Li Bai was probably born in Central Asia, though the exact location is unknown. His ancestors had lived in exile in that area since around the 7th century. He grew up in a fairly poor family. His father was a merchant. Li Bai did not receive any formal schooling as a child. Despite this, he had always been skilled with the art of words even as a young boy. In 705, Li Bai's father moved the family back to Mien-chou in Sichuan. It was there that he spent most of his early childhood.
As Lai Bai grew up he developed his sword fighting skills. He spent his teenage years traveling all of Sichuan as a knight-errant. At age 25, he traveled to Central China. In 727, Li Bai traveled to A-lu in Hubei. He married the daughter of the retired prime minister. There, he continued to explore the natural world where he lived.
In 735, Li Bai traveled north to the Yellow River, and east to the Yangtze River. In 742, he traveled to Chang’an, and was presented to the Emperor. The Emperor gave Li Bai many compliments, and thought highly of him. He gave Li Bai a position at the Hanlin Academy. Li Bai received a lot of attention from fellow scholar-officials.
Li Bai enjoyed drinking liquor. He is known for often getting very drunk with seven other officials in city taverns. This earned them the title the "Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup" from Du Fu, another one of China's best poets at the time.
In 744, Li Bai left the city of Chang'an. He was bored with the luxuries of city life. A year later, he met up with Du Fu, in Loyang. It was here that he also became a Taoist, a decision that would change the rest of his life. After settling his family down in Loyang, he left on another ten-year journey wandering around northern China. During this time, his poetry reflects his shift in interest to Toasm rather than his youthful interests of knightly behaviors and gallantry. While famous and well known, Li Bai started to struggle with problems like lack of money and property.
Li Bai is best known for his imaginative and witty poetry. It involves romantic descriptions of nature, and opinions on ethics and death. He was famous among both nobles and commoners in his time, and is thought of as one of the four best poets during the Tang Dynasty. He is also well known for his Taoist beliefs and rebellion against Confucian teachings through his writing.
One of Li Bai's most famous poems is "Drinking Alone by Moonlight" (, pinyin: Yuè Xià Dú Zhuó), which is a good example of some of the most famous aspects of his poetry—a very spontaneous poem, full of natural images. Li Bai actually wrote several poems with the same title; Arthur Waley's version of the most famous reads:
Li Bai’s poetry reflects the state of low feeling one experiences when he finds his life is wasted, and talents unused. To drown his own sorrows, Li Bo became very drunk very often, until it became a lifelong habit. Wine, however did help him write. While he was drunk, Li Bai was able to compose beautiful verses without restraint. Without anything holding him back, Li Bai’s finest poems were composed with much spontaneity and imagination.
Li Bai is influential in the West partly due to Ezra Pound's versions of some of his poems in the collection "Cathay", such as . In the east he influenced poets like Mi Fei in the Song Dynasty.
A crater on the planet Mercury has been named after him.
Online translations (some with original Chinese, pronunciation, and literal translation):
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz (December 11, 1911–August 30, 2006) was an Egyptian novelist who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature.
He managed to modernize Arabic literature. He is one of the few writers of Arabic literature who explored themes of existentialism.
Naguib Mahfouz was born in the Gamaliya quarter and was named after Professor Naguib basha Mahfouz (1882-1974), the renowned Coptic physician who delivered him. In his childhood Mahfouz read extensively. His mother often took him to museums and Egyptian history later became a major theme in many of his books.
The Egyptian of 1919 had a strong effect on Mahfouz, although he was at the time only seven years old. From the window he often saw English soldiers firing at the demonstrators, men and women. "You could say," he later noted, "that the one thing which most shook the security of my childhood was the 1919 revolution."
Before the Nobel Prize only a few of his novels had appeared in the West.
Because of his outspoken support for Anwar el Sadat's treaty with Israel, his books were banned in many Arab countries until after he won the Nobel prize.
Like many Egyptian writers and intellectuals, Mahfouz was on a "born list" by muslim fundamentalists. He defended Salman Rushdie after the Iranian leader [https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naguib_MahfouzKhomeini condemned him to death, but later he criticized Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" as "insulting" to Islam.
Before his death, Mahfouz was the oldest living Nobel Literature laureate and the third oldest of all time, only Bertrand Russell and Halldor Laxness were older. At the time of his death, he was the only Arabic-language writer to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (French pronounced: maʁsɛl pʁust) (10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, essayist and critic, best known as the author of "À la recherche du temps perdu" (in English, "Remembrance of Things Past)", a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven parts from 1913 to 1927.
Proust was a homosexual. He died of pneumonia.
Ashoka
Ashoka (or Asoka) was India's great emperor of the Mauryan Dynasty of India who ruled from 268-232 BC. His name means ""He who is loved by the Gods and who is friendly to everyone"".
Ashoka is often cited as one of India's greatest emperors. After a number of military conquests, he reigned over much of present-day India. He fought a war with the kingdom of Kalinga in which there was said to be 200,000+ casualties. He conquered Kalinga (present-day Odisha) around 261 BCE.
Afterwards, shaken by his brutal victory, he decided to become a Buddhist and lead with peace, not war. To do this, he set up hospitals for animals and humans, created shaded and rested areas along roads for weary travellers to rest, and dug wells in villages. We know these things about his life through various inscriptions (writing) on rocks and pillars. Asoka also convinced people to follow Buddhists paths.
The national emblem of India and the "Ashok Chakra" are created by Ashoka. It's in the flag to keep a remembrance of him.
Puritanism
The Puritans were a group of English-speaking Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritans thought that the English Reformation had not gone far enough. They also did not agree with some of the things the Church of England did.
King Henry VIII separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 and established the Protestant Church of England. This Church remained until 1553. Queen Mary returned the Church to be Roman Catholic until 1558 when Elizabeth I of England became Queen. Since she was a Protestant many people were happy but thought that the Church had not changed enough and was still too much like Catholicism.
A Puritan was any person who tried to become purer through worship and doctrine. The Puritans' way of life and set of beliefs were called Puritanism. The most important parts of Puritanism were piety (obeying religious rules), dressing simply, and living a modest life.
The Puritans believed some of the same things as Calvinists and Scottish Presbyterians. All of these groups were devoted to the Bible and to being morally pure.