No More Learning

[14] 806-821.

He sought for Li Po's descendants, but could only find two
grand-daughters, who had both married common peasants, but still
retained an air of good breeding. They appeared before the Governor
weeping, and said: "Our grandfather's wish was to be buried on top of
the Green Hill. But they made his grave at the eastern hill-base, which
is not what he desired. "

Fan Ch'uan-ch? ng had the grave moved and set up two tombstones. He
told the ladies they might change their husbands and marry into the
official classes, but they refused, saying that they were pledged to
isolation and poverty and could not marry again. Fan was so moved by
their reply that he exempted their husbands from national service. A
rescript of the Emperor W? n Tsung created the category of the Three
Paragons: Li Po, of poetry; P'ei Min, of swordsmanship; and Chang Hsu,
of cursive calligraphy.

Most of the accounts of Li Po's life which have hitherto appeared are
based on the biography given in vol. v. of the "Memoires Concernant
Les Chinois. " It is evident that several of the frequently quoted
anecdotes in the "Memoires" are partly based on a misunderstanding of
the Chinese text, partly due to the lively imagination of the Jesuits.
The Sung writer Hsieh Chung-yung arranged in chronological order all
the information about the poet's life that can be gleaned not only from
the T'ang histories, but also from the poems themselves.
In the communications of the Gesellschaft fur Natur und Volkerkunde,
1889, Dr. Florenz makes some rather haphazard and inaccurate selections
from this chronology.

The Life in the "New T'ang History" has, I believe, never before been
translated in full. The Life in the so-called "Old T'ang History" is
shorter and contains several mistakes. Thus Li is said to have been a
native of the Province Shantung, which is certainly untrue.

The following additional facts are based on statements in the poet's
own works.

With regard to his marriage in A. D. 730 he writes to a friend: "The
land of Ch'u has seven swamps; I went to look at them. But at His
Excellency Hsu's house I was offered the hand of his grand-daughter,
and lingered there during the frosts of three autumns. " He then seems
to have abandoned Miss Hsu, who was impatient at his lack of promotion.
He afterwards married successively Miss Lin, Miss Lu, and Miss Sung.
These were, of course, wives, not concubines. We are told that he
was fond of "going about with the dancing-girls of Chao-yang and
Chin-ling. " He had one son, who died in A. D.