-i was accused of
breaking the law, Li Po had come to his assistance and had him released.
breaking the law, Li Po had come to his assistance and had him released.
Li Po
Together with his friends Ho Chih-chang, Li Shih-chih, Chin, Prince of
Ju-yang, Ts'ui Tsung-chih, Su Chin, Chang Hsu, and Chiao Sui, he formed
the association known as the Eight Immortals of the Winecup.
He begged persistently to be allowed to retire from Court. At last the
Emperor gave him gold and sent him away. Po roamed the country in every
direction. Once he went by boat with Ts'ui Tsung-chih from Pien-shih to
Nanking. He wore his embroidered Court cloak and sat as proudly in the
boat as though he were king of the universe.
When the An Lu-shan revolution broke out, he took to living sometimes
at Su-sung, sometimes on Mount K'uang-lu.
Lin, Prince of Yung, gave him the post of assistant on his staff. When
Lin took up arms, he fled to P'? ng-ts? . When Lin was defeated, Po was
condemned to death. When Po first visited T'ai-yuan Fu, he had seen
and admired Kuo Tz? -i. [11] On one occasion, when Tz?
-i was accused of
breaking the law, Li Po had come to his assistance and had him released.
[11] A famous General, the saviour of the dynasty.
Now, hearing of Po's predicament, Tz? -i threatened to resign unless Po
were saved. The Emperor remitted the sentence of death and changed it
to one of perpetual exile at Yeh-lang. [12] But when the amnesty was
declared he came back to Kiukiang. Here he was put on trial and sent to
gaol. But it happened that Sung Jo-ss? was marching to Honan with three
thousand soldiers from Kiangsu. He passed through Kiukiang on his way,
and released the prisoners there. He gave Li Po an appointment on his
staff. Po soon resigned.
[12] In Yunnan.
When Li Yang-ping became Governor of T'ang-tu, Po went to live near him.
The Emperor Tai Tsung[13] wished to raise him to the rank of Senior
Reviser. But when the order came Po was already dead, having reached
the age of somewhat over sixty.
