Li Bai

Who was Li Bai?

Li Bai, also known as Li Bo, is one of the most acclaimed poets in the history of Chinese poetry. He and his friend Du Fu are the two most prominent figures in the flourishing of Chinese poetry in the mid-Tang Dynasty that is often called the "Golden Age."

Li Bai was a prolific and creative poet who stretched the rules of versification of his time. Around a thousand poems attributed to him are extant today. Li Bai's poetry has been much esteemed from his lifetime through the present day in the Chinese culture area and in other parts of the world. Thirty-four of his poems are included in the canonical 18th-century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.