No More Learning

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. 797.

With regard to his part in the revolution, the "New History" seems
somewhat confused. It is probable that his sojourn in the prison at
Kiukiang took place before and not after his decree of banishment. It
is also uncertain whether he knew, when he entered the service of Lin,
that this prince was about to take up arms against the Emperor. The
Chinese have reproached Po with ingratitude to his Imperial patron,
but it would appear that he abandoned Prince Lin as soon as the latter
joined the revolution.
A mysterious figure mentioned in the poems is the "High Priest of
Pei-hai" [in Shantung], from whom the poet received a diploma of Taoist
proficiency in A. D. 746.

Li Yang-ping gives the following account of Po's death: "When he
was about to hang up his cap [an euphemism for "dying"] Li Po was
worried at the thought that his numerous rough drafts had not been
collected and arranged. Lying on his pillow, he gave over to me all his
documents, that I might put them in order. "

The "Old T'ang History" says that his illness was due to excessive
drinking. There is nothing improbable in the diagnosis. There is a
legend[15] that he was drowned while making a drunken effort to embrace
the reflection of the moon in the water. This account of his end has
been adopted by Giles and most other European writers, but already in
the twelfth century Hung Mai pointed out that the story is inconsistent
with Li Yang-ping's authentic evidence.

[15] The legendary Li Po is the subject of the sixth tale in "Chin Ku
Ch'i Kuan", translated by T. Pavie in "Contes et Nouvelles," 1839. He
also figures in the Mongol dynasty play, "The Golden Token. "

The truth may be that he contracted his last illness as the result of
falling into the water while drunk.


THE TEXT OF THE POEMS.

The first edition of the poems was in ten _chuan_, and was published by
Li Yang-ping in the year of the poet's death. The preface tells us that
Li Po had lost his own MSS.