Page:The works of Li Po - Obata.djvu/230

 LI PO— A BIOGRAPHY by LIU HSU

(From the "Old Book of Tang" 1 ) While young, he possessed a superior talent, a great and tameless spirit, and fantastical ways of a transcendent mind. His father was Captain of Jen-cheng, and there Po made his home. While young still, he with the youths of Luh — Kung Chao-fu, Han Chun, Pei-Cheng, Chang Shu-ming, and Tao-Mien — retired in the moun- tain of Chu-lai, where they drank wine freely amid blithe singing. They were known at the time as "the Six Id- lers of the Bamboo Valley."

Early in the Tien-pao era Po went traveling to Kuei- chi. He retired to a district in Yen with a Taoist, whose name was Wu-yun. Yun was called and went up to the imperial palace. He recommended Po to the court. And they were both ordered to wait upon the emperor in the Han-ling Academy.

Po loved wine as hithertofore; and with his drinking companions drowsed daily in the tavern.

The emperor Hsuan Tsung arranged tunes and desired to have new words for the court music. At once he

of the Tang dynasty, with a large number of biographies. The book was completed in 934.
 * Li Hsu (897-947) wrote the "Old Book of Tang," a chronicle

2 Li Po was not born in Shantung, but made his home there for a time as is told in the Introduction. Jen-cheng is a city in Shantung.

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