Chinese to English Art/Literary History 中国历史:光辉灿烂的唐代诗歌

The great romantic poet Li Bai lived the major part of his life before the An Lu-Shan Rebellion . His poems focus on depicting the life of Flourishing Tang society, as well as the poet's own rebellious mood of dissatisfaction with reality and of contempt for the bigwigs. Amongst them, "Wine will be Served", "The Going is Hard" and "Reply to Wang Shi Er's Cold Night Drinking Alone and Reminiscing" are his representative works. Among Li Bai's poems, there are also quite a few which show concern for reality and are sympathetic to the hardships of the people. "Ding Dou Hu Ge ", which depicts the cruelly heavy physical labour of a boat tracker hauling a boatload of stones, is one of his famous works. "To the Five Mountains seeking celestials never put off by distance, all his life loving to go into famous mountains and wander about", Li Bai also wrote quite a number of poems singing the praises of the river and mountain scenery of our land. For example in "Hard Road to Shu", "Tian Mu Mountains Ascended in a Dream", and "Gazing at Lu Shan's Waterfall" , he depicts the majesty of our country's landscapes with a magnificent multi-coloured pen. These poems embody the poet's strong patriotic fervour, and at the same time also express the poet's ardent love of freedom, and his uniquely unconventional and uninhibited character. His poems are rich in the wonder and heroic spirit of romanticism, and he was once appraised thus: "He writes and astonishes the wind and the rain; his poems reduce the ghosts and gods to tears."