.
3. Ibid., 85.
1. Liang Shufeng, “Exploring Li Bai’s Reason for Leaving Shu for Wu,” China’s Li Bai Studies (2014): 27–39.
2. Yang Xueshi, “An Inquiry into Li Bai’s Burying His Friend,” China’s Li Bai Studies (2009): 128–41.
1. Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, 62.
2. Yan Yu (1192?–1245) says in his Canglang Poetry Talk, “Among Tang poets’ works, Cui Hao’s ‘Yellow Crane Tower’ should be the number one poem in the regulated verse with seven-character lines.” Item 46.
1. Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, 85.
2. Li Bai, “Letter to Deputy Prefect Pei of Anzhou.”
3. I agree with Zhu Chuanzhong’s interpretation of this poem. See his The True Li Bai in the Tang Dynasty (Zhen tang Li Bai) (Beijing: Tongxin Press, 2015), 49–52.
1. Li Bai, “An Official Reply to Magistrate Meng on Behalf of Shou Mountain.”
2. This episode is recorded in An Qi, Li Bai: A Biography, 55–57.
3. Guangling was another name for Yangzhou.
1. Zhou Xunchu, A Critical Biography of Li Bai, 165.
1. See Li Bai, “Letter to Han Jingzhou.”
1. Quoted in Shiren Yu Xie, vol. xii, “Ancient Comments on Various Poets.”
2. “Seventeen” here means Wu E is the seventeenth male of his generation in his clan, similar to Li Bai, who was often called “Li Twelve.”
3. I adopted the years of Li Bai’s children’s births as they are indicated by Zhan Ying in his Chronicle of Li Bai’s Writings (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1984), which makes good sense to me. See The Immortal Traces of Tai Bai (Hefei: Huang Shan Book House, 2010), 146.
1. Fan Zhenwei, Li Bai’s Background, Marriages, and Family, 343.
2. Ibid., 353–54.
3. Fan Zhenwei also believes that Li Bai joined the woman of Lu before he left for Chang’an in 742. Ibid., 354.
1. Guo Moruo, Du Fu and Li Bai, 42.
2. Du Fu, “Song of the Eight Divine Drinkers.”
3. This episode has many versions and has been disputed among Li Bai scholars. The earliest record states that the emperor deflected Bai’s request and Gao Lishi did not actually take off Bai’s boots. But all the other later records indicate that Gao actually took off the boots, and Li Bai biographers have treated this episode as an actual incident. Either way, Bai, rash and arrogant, insulted one of the most powerful men for no reason or cause except for his contempt for him. See Yang Yingying, “The Case of Gao Lishi Taking Off Li Bai’s Boots,” China’s Li Bai Studies (2014): 154–68.
4. Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry, 116.
1. The historical records of this episode are brief, but over the centuries it has evolved into a full legend with various versions. Lately a young scholar, Wang Song-lin, published a study of the case, which points out that the foreign emissary was from Balhae, a young country northeast of China, but his answer to how Li Bai learned the primitive language (through his intercourse with scholars and students from Balhae) is not convincing to me, so I have followed a conventional version of the episode here. Wang Song-li’s paper “Decoding the Perpetual Mystery of the Fan Script” appears in Song Liao Academic Journal: Social Sciences 5 (2001): 28–33.
2. An Qi, Li Bai: A Biography, 150.
3. Ibid., 151.
1. Wang Huiqin, A Biography of Li Bai (Beijing: Jinghua Press, 2002), 227.
2. Du Fu, “Together with Li Twelve, Seeking the Hermitage of Fan Ten.”
3. See the very informative article by Tang Dexin, “On Li Bai’s Daoist Life and the Cause of His Death,” www.guoxue.com/wk/000621.htm.
4. Li Changzhi, Daoist Poet Li Bai and His Suffering (Tianjin: Tianjin People’s Press, 2008), 37.
1. Shen Yue, “Biography of Prince Liangsi,” in Song Shu.
2. Fan Zhenwei, Li Bai’s Background, Marriages, and Family, 346–47.
3. Ibid., 348.
4. Zhou Xunchu, A Critical Biography of Li Bai, 122–23.
1. An Qi, Li Bai: A Biography, 185.
1. An Qi, Li Bai: A Biography, 219.
2. Li Changzhi, A Biography of Li Bai, 195, 239.
3. Du Fu, “Unable to See Him.”
1. Guo Moruo, Du Fu and Li Bai, 89.
1. Arthur Waley, The Poetry and Career of Li Po, 97–98.