Chapter 64 155 Li Bai despises the powerful

When Tang Xuanzong was sixty-one years old, he fell in love with the young Concubine Yang Gui.It is said that Concubine Yang Gui is a rare beauty, and she is born smart and knows music.Tang Xuanzong made her two elder brothers officials and her three older sisters his wives.Concubine Yang had a distant cousin, Yang Zhao (pronounced zhao, later renamed Yang Guozhong), who was too poor to live in Sichuan. When he heard that his cousin had made a concubine, he brought some gifts to Chang'an to find Concubine Yang.Concubine Yang Gui said a few good words in front of Xuanzong, and Yang Guozhong became a guard and joined the army.

Tang Xuanzong had already handed over political affairs to Li Linfu.After having Concubine Yang, he often stayed in the palace to have fun, and he didn't even bother to come out for the routine morning court every day.Whatever Concubine Yang Gui wanted, he always tried his best to make it for her.Concubine Yang Guifei likes to eat fresh lychees.Litchi is a fruit grown in the south, and Chang'an is in the northwest. Where do you get lychees?In order to please Concubine Yang Gui, Tang Xuanzong specially ordered Lingnan officials to send people on fast horses to rush to Chang'an, like a baton, to transport the lychees to Chang'an one by one.When the lychees arrived in Concubine Yang's hands, they were still red and fragrant, and the taste hadn't changed.

Tang Xuanzong and Concubine Yang Guifei drank and had fun every day, and it was indispensable to ask people to play music and sing songs, but they were tired of hearing some old lyrics in the palace.He wanted someone to fill in some new lyrics for him. An official He Zhizhang said in front of Tang Xuanzong that a new great poet named Li Bai came to Chang'an. He was a genius, and he was excellent in both poetry and writing.Tang Xuanzong had also heard of Li Bai's reputation a long time ago, so he ordered He Zhizhang to notify Li Bai to enter the palace as soon as possible. Li Bai, courtesy name Taibai, was one of the most famous poets in the Tang Dynasty.He was born in Suiye, and his ancestors were from Longxi Chengji (now Qin Andong, Gansu Province). He has read a lot of books since he was a child, and has a bold and unrestrained personality.Since Li Bai was in his twenties, he traveled to various places in order to increase his knowledge.He has not only been to many big cities such as Chang'an, Luoyang, Jinling, and Jiangdu, but also many famous mountain resorts such as Dongting, Lushan, and Kuaiji.Because of his extensive knowledge and extraordinary intelligence, he has achieved outstanding achievements in poetry writing.

Li Bai was a man with political ambitions. He was arrogant by nature and was very dissatisfied with the decadent atmosphere in the officialdom at that time. He hoped to be appointed by the court so that he could have the opportunity to display his political talents.When I came to Chang'an this time, I was very happy to hear Tang Xuanzong summoned him. Tang Xuanzong met Li Bai in the palace, talked with him for a while, felt that he was indeed very talented, and said happily: "You are an ordinary person, but even I know your name. If you don't have real talents Maybe it's that famous?"

After the interview, Tang Xuanzong left Li Bai in the Hanlin Academy and asked him to draft an edict for him. Li Bai likes to drink, and when he starts to drink, he can't stop drinking until he is very drunk.After entering the Hanlin Academy, he couldn't change this habit, so when he was free, he still found some poet friends to drink in Chang'an Hotel. Once, Tang Xuanzong asked the musicians to write a new piece of music, but before filling in the lyrics, he ordered the eunuch to find Li Bai.The eunuchs couldn't find Li Bai in the Imperial Academy and Li Bai's house.Someone told the eunuch that Li Bai went to the street to drink.

The eunuchs searched and searched on Chang'an Street, and finally found Li Bai in the hotel. It turned out that Li Bai was drunk and lay there asleep.The eunuch woke him up and told him that the emperor had summoned him.Li Bai rubbed his eyes, stood up, and asked what was going on.The eunuchs didn't have time to talk to him in detail, they hurriedly pulled Li Bai into the sedan chair and carried him to the palace. Li Bai entered the inner palace, looked up to see Tang Xuanzong, wanted to pay pilgrimage, but his body refused to obey.When the eunuchs saw that he was very drunk, someone took a basin of cold water and sprinkled it on Li Bai's face, and Li Bai gradually woke up.

Tang Xuanzong loved his talent and didn't blame him, but asked him to write the lyrics immediately. The eunuchs were busy putting pens, inkstones and silks on the several cases in front of him.Li Bai sat down on the floor, and suddenly felt that he was still wearing boots on his feet, which was very uncomfortable.When he saw an old eunuch beside him, he stretched his legs and said to the eunuch, "Please help me take off my boots!" The old eunuch turned out to be Gao Lishi, the chief eunuch favored by Tang Xuanzong.He usually relied on the power of the emperor to do his best in front of officials, but now a small Hanlin official actually ordered him to take off his boots, and he was almost stunned.But Tang Xuanzong was waiting for Li Bai to write the lyrics. If he offended Li Bai and disappointed Tang Xuanzong, he couldn't afford it.He held back his breath, pretended to be indifferent, and said with a smile: "Oh, I'm really drunk, there's nothing I can do about him." Then he knelt down and took off Li Bai's boots.

Li Bai took off his boots, didn't even look at Gao Lishi, picked up a pen and began to write in a fluttering manner. Without much time, he wrote three lyrics called "Qingping Diao" and handed them to Tang Xuanzong. Tang Xuanzong recited it several times, and felt that the words were beautiful and the rhythm was sonorous. It was indeed a good poem, so he immediately asked the musicians to sing it. Tang Xuanzong admired Li Bai very much, but Gao Lishi, who had taken off Li Bai's boots, held a grudge.Once, Gao Lishi accompanied Concubine Yang to enjoy the scenery in the imperial garden.Yang Guifei happily sang Li Bai's poems.

Gao Lishi pretended to be surprised and said: "Oh, Li Bai insulted the imperial concubine in these poems, don't you know?" Concubine Yang asked strangely what was going on.Gao Lishi made some rumors with embellishments, saying that there is a line in Li Bai's poem that compares Concubine Yang to Zhao Feiyan, a dissolute queen of the Han Dynasty, in order to satirize her. Concubine Yang Guifei was really angry when she believed Gao Lishi's words. Later, she repeatedly talked about Li Bai's bad behavior in front of Tang Xuanzong, and Tang Xuanzong gradually couldn't get used to Li Bai.

Li Bai finally saw that around Tang Xuanzong, there were some villains like Li Linfu and Gao Lishi who were stalking others; he stayed by Tang Xuanzong's side, but to relieve his boredom, and it was impossible to make a difference in politics.In the spring of the following year, a memorial was published, asking to resign and return home.Tang Xuanzong followed suit and approved his request. In order to show his love for talent, he also gave Li Bai a sum of money to send him home. After Li Bai left Chang'an, he lived a free life as a poet again, sometimes studying in seclusion, and sometimes traveling around.During these days, he wrote many poems praising the magnificent mountains and rivers of the motherland.

Once, he set off from Baidi City and went to Jiangling by boat through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.Along the way, he fell in love with the scene and wrote a poem: In the court speech Baidi Caiyun, 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. Many of Li Bai's poems express his unrestrained spirit, rich imagination and warm feelings, and have become immortal masterpieces in the history of Chinese literature. When Li Bai enthusiastically praised the mountains and rivers of his motherland, the Central Plains suffered a catastrophe due to the corruption of the Tang Dynasty.