Li Pai: 200 Selected Poems

Li Pa who lived from 701 to 762 was a major Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period. He has been regarded as one of the greatest poets in China's Tang period, which is often called China's "golden age" of poetry. Around a thousand existing poems are attributed to him, but the authenticity of many of these is uncertain. 34 f his poems are included in the popular anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems. In the area of Chinese cultural influence, Li Pi's poetry has been much esteemed from his lifetime through the present day. Indeed, in China he has been known as the best of the Romantic Poets. In the West his influences include many translations, adaptations, and much inspiration.Li Bai had a strong sense of himself as being part of a poetic tradition. Indeed, Burton Watson, comparing him to Du Fu, says his poetry, "is essentially backward ooking, that it represents more a revival and fulfillment of past promises and glory than a foray into the future." Watson adds, as evidence, that of all the poems attributed to Li Bai, about one sixth are in the form of Yue fu, or, in other words, reworked lyrics from traditional folk ballads. As further evidence, Watson cites the existence of a 59oem collection by Li Bai entitled Gu Feng, or In the Old Manner, which is, in part, tribute to the poetry of the Han and Wei dynasties. His admiration for certain particular poets is also shown through specific allusions, for example to Qu Yuan or Tao Yuanming, and occasionally by name, for example Du Fu. A more general appreciation for history, is shown on the part of Li Bai in his poems of the Huaigu genre, or meditations on the past, wherein following "one of the perennial themes of Chinese poetry," "the poet contemplates the ruins of past glory.