CHINESE POETRY AND ITS CONNOTATIONS 129 



in Chinese poetry are innumerable and of the greatest im- 

 portance in the proper understanding of the subject, — it may, 

 however, be questioned if Mr. Waley is not perfectly correct 

 when in his preface to "One Hundred and Seventy Chinese 

 Poems" he writes: "Classical Allusion, always the vice of 

 Chinese poetry, finally destroyed it altogether." 



The Poets Themselves. — No paper on Chinese poetry, 

 however short, can be complete without mention at least of 

 those two great exponents of the art, Li T'ai-po & fc fi, and 

 his younger contemporary, Tu Fu & Wi. 



Li Po's life was most romantic. Of imperial descent and 

 born of wealthy parents, his boyhood was passed in the large 

 country house of the family near the "Hamlet of the Green 

 Lotus" in Ssu Ch'iian. At the age of five he read the books 

 generally used by boys of ten, while when he was ten he had 

 studied the Six Classics. He was, however, no mere "shu tai 

 tzu" — book idiot — as the Chinese call it, but was on the 

 contrary of a most virile and impetuous nature. Passionately 

 fond of sword play, he continually made use of his art to 

 right the wrongs of his friends. In his early youth he was 

 once obliged to fly from home, after killing several people, 

 and seek employment with a minor official in a neighbouring 

 district, disguised as a servant. The official had poetic 

 aspirations which were greater than his power of expression, 

 but was not pleased when his youthful attendant capped the 

 verses he was struggling to make, with lines far better than 

 his own. 



T'ai-po therefore found it advisable to leave the employ 

 of the official and joined a scholar whose real identity was 

 concealed under the name of "The Stern Son of the East." 

 With this scholar he travelled to Mt. Min in Ssu Ch'iian, 

 where for five years the two lived in peace, studying, reading 

 and writing poems. At the age of twenty-five he left the 

 solitude of the mountain and began an extensive tour of the 

 Empire. Space is lacking to> follow his wanderings in detail, 

 but it is related that during a period of less than a year he 

 lived in Yang-chou and spent more than three thousand 

 ounces of silver in charity and good works. His nature was 

 so generous that if he saw suffering and want he felt obliged 

 to relieve it. From here he proceeded to Hupeh, where he 

 married and lived for ten years. 



It was not until he was forty-two that his fame reached 

 the ear of the Emperor Ming Huang, who summoned him to 

 court. Discoursing upon the affairs of the Empire at his 

 introductory audience, the words rushed from Li T'ai-po's 

 mouth like a mountain cascade. The Emperor was enchanted 

 and piled all sorts of honours upon him. 



