Li Bai was one of the most famous poets of the Tang Dynasty era (618-907 AD), who lived between 701 and 762 AD. His was an intense life, characterised by pleasures, travels and adventures in the wilderness, as well as a great passion for wine, which gave the poet a unique and eccentric personality for the time in which he lived. These personality traits emerge clearly in his poetry, making him one of the most influential authors in Chinese literary history. His lyrical verses evoked beauty and melancholy while expressing a longing for freedom and the search for love.
Born in Sichuan, Li Bai travelled for most of his life, meeting the leading Chinese intellectuals and imperial officials of his time, but never really integrating himself into the imperial court or being assimilated. His free spirit, as a great drinker and lover, did not fit in with the austerity of the emperor's court. His friendship with the poet Du Fu, with whom he shared the poetic themes of nature and harmony, was famous. Du Fu celebrated this friendship in his poems, praising Li Bai's inimitable and free style.
His most famous poems are mainly about contemplating mountains and rivers, themes thus strongly connected to nature. There is no lack, however, of poems dedicated to friendship or reflections on death. However, it was above all his mastery of nature themes that made him famous. His most famous poem of all is perhaps Drinking Alone Under the Moon, a hymn to the beauty of solitude and almost autobiographical verses about a lonely drinker who, finding himself under the moonlight, begins to talk and dance with it.
According to legend, Li Bai's death also occurred in a poetic manner: it is said that, in the grip of the effects of alcohol, he tried to embrace the moon's reflection in the water and drowned. A probably fictional story, but one that reflects the mythical aura that was created around this incredible author, capable of fusing poetry, nature and mysticism.