The Story of China's Greatest Poet - Li Bai 李白 

I became acquainted with Li Bai's poetry in 1963 as a freshmen in college. A graduate student told be about the greatness of China and I didn't believe him. He lent me a book of Li Bai's poetry. I was hooked. I finally moved to China in 2022 (my 16th visit).

I watched the series, Ming Dynasty, with subtitles. After I figured out who was who and what was going on, I went thru it again and looked up everything that was mentioned, including Liu Bai. There is so much history and legend woven into the story, I like your version of the poet. What I first found included the iconic poem, but you make the man real.

花間一壺酒。 獨酌無相親。 舉杯邀明月。 對影成三人。 月既不解飲。 影徒隨我身。 暫伴月將影。 行樂須及春。 我歌月徘徊。 我舞影零亂。 醒時同交歡。 醉後各分散。 永結無情遊。 相期邈雲漢。 With no companion all alone I drink beneath the flowering trees Raising my cup, I call the moon She, with my shadow, makes us three But the moon can't stoop to drink And the shadow meekly copies me With the moon's light and the shadow's ink I seize the springtime and make free I sing my songs and moonbeams prance My shadow shatters in the dance We got on fine when the night was young But now I'm drunk the teamwork's gone Let's spin out these crazy days And meet at last in the Milky Way.

No wonder the Tang dinasty dramas have a lot of poetry in them. What an era!

i LOL-ed at that AI image of Li Bai holding up a western wine glass to the moon instead of a wine vessel/bowl which would have been the norm then

Thank you for a very interesting video! Your chinese accent is excellent. ❤

I remember the first time I saw about Li Bai when you make this video 10 years ago 😊 Respect the great man Li Bai ❤❤❤

Your Chinese does not sound out of place. How nice !

床前明月光，疑是地上霜。 举头望明月，低头思故乡。 Before my bed a patch of light That seems like frost upon the ground I look up and the moon is bright Look down and think of my hometown.

It a Great story!!!👍👏🏻👏🏻😍😍😍💖💝💝💝 I would Love to hear more….more Please!!!🙏🙏🙏🙏😍😍😍😍

That was one of your. Best,I tried to memorize. That first poem years ago from this channel.

It’s a great story. You described Li Bai’s death exactly as I remembered it. Can’t recall when or where or from whom I learnt it from though.

I extremely love your channel man, a very good place for someone who is new to Chinese culture to learn and explore the awesome history. Also, I love how this video connects to your other ones about the four beauties of China and about the poem thinking in a quiet night. Keep going please

I love your story telling.

Great story. Well narrated.

Great presentation.

I love these videos! Please could you consider doing a video on XuFu who was sent by the Qin emperor to search for the elixir of immortality and supposedly ended up in Japan?

Great content!!! Keep it up!!!

I had known of Li Bai via my wonderful tutors when I was in Taipei and had from them a flavour Guy could never have gotten or even known about. One of them got me to like this from Li Bai very much Japan & ME //Chuáng qián míng yuè guāng // Li Bai the GGLB extract from above Li Bai had another poem which is my personal favourite. With my own translation and intepretation which I hope will not make his bones roll over wherever they lay. 靜夜思 Jìng yè sī 床前明月光， Chuáng qián míng yuè guāng, 疑是地上霜。 Yí shì dì shàng shuāng. 舉頭望明月， Jǔ tóu wàng míng yuè, 低頭思故鄉。 Dī tóu sī gùxiāng. Reflections on a quiet night. In front of the bed the full moon shone bright, scattering on the floor like autumn hoarfrost with her light. Lifting my head I gazed at the full moon, Lowering my head, nostalgic thoughts flowed of family and times of my ancestral village. Since that was written for birdie friends and with little boys and girls, I refrained from adding what was told to me by another different tutor. She told me Li Bai loved fornicating as much as he loved wine and sword fighting. Li Bai would fuck about anything and everything, and his poems had double meanings such as the one above. He was on a bed with this beautiful lady and in the moonlight, her body was fair and white like autumn frost on the ground. He raised his head and eyes on her breasts, full and round like the moon. He lowered his head and eyes on her yoni , the ancestral place where man came from. I love this poem even more with the revelations from my wonderful tutor ( a bit more matured than the earlier one) Then we got distracted and lessons went to other directions.

Thank you!😊

Wow! Love this content

Wonderful presented . Thanks

I liked the humor in the story. Drinking and bragging about things he probably didn't do

Thank you for the brilliant presentation. I enjoy so much cuz it’s presented in English though I could understand Chinese as English is my stronger language.

I throughly enjoyed this story. I am on my way to China and hope to hear some of his poetry.

If true, that story would be a most fitting death. Loved hearing his story.

The Tang dynasty was a affluent country.

One of my favourites from him is 独坐敬亭傻。 众鸟高飞尽 孤云独去闲 相看两不厌 只有敬亭山

Can you tell us something about ancient weapons in China?

Brilliant🥰

I’m very grateful for your explanation ! Is simple, clear, everyone can understand the big picture and covers cultural differences. ❤ I wonder where I could find an antique store who can have classical Chinese literature , books affordable to everyone? Unfortunately I don’t speak Chinese yet , but I’m working on it.That means books must be in English , but some could be in Chinese, if are like that ones for children ( very simple language) …I could try to read them in one , two years . Thank you for your hard work! ❤

Li Bai 李白 was called a jiu'xian 酒仙 a word now use to describe people who are addicted to drinking alcohol.

I wish you had Vietnamese subtitles too because translating Chinese into Vietnamese is 100% more correct than English, if not poetic.

Li Bai was in Civ 6 nice!

How about The Journey to the West?

Do one on 李賀

Interesting and well done.

Isnt he also called. The Liquor Sword Immortal?

Following the recent popularity of sun wukong, pls talk about the Chinese deities, sun wukong, er lang shen, etc etc.

The title of this video is unfortunately incorrect. Li Bai (i.e., the "Immortal Poet") and Du Fu (i.e., the "Sage Poet") are essentially considered equals in the Chinese tradition. That said, if you google "China's greatest poet" in Chinese (中國最偉大的詩人), Du Fu's is more likely to show up more often than Li Bai's. I think is because Chinese people can relate to Du Fu's poetry on a more fundamental level due to the pragmatic-oriented spirit of Chinese culture generally speaking. In sum, both are China's top tier poets, and whether you appreciate one more than the other completely depends on your own aesthetic tastes rather than the talent of the poets. Personally speaking, my favorite is Meng Haoran (孟浩然) whose poems are imbued with a distinct combination of purity and elegance that goes beyond the twin categories of romanticism and realism. Li Bai in fact highly revered Meng, opening even one poem with the sentence "I love Master Meng!" Du Fu and Wang Wei (whose name is often mention in unison with Meng) also eulogized Meng (was the eldest of the four) with touching poetry. FYI: In regards to the poem about Yang Guifei's beauty, the character 裳 was pronounced incorrectly as "chang" instead of "shang."

君不见黄河之水天上来，奔流到海不复回。 君不见高堂明镜悲白发，朝如青丝暮成雪。 人生得意须尽欢，莫使金樽空对月。 天生我材必有用，千金散尽还复来。 烹羊宰牛且为乐，会须一饮三百杯。 岑夫子，丹丘生，将进酒，杯莫停。 与君歌一曲，请君为我倾耳听。 钟鼓馔玉不足贵，但愿长醉不愿醒。 古来圣贤皆寂寞，惟有饮者留其名。 陈王昔时宴平乐，斗酒十千恣欢谑。 主人何为言少钱，径须沽取对君酌。 五花马、千金裘，呼儿将出换美酒，与尔同销万古愁。

The dude is also an aggressive swordsman

Awesome

Could you do a video on Cotton Palm martial art

李白出身陇西李氏，出生于安西四镇之一的碎叶。

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Who is really the better poet, Du Fu or Li Bai?

🇹🇼 And China's greatest Rock musician? Wu Bai🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉~ & China Blue~

Who composed the poem, " Grandfather died, father died, son dies. " in praising the emperor's family's long ruling over China?

Tang poetry better recited in Cantonese

Oh my God! Protrait of a drunkard as a poet? I wonder how many of Shakespeare's plays had been created under the influence of Alcohol?

MagnificenT 🏳️Thanks 🏳️ 🤍☸ ☯ ☸🤍 & MarXisM & Merit☯cracy 💌🐉🇨🇳🐉💌 Wish 🧞i Was Chinese. 💌

Li Bai is also said to have blond hair and blue eyes and light skin. He's also mixed. He's not purely East Asian, though his father may be of Chinese paternity. Blonder hair than you, yes you Mr Narrator.

Omg,是低頭吃便當！！！

There is no such thing as the greatest this or that. Please. The best, is as always, yet to be. Your clip sucks because you discuss Li Bai though flawed a m e r i k a a n lenses.

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