Li Bai

Li Bai, the leading figure of Tang-dynasty Romantic poetry, styled Taibai and known as the Green Lotus Lay Buddhist, was later honored as the "Poet Immortal." His ancestral home was Chengji in Longxi, and he lived in Shu as a youth before leaving at twenty-five to travel widely. In the early Tianbao era he was summoned to the capital as a Hanlin Attendant and later sent away with a gift of gold. During the An Lushan Rebellion he was implicated for joining the staff of Prince Li Lin of Yong, sentenced to exile in Yelang, and pardoned en route; in his later years he drifted through the southeast and died in Dangtu in the first year of Baoying. This library holds thirty-nine of his works, including the "Hard Is the Road" series and the two-volume complete works. His poetry is bold, free, and extraordinarily imaginative, often voicing the hardships of travel and reflections on life. He is paired with Du Fu as "Li and Du," and his collection has come down to us as the Li Taibai Collection.