My Rant Against Li Bai- The Poetic Drunk

Almost every elementary  introduction of Chinese poetry opens with this Tang poem from Li Bai:

静夜思

Quiet Night Thought

translated by Yoyo

床前明月光

In front of my bed a bright moon

疑是地上霜

I thought the ground was covered with frost

舉頭望明月

I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon

低頭思故鄉

Lowering my head I think of my home

(Painting by Liang Kai, Northern Song)

Then the teacher goes, "Oh, how sad.  During a cold winter night, the moon evokes his inner lonely emotions."

"And of all the things he things he thinks about, he thinks about home!  Kids, take note!  Always be filial to your parents (the moral of almost every parable we learn as children)!"

Here are some things about Li Bai that a Chinese teacher will never tell you:

1.  HE'S NOT HAN CHINESE.  He was born near the Kyrgyzstan/central Asia.

2.  He wanted to leave home.  The man somehow traveled 2000 miles from his "home village" to Xi'an China.

3.  He's a chronic alcoholic.  Everyone who met him has kept some record of him being drunk/wasted/drinking someone under the table.

4.  He's completely reckless with his behavior.  While drinking and writing poetry with Emperor Xuanzong, he orders a high level eunuch to sniff his shoe.  That thankfully kicks him out of the Tang palace.

5, His calligraphy is butt ugly.  It literally was a drunk guy who wrote it:



When I read "Quiet Night Thought" again, I read it as a poor, lonely Chinese man having a hangover late at night.  Li Bai's poetry is simple and catchy.  Or as one of my professors said, "The Madonna of Tang China."

Perhaps my disdain for Li Bai is like my dislike of cheap party music.  Everyone likes it , but it completely lacks substance.  If I read Li Bai at my current age, perhaps I would have liked him more than when my Chinese teacher told me he was the epitome of Chinese poetry as a young kid.

Let's introduce alcoholic writers to students when they're at least teenagers.