The biography of "Li Bai", carefully created by Jiangxi Fine Arts Publishing House, will be officially published in September 2024, and I would like to dedicate this preface to every reader who loves Li Bai and Chinese culture.
Zhu Hong and Cao Wenqin
"The bright moonlight in front of the bed is suspected to be frost on the ground. Raise your head to look at the bright moon and bow your head to think of your hometown. ”
A poem by Li Bai is like a cultural umbilical cord, closely connecting the sons and daughters of China. No matter when, no matter where, it will allow the sons and daughters of China to achieve spiritual connection and emotional resonance.
Li Bai's poems seem to have a magical power, which can make us young and ambitious again in an instant. He takes us back in time and rediscover the best parts of life; He helps us to rush out of the cocoon of life, out of the rules, break free from the cautious, take us to breathe the wind of freedom, taste hot wine, make friends with like-minded interests, climb unknown peaks, and measure the mountains and rivers under our feet.
That brave, romantic, free-spirited, uninhibited heart is exactly what this world needs in an increasingly fast-paced and increasingly vaguely marked world, whether the future is good or bad.
Today, we all seem to be missing something. The development model of modern society seems to envelop people in a certain atmosphere that is difficult to relax, in a certain position, you have to be useful, you have to be a functional being.
The mysterious and great things that once hid deep within us, which could not be measured by social status, money, and efficiency, seem to have completely disappeared. And Li Bai has never lost these treasures throughout his life - natural pure and ageless emotions. He is a star with its own light, a roc soaring in the sky, a giant tree that stretches naturally between heaven and earth, a waterfall jumping in the mountainside, and a big fish in the ocean......
He doesn't seem to care much about what we're fervently pursuing. The value and significance of Li Bai's life seems to have been subject to a great traction and a mysterious revelation. Throughout his life, he held true to the values he held dear, and he never wanted to give up the most precious part of himself. So what is it?
That's – freedom! In Li Bai's life, he loves freedom more than his life and everything. He was born for freedom and sang for romance!
"Taibai Drunken Picture" Qing Su Liupeng
His heart has never been bound; His body has never been restrained. He traveled thousands of miles, made friends from all over the world, drank thousands of glasses of wine, and read thousands of books; He never thought of being an honest official, doing some learning, being a good husband and father, and living a small life as he should.
That is a life state that only a genius can have, if there is no such a state of life, but forbearance for survival everywhere, bowing to the world, making way for order, and saluting to the rules, how can he be Li Bai? Therefore, only he can write that ultimate romance.
Is Li Bai in control of his own destiny? In a way, he didn't. He also wanted to show his strength in the political arena, so he would go to pay homage to Princess Yuzhen, follow his Taoist friends to meet Emperor Tang Ming, and happily go down to Lushan when Yongwang Li Lan sent someone to invite him. However, he is not an official after all! He tried several times, but they all ended in failure.
But these experiences finally relieved him, and after sitting in that glamorous position, would it really bring him joy in his heart?
No! That position, on the contrary, will tie gold to his wings, so that he can no longer spread his wings and fly high, and he is romantic.
In this life, he only came for poetry.
"Two Poems of Li Bai in Cursive Script" Ming Zhu Yunming
Are the Chinese unimaginative? Never. Look at Li Bai's poems, which were the magnificent imagination of the Chinese thousands of years ago.
Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge, because knowledge is finite, whereas imagination encapsulates everything in the world, drives progress, and is the source of the evolution of knowledge." "But without free space, the source of human imagination is in danger of drying up.
From this point of view, Li Bai has struggled all his life to protect his imagination. He took care of it with care, just like he cared for a priceless jewel, a peerless jade!
So, he preserved his freedom, and thus his precious imagination. He has never been told by the ear: "You have to be a man with your tail between your legs, and you can work without your arms!" "Don't be strong, shoot the first bird!" "The wood is beautiful in the forest, and the wind will destroy it!"
Therefore, his poetry is not pretentious, and there is no need to meditate, it is an inexhaustible romantic fairy spring that flows from his life.
To this day, his poems are still bubbling with fairy spirit! It was the temperament of his true soul, the breath of his free life, the great song of his imagination!
"Toast to the Moon" Southern Song Dynasty Ma Yuan
Talent, both the Creator's preference for a person's life and his curse.
Li Bai loved wine all his life. With the help of wine, he has made many affectionate friends, Du Fu, Meng Haoran, Wang Lun, Yuan Danqiu, He Zhizhang, Wang Changling...... They love each other, they have a lot of love, they drink and write poetry, they enjoy it, they illuminate and warm each other's lives.
Wine is also the medicine of Li Bai's inspiration. When a glass of wine is in the hot intestines, his inspiration is like a spring, roaring. "If the sky does not love wine, the wine star is not in the sky. If the earth does not love wine, there shall be no fountain of wine on the earth. "The ancient sages were all lonely, and only the drinker left his name." "Hu'er will exchange for fine wine, and sell eternal sorrow with you." "Lanling wine tulips, jade bowls with amber light." Those poems written after drinking made He Zhizhang exclaim: "This heavenly immortal is also!" ”
However, alcoholism also made Li Bai lose a lot. Because of the wine, he was never a competent husband, "three hundred and sixty days, drunk like mud every day." Although she is a white woman of Li, she is too often a wife". He was also not a competent father, and he never taught his sons Bo Bird, Po Li and daughter Binh Duong well, let alone let them live a stable and prosperous life. Because of the wine, he never looked like a courtier. He indulged in the Golden Palace, asked Gao Lishi to take off his boots, let Yang Guifei polish the ink, and finally ended up giving the gold back. He also lost his health because of alcohol. Due to excessive drinking, he suffered from chest disease and finally died in Dangtu, Anhui.
Wine made him and destroyed him. However, he was a poet, and he was climbing the highest peak of human romantic literature. Inspiration, the goddess of genius, did not walk towards him with graceful steps, but always flew by like a bird in the air. She slipped away so fast that in a split second, she disappeared without a trace. If you can reach the heart of the goddess of inspiration through wine and hold her heart tightly, then Li Bai is willing to drink for the rest of his life.
This is Li Bai, as a genius poet, he would rather lose his good future, lose his warm family, lose his healthy body, and lose his inspiration, that is his life. Without inspiration, it will really kill him!
"On the Balcony Post" Tang Li Bai
Li Bai has never had a mask, no disguise, and for a person, it is like adventuring naked in the primeval jungle. Under the magnificent, prosperous, and atmospheric costumes of the Tang Dynasty, there was strict hierarchy, self-preservation, intrigue, and bloody cruelty. Li Bai doesn't know how to calculate, he doesn't have a city government, officialdom philosophy, he doesn't know anything, and he is lucky enough to be given money and released. For an emperor, the heroes of the world are either put into the urn or destroyed with their own hands, so as not to be used by others. With Li Bai's affection and debauchery, his head is actually not enough to be cut off.
After all, the court still took pity on him, neither used him nor killed him, but let him go, and let him return to the sea, to the wilderness, to the mountains and forests—because he originally belonged to heaven and earth, and never belonged to the court.
Li Bai, in the end, live up to this life! He jumped to the top and successfully reached the highest peak of classical Chinese literature. He stood at the pinnacle of romance and together with Du Fu (the poet saint) defined the golden age of Tang poetry. He opened up the boundaries of Romantic literature and greatly extended the boundaries of the imagination of classical Chinese literature. He also greatly strengthened the romantic genes of the Chinese, and after Zhuangzi and Qu Yuan, he once again injected that rosy romance into Chinese civilization.
Poetry is innocent, and the heart is boundless! Thinking without domains, lines without borders! Today, what Li Bai has passed on to us is not only a kind of literary beauty, but also such a belief!
Faith is not old, romance is evergreen!