No More Learning

[9] In Shantung.

At the beginning of the T'ien-pao period[10] he went south to Kuei-chi,
and became intimate with Wu Yun. Wu Yun was summoned by the Emperor,
and Po went with him to Ch'ang-an. Here he visited Ho Chih-chang.
When Chih-chang read some of his work, he sighed and said: "You are
an exiled fairy. " He told the Emperor, who sent for Po and gave him
audience in the Golden Bells Hall. The poet submitted an essay dealing
with current events. The Emperor bestowed food upon him and stirred
the soup with his own hand. He ordered that he should be unofficially
attached to the Han Lin Academy, but Po went on drinking in the
market-place with his boon-companions.

[10] _Circa_ A. D. 742.

Once when the Emperor was sitting in the Pavilion of Aloes Wood, he had
a sudden stirring of heart, and wanted Po to write a song expressive of
his mood. When Po entered in obedience to the summons, he was so drunk
that the courtiers were obliged to dab his face with water. When he had
recovered a little, he seized a brush and without any effort wrote a
composition of flawless grace.
The Emperor was so pleased with Po's talent that whenever he was
feasting or drinking he always had this poet to wait upon him. Once
when Po was drunk the Emperor ordered [the eunuch] Kao Li-shih to take
off Po's shoes. Li-shih, who thought such a task beneath him, took
revenge by affecting to discover in one of Po's poems a veiled attack
on [the Emperor's mistress] Yang Kuei-fei.

Whenever the Emperor thought of giving the poet some official rank,
Kuei-fei intervened and dissuaded him.

Po himself, soon realizing that he was unsuited to Court life, allowed
his conduct to become more and more reckless and unrestrained.

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? .