The banished immortal : a life of Li Bai (Li Po) / Ha Jin.
Material type: TextLanguage: English, Chinese Publisher: New York : Pantheon, [2019]Copyright date: ©2019Edition: First editionDescription: xi, 301 pages ; 22 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781524747411
- 1524747416
- Life of Li Bai (Li Po)
- 895.11/3 B 23
- PL2671 .J554 2019
- BIO007000 | LIT014000 | HIS008000
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Bedford Public Library Biography | Biography | BIO LI JIN | Available | 32500001768879 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
With the instincts of a master novelist, Ha Jin draws on a wide range of historical and literary sources to weave the life story of Li Bai (701-762), whose poems--shaped by Daoist thought and characterized by their passion, romance, and lust for life--rang throughout the Tang Dynasty and continue to be celebrated today. Jin follows Li Bai from his birth on China's western frontier through his travels as a young man seeking a place among the empire's civil servants, his wanderings allowing him to hone his poetic craft, share his verses, and win him friends and admirers along the way. In his later years, he becomes swept up in a military rebellion that alters the course of China, and his death is surrounded by speculation and legend that continues to be spun to this day. The Banished Immortal is an extraordinary portrait of a poet who both transcended his time and was shaped by it, and whose ability to live, love, and mourn without reservation produced some of the most enduring verses in the world.
Chinese versions of his poetry will be included.
Includes bibliographical references.
"From the National Book Award-winning author of Waiting: a narratively driven, deeply human biography of the 8th century poet, Li Bai--also known as Li Po--one of the most beloved poets ever to emerge from China. With the instincts of a master novelist, Ha Jin draws on a wide range of historical and literary sources to weave the life story of Li Bai (701-762), whose poems--shaped by Daoist thought and characterized by their passion, romance, and lust for life--rang throughout the Tang Dynasty and continue to be celebrated today. Jin follows Li Bai from his birth on China's western frontier through his travels as a young man seeking a place among the empire's civil servants, his wanderings allowing him to hone his poetic craft, share his verses, and win him friends and admirers along the way. In his later years, he becomes swept up in a military rebellion that alters the course of China, and his death is surrounded by speculation and legend that continues to be spun to this day. The Banished Immortal is an extraordinary portrait of a poet who both transcended his time and was shaped by it, and whose ability to live, love, and mourn without reservation produced some of the most enduring verses in the world"-- Provided by publisher.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Award-winning novelist and poet Jin (War Trash; Waiting) offers a glimpse into the life of one of China's most celebrated poets: Li Bai (aka Li Po or Li Bo). Bai (700-62 CE) is an almost legendary figure; so beloved that he is said to have been an immortal banished to earth (for reckless behavior). With little more than legends and the poet's own words, Jin creates a kind of hagiography that is both scholarly and emotionally engaging. Bai's weakness for drink and his struggles with money haunt this tale, as does his failure to secure a position in the royal court. One senses that his was a life lived always in the shadow of want. In the end, we are left with two conflicting visions: the great artist who squandered opportunities and drank himself to death, and the lore of a dreamer who disappeared one night in search of the moon's embrace. Though Jin makes an admirable stab at having it both ways, much of what he presents as fact feels merely speculative and ultimately the mythology holds this portrait together. VERDICT Libraries building Chinese literature collections will love this book. Essential for academic libraries and recommended for large poetry holdings. [See Prepub Alert, 7/30/18.]-Herman Sutter, St. Agnes Acad., Houston © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
Novelist Jin (Waiting) presents a taut introduction to the life and poetry of influential eighth century Daoist poet Li Bai (701-762 CE). Li, known also in the West as Li Po, devoted his life to seeking a position at court and attempted to flatter a range of officials in hopes of a recommendation. He traveled through China, drinking heavily and producing obsequious but artistically impressive poems, and though he gained a devoted following, his Daoist orientation clashed with the Confucian officials who could recommend him. After years of rebuffs, he achieved a position, only to leave shortly thereafter when it became clear the emperor would not meaningfully employ his talents and advice. Li then returned to an itinerant lifestyle and underwent the strenuous Daoist initiation rituals of extreme fasting at a mountain monastery. His travels, funded by wealthy patrons and his second wife's family business, exposed him to the emperor's military missteps, and he narrowly escaped execution after joining a coup. His politically motivated marriages receive skimpy attention due to limited sources and the fact that he spent much of his life away from family. Jin's explanations of Li's poetry will help readers unfamiliar with Chinese forms see the power and beauty of Li's work, and the distinct Daoist influences that put him at odds with his Confucian contemporaries. Jin's polished biography will give a wider audience access to the politics and beauty of a major Chinese poet. (Jan.) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.Booklist Review
In Tang dynasty China, a poet could nurture high hopes. Becoming an imperial counselor exercising statecraft wasn't inconceivable, especially if, like Li Bai (701-62), who is also known in English as Li Po, one had studied swordsmanship and history as well as literature. Li Bai also claimed descent from Han dynasty emperors, as did the emperors of Bai's lifetime. He once wangled a court placement but in less than two years resigned, disappointed at being treated as a writer only, not necessarily of poems; he never became a made man. His life as distinguished poet and fiction writer Ha Jin (The Boat Rocker, 2016) so limpidly relays it was peripatetic rather than domestic, usually away from the family he strove to support. Yet he was an unstaunchable fount of poems of friendship, drinking, dancing, nostalgia, and regret and, what is unusual and particular to him, poems adopting the perspectives of others, including ordinary men and women. Li Bai still stands, with his friend Du Fu, at the pinnacle of Chinese poetry, and his influence is extensive the world over.--Ray Olson Copyright 2019 BooklistKirkus Book Review
The National Book Award-winning Chinese-American novelist and poet sketches the life of one of his native country's foundational poets.Jin's (Creative Writing/Boston Univ.; The Boat Rocker, 2016, etc.) subject, Li Bai (701-762), better known to Western readers as Li Po, wrote about rural China with a melancholy grace; his work is suffused with long rivers ferrying travelers under watchful moons, leaving lovers and drinking partners behind. The creator of this poised and forceful (if somber) work was restless, constantly torn between wanting a secure government perch and wanting to abandon mainstream society entirely. The son of a merchant, he grew up in relative financial comfort, but because of a cultural distrust of businessmen, he found it nearly impossible to qualify for officialdom. Instead, he traveled, often for years at a time, all but abandoning his wife and children, writing poems that caught the attention of fellow poets like Du Fu and of royalty; for a time, he was a favorite of the Tang dynasty emperor. However, court life felt like a gilded cage, and his attempts at statecraft were dismissed as amateurish. Li Bai is an intriguing bundle of contradictions, but Jin seems to struggle with how to reconcile them. The author is a careful, deliberate stylist, which has made for finely understated novels and short stories. When writing nonfiction, thoughespecially regarding a subject like Li Bai, where accurate historical records are sparsehis writing becomes restrained, even wooden. Though Jin has accessed Chinese-language sources, his book is often frustratingly bereft of interpretive power or context. For example, the author barely examines the publishing industry (or word of mouth) that led to Li Bai's rising stardom but fusses over picayune squabbles about his behavior at court. Jin's fine translations of his subject's poems are blessedly abundant, but he resists delivering deep interpretations of them.Jin dutifully explores Li Bai's status as a major, high-spirited poet but with little of the vigor of his subject. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
Ha Jin left his native China in 1985 and is now a professor of English at Emory University. He is author of, among other works, two short-story collections: Ocean of Words, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award, and Under the Red Flag, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction. His novel Waiting won the National Book Award for fiction in 1999.He lives in Atlanta.
(Bowker Author Biography)