Travel and service at court
Li Bai grew up in Shu and traveled widely as an adult. His poetic reputation developed through encounters with writers, officials and religious figures. The New History of the Tang describes a period at Rencheng and association with Kong Chaofu and companions at Mount Culai, a group remembered as the Six Recluses of the Bamboo Stream. He also associated with the Daoist Wu Yun.
Early in the Tianbao reign, Emperor Xuanzong summoned him to the capital for literary service in the Hanlin. Historical biographies record He Zhizhang's admiration and stories about courtly drinking. Li Bai later left the court and resumed traveling. Such anecdotes belong to the transmission of his biography alongside the evidence of his service and surviving writings.
Prince Yong, exile and later years
During the An Lushan rebellion, Li Bai joined the staff of Prince Yong, Li Lin. The prince's defeat in conflict with the imperial government brought punishment upon his associates. Li Bai received a sentence of exile to Yelang, but was pardoned and returned before establishing a long residence there. His movements thus included displacement produced by war and political punishment as well as voluntary travel.
In his later years he depended on friends and local officials, eventually staying with Li Yangbing, magistrate of Dangtu. He died in 762. Li Yangbing was associated with preserving his writings, while later accounts recorded reburial and efforts to recover poems. The poet's posthumous reputation depended partly on this continuing work of collection.
Poetic expression and a surviving calligraphic work
In Bring in the Wine, Li Bai adapts an established yuefu title. Images of the Yellow River, whitening hair, feasting and scattered wealth bring time, ambition and frustration into the same poem. Addresses to Cen Fuzi and Danqiu Sheng give its extended lyric the character of a song performed among companions. Assertions of confidence alternate with the sorrow voiced at its close.
The Palace Museum attributes the cursive scroll Shangyangtai tie to Li Bai. Its short landscape poem occupies five lines and twenty-five characters, accompanied by later inscriptions and collectors' seals. The object provides evidence for the reception of his calligraphy alongside the separate transmission of his poems and biographies.