Chapter 37 Li Baiba

In the fourteenth year of Tianbao (755), An Lushan raised 200,000 troops in Fanyang (near Beijing).An Lushan is a Hu, but he is the only king with a different surname granted by Tang Xuanzong.Unsatisfied, he relied on his heavy troops, and joined forces with his brave and capable general Shi Siming to fight, which was called "Anshi Rebellion" in history, which lasted for eight years.Before the rebellion was completely subsided, Li Bai died. At the end of the year, the rebels fought across the Yellow River.Li Bai, who was staying in Xuancheng, fled south with his family.Passing Luoyang, it was desolate. The poet wrote angrily: "Luoyang flies to the sand in March, and everyone in Luoyang city sighs. The flowing water in Tianjin is red with blood, and the bones are in a mess."

Tianjin is a bridge over the Luo River. An Lushan became Emperor Dayan in Luoyang.His army is centered on ethnic minorities, and it is very capable of fighting. The division of tigers and wolves entered the hinterland where there were no weapons in a hundred years, destroyed the city, raped women, and robbed gold and silver.Chang'an fell in June of the following year, and Tang Xuanzong fled to Sichuan with Yang Guifei.On the way, the army was dissatisfied with Yang Guozhong, Xuanzong killed him, and put Yang Yuhuan to death on Maweipo. Li Bai was full of disgust for the murderer. He described the scene of the war: "Fighting to death in the field, the sound of the defeated horse mourning to the sky. The black kite pecks people's intestines and flies on the dead branches."

Li Bai is not confused about major issues, and his humanitarian stand is clear.In the thirteenth year of Tianbao, the imperial court sent troops to Yunnan for the second time, and suffered heavy losses. He accused the imperial court of resorting to military action, and said to the ruler in a teaching tone: "It is the one who knows that soldiers are murder weapons, and the saints have to use them as a last resort." The Anshi Rebellion suffered even more humiliation from foreign aggression.He wrote: "Looking down at Heluochuan, walking in the vast expanse of Hu Bing." He hid in Mount Lushan with his wife and children, and his emotions suddenly became high: "Whispering the sword at night, and his ambition is growing day by day." Then he laughed at himself: "A robber cuts the gap like the wind sweeps the autumn leaves. I am not a generation, and I hide the screen. "

Li Bai is not a Jidai man who can save the country from peril. This is really a painful discovery.Decades of long swords have been carried on the body, and now it is "drawing the sword and looking around at a loss." The great poet who praised the country was restless by the robbers who robbed the country. Although Lushan is good, there is no good poem to match her.He paid close attention to the situation nervously, hoping that Emperor Xuanzong's imperial conquest would be his own. Prince Li Heng went to Gansu to ascend the throne for Tang Suzong, and there were less than 30 officials present.Xuanzong hid in Sichuan, which was tantamount to withdrawing from the political arena, so he had to admit that the prince was self-reliant.The prince has military power in his hands.But Xuanzong's sixteenth son, Yongwang Li Lin, also had military power in his hands and was in charge of the defense of the Yangtze River Basin.He toured east along the river and sent people to Mount Lu to invite Li Bai into the shogunate.This Li Lin is ambitious and wants to take advantage of the chaos to become emperor.Xuanzong fled to Shu, and the military power was given to the prince. Li Heng was equivalent to the commander-in-chief of the entire army, and Li Lin was the commander of the Yangtze River Defense Zone.

Li Lin asked Li Bai to come out of Lushan Mountain, explaining two points: one is that he recruited all kinds of talents for his future enthronement; the other is that Li Bai is indeed famous. Do the poets in the mountains know the inside story?Wei Zichun, the envoy of King Yong, went to Mount Lushan three times, and finally made Li Bai go out of the mountain despite the firm opposition of his wife Zongshi.He was very excited and wrote a poem praising Wei Zichun as a character like Zhang Zifang. Li Bai entered Yongwang's shogunate, enjoyed high treatment, boarded the building ship of Yongwang's east tour, and participated in several military meetings.He saw with his own eyes that the people in the southeast all supported King Yong and regarded him as the savior of the world.Li Bai made a great poem: "The two emperors did not return from their tours, and the pines and cypresses of Wuling made people mourn. The princes will not save Henan, but they would like the wise king to come from afar." The two emperors refer to Xuanzong and Suzong, but the princes are unclear.Li Bai writes poems like this, and he has to teach others.

Watching prostitutes on a building boat, he wrote a poem saying: "The sail is swaying in the sky, and the clear current returns to the wind. Poems are for advocacy, and wine is for swords and songs!" However, two months later, Li Heng sent troops to encircle and suppress Li Lin. After several fierce battles, the emperor defeated his half-brother.King Yong fled to Dayuling and was captured.Li Bai fled to Xunyang and was arrested in Pengze County, where Tao Yuanming was the county magistrate. He was fifty-seven years old this year, an old bone.I don't know what he looked like when the soldiers tied him up.

He was imprisoned in Xunyang Prison, probably for a year.Knowing that he committed the death crime of rebellion, he became emotional and complained that his brothers did not come to rescue him.In fact, he didn't know where the brothers were.The food in the prison during the war was extremely poor, and he couldn't feel it because he was dying.He yelled and yelled every day, and the jailers teased him, making fun of the celebrity.There is still a glimmer of life: passing letters to the outside world.At the moment of life and death, fame helped him, no matter in military or political circles, many people knew him.Yushi Zhongcheng Song Ruosi led his troops to Henan, passed by Xunyang, and stayed to see him.Song Ruosi wrote to Suzong, saying that Li Bai was a military talent and could be used.Suzong refused.Li Bai was so anxious that he imitated Song Ruosi's tone and said on the table: "Li Bai, who is in charge of me, is really innocent... How can this person be famous in the universe and wither away in the past!" Li Bai is already a death row prisoner, and his tone is quite loud.This form cannot be handed over.He was highly excited and kept swiping, as if once he stopped, the beheading knife would come.

Fortunately, he has been hyperactive almost all his life and has the ability to hover on the verge of mental breakdown. Guo Ziyi, the famous general who defeated An Lushan later, interceded for Li Bai again.Suzong backed down.Li Bai's death crime can be avoided, but the crime of living is inevitable: he was exiled to Yelang (now Tongzi, Guizhou). In the spring of the first year of Qianyuan (758) of Emperor Suzong of Tang Dynasty, 58-year-old Li Bai dragged his sick body onto the road of exile.The son is in Shandong, and the wife is said to be in Jiangxi.His brother-in-law Zong Jing sent him on the road.He arrived in Jiangxia in May and Hanyang in August. Officials entertained him along the way, and he wrote poems in return.Officials in the Tang Dynasty were able to receive prisoners, which is a beautiful sight in the officialdom.Li Bai regained his physical strength, and together with another poet, Jia Zhi, the prefect of Baling, traveled to Dongting Lake, and wrote poems with high spirits again:

Wipe the Yitian sword, and go west to Yueyang Tower.Shouting thousands of miles of wind, sweeping away the worries in the chest. At the beginning of the next year, Li Bai entered the Three Gorges.After crossing the mouth of Xiling Gorge, the vast river surface narrows, and the mountain walls on both sides are cut.Passing through Badong County in winter, he abandoned his boat and climbed to the top of Wushan Mountain. The old man in his sixties splashed ink on the stone wall: "The river travels thousands of miles, and the sea moon is fifteen rounds. ..." Li Bai walked from Xunyang to Fengjie for a year and a half.Fengjie is also called Baidi City, and further south, Yelang is in sight.He suddenly received good news: the emperor gave amnesty to the world because of the appointment of a prince.The amnesty decree said: "Prisoners are now imprisoned in the world, and all crimes below death will be exonerated." Li Bai was ecstatic, turned the bow of the boat, and went eastward along the river, writing the famous article "Chaofa Baidi City":

In the morning, among the colorful clouds of Emperor Baidi, thousands of miles of Jiangling will be returned in one day.The apes on both sides of the strait can't stop crying, and the light boat has passed the Ten Thousand Mountains. It's a pity that such a brisk poem is nearing the end of his life. Return to Jiangling, then visit Dongting Lake.There was still war in the north, An Lushan died, and Shi Siming became emperor again.The south is relatively calm.Regardless of his old age, Li Bai wanted to join the army, but he failed, and the officers who recruited him refused to accept him.He was very disappointed, and wrote a poem to Jiangxia Wei Taishou:

"Learn the sword and turn yourself over, but how can you succeed in writing! The sword is not the enemy of all people, and the writing steals the voice of the world." He finally admitted that the pen in his hand is more important than the sword. A friend named Ren Hua summed it up for him and wrote miscellaneous poems saying: "My life is proud and my aspirations are unpredictable. I have been a customer for decades, but I have never lost my color in a day!" That's a good word.Been a guest for decades: living in a foreign land, wandering, tossing and turning, without a home, never being a host for a day, always being a guest of others, proud, but not lacking in cold eyes and hot ridicule.His arrogance greatly irritated mediocre people, and once led to a situation where "everyone wants to kill". Hearing that Du Fu was inquiring about him everywhere, he shed tears.Du Fu wrote "Dream of Li Bai" in Sichuan, which is as accurate and concise as it was more than ten years ago: The capital is covered with crowns, and the man is alone and haggard... Famous for thousands of years, lonely after death. He wandered around in Xunyang for several months, not knowing why.Because he was in Xunyang's prison?Wife and children have no news... He stayed in Jinling again, relying on the help of friends to survive.There is no record of finding family members.To drink, he sold his sword, marking the complete end of his career as a knight-errant. He humorously described the gifts from friends: "Pull out the five-colored hairs, and the meaning is more important than the mountain. It costs a lot to give a small gift, and a bucket of water pours a long whale!" This long whale swam to Anhui, and Li Yangbing, the county magistrate of Dangtu, was his clan uncle.He was ill and "expensed a lot", including his medical bills.The sick body dragged for hundreds of miles, until Dangtu became seriously ill, and finally couldn't afford it. This is 762 A.D., Li Baixu was sixty-three years old, and his life was the same as that of Tao Yuanming.This is also the last year of the "Anshi Rebellion". It is widely rumored among the people that Li Bai died of drunkenness and died by catching the moon in the water. There are related records in the poems of the Tang Dynasty and Hong Mai's "Rongzhai Wubi".I believe he will still be drunk as long as he is alive. Thirty miles away from Dangtu City, there is the famous Caishiji, which is the narrowest part of the Yangtze River, where the moon on the river and the moon on the mountain complement each other.Li Bai went into the water to catch the moon, just like going up a mountain to find a fairy.