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
- Li Hsu (897-947) wrote the "Old Book of Tang," a chronicle
of the Tang dynasty, with a large number of biographies. The book was completed in 934.
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.
[204]
�� �
