Page:The works of Li Po - Obata.djvu/233

 Li Po — A Biography by Sung Chi

till they sank to the ground. They called* themselves, "the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Valley."

At the beginning of the Tien-pao era he journeyed south to Kuei-chi, where he made a friend of Wu-Yun. Yun was summoned to court. So arrived Po also at Chang-an. He went to see Ho Chi-chang. Chi-chang saw his writing and said with a sigh, "You are a god in exile." He spoke to the emperor Hsan Tsung. Po was given audience in the Hall of Golden Bells; he dis- coursed upon the affairs of the world, and presented an ode. The emperor made him eat, seasoning the soup for him. A rescript was issued, by which Po was ap- pointed to serve in the Han-ling Academy.

Po still went with his drinking companions, and drowsed in the market place.

The emperor sat in the Pavilion of Aloes. Stirred by a fancy, he desired to obtain Po to write songs to music. Po was summoned in, and he was drunk. The attendants took water and washed his face. When he recovered somewhat, he was handed a writing brush, and made compositions. Exquisite and graceful and finely finished they were, yet he made them without stopping to think. The emperor liked Po's talent, and often banqueted with him.

Once while attending upon the emperor, Po grew drunk and made Kao Li-shih pull off his shoes for him. Li-shih, a favorite of the throne, was humiliated thereby. He pointed out to Yang Kuei-fei a poem of Po, and caused her wrath. So when the emperor desired to ap- point Po to office, then she stopped him.

Po himself, knowing he could not be taken in by those near the throne, all the more abandoned himself to recklessness. With Ho Chi-chang, Li Shih-chi, Chin, [207]

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