num_pages: 303
description: From the National Book Award-winning author of Waiting a narratively driven deeply human biography of the Tang dynasty poet Li Bai--also known as Li PoIn his own time (701-762) Li Bai's poems--shaped by Daoist thought and characterized by their passion romance and lust for life--were never given their proper due by the official literary gatekeepers. Nonetheless his lines rang out on the lips of court entertainers tavern singers soldiers and writers throughout the Tang dynasty and his deep desire for a higher more perfect world gave rise to his nickname the Banished Immortal. Today Bai's verses are still taught to China's schoolchildren and recited at parties and toasts; they remain an inextricable part of the Chinese language.With the instincts of a master novelist Ha Jin draws on a wide range of historical and literary sources to weave the great poet's life story. He follows Bai from his origins on the western frontier to his ramblings travels as a young man which were filled with filled with striving but also with merry abandon as he raised cups of wine with friends and fellow poets. Ha Jin also takes us through the poet's later years--in which he became swept up in a military rebellion that altered the course of China's history--and the mysterious circumstances of his death which are surrounded by legend.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.
language: English
title: The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai
publisher: Pantheon