Li Bai (701–762), also known as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai, was a Chinese poet acclaimed from his own day to the present as a genius and a romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du Fu (712–770) were the two most prominent figures in the flourishing of Chinese poetry in the Tang dynasty, which is often called the "Golden Age of Chinese Poetry". The expression "Three Wonders" denote Li Bai's poetry, Pei Min's swordplay, and Zhang Xu's calligraphy.[1]
Around a thousand poems attributed to him are extant. His poems have been collected into the most important Tang dynasty poetry anthology Heyue yingling ji,[2] compiled in 753 by Yin Fan, and thirty-four of his poems are included in the anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems, which was first published in the 18th century. In the same century, translations of his poems began to appear in Europe. The poems were models for celebrating the pleasures of friendship, the depth of nature, solitude, and the joys of drinking wine. Among the most famous are "Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day", "The Hard Road to Shu", and "Quiet Night Thought", which still appear in school texts in China. In the West, multilingual translations of Li's poems continue to be made. His life has even taken on a legendary aspect, including tales of drunkenness, chivalry, and the well-known fable that Li drowned when he reached from his boat to grasp the moon’s reflection in the river while drunk.
Much of Li's life is reflected in his poetry: places which he visited, friends whom he saw off on journeys to distant locations perhaps never to meet again, his own dream-like imaginations embroidered with shamanic overtones, current events of which he had news, descriptions taken from nature in a timeless moment of poetry, and so on. However, of particular importance are the changes in the times through which he lived. His early poetry took place in the context of a "golden age" of internal peace and prosperity in the Chinese empire of the Tang dynasty, under the reign of an emperor who actively promoted and participated in the arts. This all changed suddenly and shockingly, beginning with the rebellion of the general An Lushan, when all of northern China was devastated by war and famine. Li's poetry as well takes on new tones and qualities. Unlike his younger friend Du Fu, Li did not live to see the quelling of these disorders. However, much of Li's poetry has survived, retaining enduring popularity in China and elsewhere.
Family name and surname

NamesChinese:李白Pinyin:Li Bai or Li BoZi (字):Taibai (Tai-pai; 太白)Hao (號):Qinglian Jushi (Ch'ing-lien Chu-shih; simplified Chinese:青莲居士; traditional Chinese:青蓮居士)aka:Shixian (simplified Chinese:诗仙; traditional Chinese:詩仙; Wade–Giles:Shih-hsien)
 The Poet Saint
 Immortal Poet
Li Bai, Li Po, Li Bo, Ri Haku have been all used in the West, but are all written with the same characters.[3] His given name, (白), is romanized by variants such as Po, Bo, Bai, Pai. In Hanyu Pinyin, reflecting modern Mandarin Chinese, the main, colloquial equivalent for this character is Bái; Bó is the literary variant and is commonly used. The reconstructed version of how he and others during the Tang dynasty would have pronounced this is Bhæk. His courtesy name was Taibai (太白), literally "Great White," as the planet Venus was called at the time. Thus, combining the family name with the courtesy name, his name appears in variants such as Li Taibo, Li Taibai, Li Tai-po, among others.
He is also known by his (hao), or pen-name Qīnglián Jūshì (青蓮居士), meaning Householder of Azure Lotus (that is, Qianlian town), or by nicknames  "Immortal Poet" (Poet Transcendent; Wine Immortal (Chinese:酒仙; pinyin:Jiuxiān; Wade–Giles:Chiu3-hsien1), Banished Transcendent (Chinese:謫仙人; pinyin:Zhéxiānrén; Wade–Giles:Che2-hsien1-jen2), Poet-Knight-errant (simplified Chinese:诗侠; traditional Chinese:詩俠; pinyin:Shīxiá; Wade–Giles:Shih1-hsia2, or "Poet-Hero"). The Japanese pronunciation may be romanized as "Ri Haku"or "Ri Taihaku".
Life

The two "Books of Tang", The Old Book of Tang and The New Book of Tang, remain the primary sources of bibliographical material on Li Bai.[4] Other sources include internal evidence from poems by or about Li Bai, and certain other sources, such the preface to his collected poems by his relative and literary executor, Li Yangbin.
Background and birth
Li Bai is generally considered to have been born in 701, in Suyab (碎葉) of ancient Chinese Central Asia (present-day Kyrgyzstan),[5] where his family had prospered in business at the frontier.[6] Afterwards, the family under the leadership of his father, Li Ke (李客), moved to Jiangyou(江油), near modern Chengdu, in Sichuan province, when the youngster was perhaps five years old. There is some mystery or uncertainty about the circumstances of the family relocations, at the very least a lack of legal authorization which would have generally been required to move out of the border regions, especially if one's family had been assigned (exiled) there. However, despite much speculation, the facts are scant.
Also,most Chinese people believe that Li Bai was actually born in Jiangyou,though that was not true.
Background
Two accounts given by contemporaries Li Yangbing (a family relative) and Fan Chuanzheng state that Li's family was originally from what is now southwestern Jingning County, Gansu. Li's ancestry is traditionally traced back to Li Gao, the noble founder of the state of Western Liang.[7] This provides some support for Li's own claim to be related to the Li dynastic royal family of the Tang dynasty: the Tang emperors also claimed descent from the Li rulers of West Liang. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage (隴西李氏). Evidence suggests that during the Sui dynasty, Li's own ancestors, at that time for some reason classified socially as commoners, were forced into a form of exile from their original home (in what is now Gansu) to some location or locations further west.[8] During their exile in the far west, the Li family lived in the ancient Silk Road city of Suiye (Suyab, now an archeological site in present-day Kyrgyzstan, and perhaps also in Tiaozhi (simplified Chinese:条枝; traditional Chinese:條枝; pinyin:Tiáozhī), a state near modern Ghazni, Afghanistan.[9]  These areas were on the ancient Silk Road, and the Li family were likely merchants.[10] Their business was quite prosperous.[11]
Birth
In one hagiographic account, while Li Bai's mother was pregnant with him, she had a dream of a great white star falling from heaven. This seems to have contributed to the idea of his being a banished immortal (one of his nicknames).[12] That the Great White Star was synonymous with Venus helps to explain his courtesy name: "Tai Bai", or "Venus".
Marriage and family
Li is known to have married four times. His first marriage, in 727, was to the granddaughter of a former government minister.[6] In 744, he married for the second time in what now is the Liangyuan District of Henan. This marriage was to another poet, surnamed Zong (宗), with whom he both had children[13] and exchanges of poems, including many expressions of love for her and their children. His wife, Zong, was a granddaughter of Zong Chuke (宗楚客, died 710), an important government official during the Tang dynasty and the interegnal period of Wu Zetian.
Early years
In 705, when Li Bai was four years old, his father secretly moved his family to Sichuan, near Chengdu, where he spent his childhood.[14] There is currently a monument commemorating this in Zhongba Town, Jiangyou, Sichuan province (the area of the modern province then being known as Shu, after a former independent state which had been annexed by the Sui dynasty and later incorporated into the Tang dynasty lands). The young Li spent most of his growing years in Qinglian (青莲; lit. "Blue [also translated as 'green', 'azure', or 'nature-coloured') Lotus"), a town in Chang-ming County, Sichuan, China.[6] This now nominally corresponds with Qinglian Town (青蓮鎮) of Jiangyou County-level city, in Sichuan Province.
The young Li read extensively, including Confucian classics such as The Classic of Poetry (Shijing) and the Classic of History (Shujing), as well as various astrological and metaphysical materials which Confucians tended to eschew though he disdained to take the literacy exam.[14] Reading the "Hundred Authors" was part of the family literary tradition, and he was also able to compose poetry before he was ten.[6] The young Li also engaged in other activities, such as taming wild birds and fencing.[14] His other activities included riding, hunting, traveling, and aiding the poor or oppressed by means of both money and arms.[6] Eventually, the young Li seems to have become quite skilled in swordsmanship; as this autobiographical quote by Li himself both testifies to and also helps to illustrate the wild life that he led in the Sichuan of his youth:
When I was fifteen, I was fond of sword play, and with that art I challenged quite a few great men.[15]

Before he was twenty, Li had fought and killed several men, apparently for reasons of chivalry, in accordance with the knight-errant tradition (youxia).[14]
In 720, he was interviewed by Governor Su Ting, who considered him a genius. Though he expressed the wish to become an official, he never took the civil service examination.
On the way to Chang'an

Leaving Sichuan
In his mid-twenties, about 725, Li Bai left Sichuan, sailing down the Yangzi River through Dongting Lake to Nanjing, beginning his days of wandering. He then went back up-river, to Yunmeng, in what is now Hubei, where his marriage to the granddaughter of a retired prime minister, Xu Yushi, seems to have formed but a brief interlude.[16] During the first year of his trip, he met celebrities and gave away much of his wealth to needy friends.
In 730, Li Bai stayed at Zhongnan Mountain near the capital Chang'an (Xi'an), and tried but failed to secure a position. He sailed down the Yellow River, stopped by Luoyang, and visited Taiyuan before going home. In 735, Li Bai was in Shanxi, where he intervened in a court martial against Guo Ziyi, who was later, after becoming one of the top Tang generals, to repay the favour during the An Shi disturbances.[12] By perhaps 740, he had moved to Shandong. It was in Shandong at this time that he became one of the group known as the "Six Idlers of the Bamboo Brook", an informal group dedicated to literature and wine.[12] He wandered about the area of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, eventually making friends with a famous Daoist priest, Wu Yun.[12] In 742, Wu Yun was summoned by the Emperor to attend the imperial court, where his praise of Li Bai was great.[12]
At Chang'an
Wu Yun's praise of Li Bai led Emperor Xuanzong (born Li Longji and also known as Emperor Minghuang) to summon Li to the court in Chang'an. Li's personality fascinated the aristocrats and common people alike, including another Taoist (and poet), He Zhizhang, who bestowed upon him the nickname the "Immortal Exiled from Heaven".[12] Indeed, after an initial audience, where Li Bai was questioned about his political views, the Emperor was so impressed that he held a big banquet in his honor. At this banquet, the Emperor was said to show his favor, even to the extent of personally seasoning his soup for him.[12][17]
Emperor Xuanzong employed him as a translator, as Li Bai knew at least one non-Chinese language.[12] Ming Huang eventually gave him a post at the Hanlin Academy, which served to provide scholarly expertise and poetry for the Emperor.
When the emperor ordered Li Bai to the palace, he was often drunk, but quite capable of performing on the spot.
Li Bai wrote several poems about the Emperor's beautiful and beloved Yang Guifei, the favorite royal consort.[18] A story, probably apocryphal, circulates about Li Bai during this period. Once, while drunk, Li Bai had gotten his boots muddy, and Gao Lishi, the most politically powerful eunuch in the palace, was asked to assist in the removal of these, in front of the Emperor. Gao took offense at being asked to perform this menial service, and later managed to persuade Yang Guifei to take offense at Li's poems concerning her.[18] At the persuasion of Yang Guifei and Gao Lishi, Xuanzong reluctantly, but politely, and with large gifts of gold and silver, sent Li Bai away from the royal court.[19] After leaving the court, Li Bai formally became a Taoist, making a home in Shandong, but wandering far and wide for the next ten some years, writing poems.[19] Li Bai lived and wrote poems at Bishan (or Bi Mountain (碧山), today Baizhao Mountain (白兆山)) in Yandian, Hubei.  Bi Mountain (碧山) in the poem Question and Answer Amongst the Mountains (山中问答 Shanzhong Wenda) refers to this mountain.[20]
Meeting Du Fu

He met Du Fu in the autumn of 744, when they shared a single room and various activities together, such as traveling, hunting, wine, and poetry, thus established a close and lasting friendship.[21] They met again the following year. These were the only occasions on which they met, in person, although they continued to maintain a relationship through poetry. This is reflected in the dozen or so Du Fu poems to or about Li Bai, which survive, and the one from Li Bai directed toward Du Fu which remains.
War and exile

At the end of 755, the disorders instigated by the rebel general An Lushan burst across the land. The Emperor eventually fled to Sichuan and abdicated. During the confusion, the Crown Prince opportunely declared himself Emperor and head of the government. The An Shi disturbances continued (as they were later called, since they lasted beyond the death of their instigator, carried on by Shi Siming, and others). Li Bai became a staff adviser to Prince Yong, one of Ming Huang's (Emperor Xuanzong's) sons, who was far from the top of the primogeniture list, yet named to share the imperial power as a general after Xuanzong had abdicated, in 756.
However, even before the empire's external enemies were defeated, the two brothers fell to fighting each other with their armies. Upon the defeat of the Prince's forces by his brother the new emperor in 757, Li Bai escaped, but was later captured, imprisoned in Jiujiang, and sentenced to death. The famous and powerful army general Guo Ziyi and others intervened; Guo Ziyi was the very person whom Li Bai had saved from court martial a couple of decades before.[19] His wife, the lady Zong, and others (such as Song Ruosi) wrote petitions for clemency.[22] Upon General Guo Ziyi's offering to exchange his official rank for Li Bai's life, Li Bai's death sentence was commuted to exile: he was consigned to Yelang.[19] Yelang (in what is now Guizhou) was in the remote extreme southwestern part of the empire, and was considered to be outside the main sphere of Chinese civilization and culture. Li Bai headed toward Yelang with little sign of hurry, stopping for prolonged social visits (sometimes for months), and writing poetry along the way, leaving detailed descriptions of his journey for posterity. Notice of an imperial pardon recalling Li Bai reached him before he even got near Yelang.[19] He had only gotten as far as Wushan, when news of his pardon caught up with him in 759.[22]
Return and other travels
When Li received the news of his imperial reprieve, he returned down the river to Jiangxi, passing on the way through Baidicheng, in Kuizhou Prefecture, still engaging in the pleasures of food, wine, good company, and writing poetry; his poem "Departing from Baidi in the Morning" records this stage of his travels, as well as poetically mocking his enemies and detractors, implied in his inclusion of imagery of monkeys. Although Li did not cease his wandering lifestyle, he then generally confined his travels to Nanjing and the two Anhui cities of Xuancheng and Li Yang (in modern Zhao County).[19] His poems of this time include nature poems and poems of socio-political protest.[21] Eventually, in 762, Li's relative Li Yangbing became magistrate of Dangtu, and Li Bai went to stay with him there.[19] In the meantime, Suzong and Xuanzong both died within a short period of time, and China had a new emperor. Also, China was involved in renewed efforts to suppress further military disorders stemming from the Anshi rebellions, and Li volunteered to serve on the general staff of the Chinese commander Li Guangbi. However, at age 61, Li became critically ill, and his health would not allow him to fulfill this plan.[23]
Death

The new Emperor Daizong named Li Bai the Registrar of the Left Commandant's office in 762. However, by the time that the imperial edict arrived in Dangtu, Anhui, Li Bai was already dead.
There is a long and sometimes fanciful tradition regarding his death, from uncertain Chinese sources, that Li Bai drowned after falling from his boat one day he had gotten very drunk as he tried to embrace the reflection of the moon in the Yangtze River, something later believed by Herbert Giles.[19] However, the actual cause appears to have been natural enough, although perhaps related to his hard-living lifestyle. Nevertheless, the legend has a place in Chinese culture.[24]
A memorial of Li Bai lies just west of Ma'anshan.
Calligraphy

Li Bai was also a skilled calligrapher, though there is only one surviving piece of his work in his own handwriting that exists today.[25]  The piece is titled Shangyangtai (Going Up To Sun Terrace), a 38.1 by 28.5 centimetres (15.0in ×11.2in) long scroll (with later addition of a title written by Emperor Huizong of Song and a postscript added by Qianlong Emperor himself); the calligraphy is housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing, China.[26]
Surviving texts and editing
Even Li Bai and Du Fu, the two most famous and most comprehensively edited Tang poets, were affected by the destruction of the imperial Tang libraries and the loss of many private collections in the periods of turmoil (An Lushan Rebellion and Huang Chao Rebellion). Although many of Li Bai's poems have survived, even more were lost and there is difficulty regarding variant texts. One of the earliest endeavors at editing Li Bai's work was by his relative Li Yangbing, the magistrate of Dangtu, with whom he stayed in his final years and to whom he entrusted his manuscripts. However, the most reliable texts are not necessarily in the earliest editions. Song dynasty scholars produced various editions of his poetry, but it was not until the Qing dynasty that such collections as the Quan Tangshi (Complete Tang Poems) made the most comprehensive studies of the then surviving texts.[27]
Themes
Critics have focused on Li Bai's strong sense of the continuity of poetic tradition, his glorification of alcoholic beverages (and, indeed, frank celebration of drunkenness), his use of persona, the fantastic extremes of some of his imagery, his mastery of formal poetic rules—and his ability to combine all of these with a seemingly effortless virtuosity in order to produce inimitable poetry. Other themes in Li's poetry, noted especially in the 20th century, are sympathy for the common folks and antipathy towards needless wars (even when conducted by the emperor himself).[28]
Poetic tradition
Li Bai had a strong sense of himself as being part of a poetic tradition. The "genius" of Li Bai, says one recent account, "lies at once in his total command of the literary tradition before him and his ingenuity in bending (without breaking) it to discover a uniquely personal idiom...."[29] Burton Watson, comparing him to Du Fu, says Li's poetry, "is essentially backward-looking, that it represents more a revival and fulfillment of past promises and glory than a foray into the future."[30] Watson adds, as evidence, that of all the poems attributed to Li Bai, about one sixth are in the form of yuefu, or, in other words, reworked lyrics from traditional folk ballads.[31] As further evidence, Watson cites the existence of a fifty-nine poem collection by Li Bai entitled Gu Feng, or In the Old Manner,  which is, in part, tribute to the poetry of the Han and Wei dynasties.[32] His admiration for certain particular poets is also shown through specific allusions, for example to Qu Yuan or Tao Yuanming, and occasionally by name, for example Du Fu.
A more general appreciation for history, is shown on the part of Li Bai in his poems of the huaigu genre,[33] or meditations on the past, wherein following "one of the perennial themes of Chinese poetry", "the poet contemplates the ruins of past glory".[34]
Rapt with wine and moon

John C. H. Wu observed that "while some may have drunk more wine than Li [Bai], no-one has written more poems about wine."[35]  Classical Chinese poets were often associated with drinking wine, and Li Bai was part of the group of Chinese scholars in Chang'an his fellow poet Du Fu called the "Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup." The Chinese generally did not find the moderate use of alcohol to be immoral or unhealthy. James J.Y Liu comments that  zui  in poetry "does not mean quite the same thing as 'drunk', 'intoxicated', or 'inebriated', but rather means being mentally carried away from one's normal preoccupations..." Liu translates zui as "rapt with wine".[36] The "Eight Immortals", however, drank to an unusual degree, though they still were viewed as pleasant eccentrics.[37] Burton Watson concluded that "[n]early all Chinese poets celebrate the joys of wine, but none so tirelessly and with such a note of genuine conviction as Li [Bai]".[38]
One of Li Bai's most famous poems is Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day (春日醉起言志). Arthur Waley[39] translated it as follows:
Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day (春日醉起言志)

處世若大夢,Life in the world is but a big dream;

胡爲勞其生.I will not spoil it by any labour or care.

所以終日醉,So saying, I was drunk all the day,

頹然臥前楹.lying helpless at the porch in front of my door.

覺來盼庭前,When I awoke, I blinked at the garden-lawn;

一鳥花間鳴.a lonely bird was singing amid the flowers.

借問此何時,I asked myself, had the day been wet or fine?

春風語流鶯.The Spring wind was telling the mango-bird.

感之欲嘆息,Moved by its song I soon began to sigh,

對酒還自傾.and, as wine was there, I filled my own cup.

浩歌待明月,Wildly singing I waited for the moon to rise;

曲盡已忘情.when my song was over, all my senses had gone.

Fantastic imagery
An important characteristic of Li Bai's poetry "is the fantasy and note of childlike wonder and playfulness that pervade so much of it".[32]  Burton Watson attributes this to a fascination with the Taoist priest, Taoist recluses who practiced alchemy and austerities in the mountains, in the aim of becoming xian, or immortal beings.[32] There is a strong element of Taoism in his works, both in the sentiments they express and in their spontaneous tone, and "many of his poems deal with mountains, often descriptions of ascents that midway modulate into journeys of the imagination, passing from actual mountain scenery to visions of nature deities, immortals, and 'jade maidens' of Taoist lore".[32] Watson sees this as another affirmation of Li Bai's affinity with the past, and a continuity with the traditions of the Chuci and the early fu.[38] Watson finds this "element of fantasy" to be behind Li Bai's use of hyperbole and the "playful personifications" of mountains and celestial objects.[38]
Nostalgia
The critic James J.Y. Liu notes “Chinese poets seem to be perpetually bewailing their exile and longing to return home. This may seem sentimental to Western readers, but one should remember the vastness of China, the difficulties of communication... the sharp contrast between the highly cultured life in the main cities and the harsh conditions in the remoter regions of the country, and the importance of family....” It is hardly surprising, he concludes, that nostalgia should have become a "constant, and hence conventional, theme in Chinese poetry."[40]
Liu gives as a prime example Li's poem "A Quiet Night Thought" (also translated as "Contemplating Moonlight"), which is often learned by schoolchildren in China.  In a mere 20 words, the poem uses the vivid moonlight and frost imagery to convey the feeling of homesickness.  There are several editions of the poem.  This is translated  from a 17th-century Kangxi edition moonlight poem:
A Quiet Night Thought (静夜思 – Thoughts in the silent night):[41]

Moonlight before my bed

Perhaps frost on the ground.

Lift my head and see the moon

Lower my head and pine for home.

The following version has been translated by Jarek Zawadzki from the Gujin Tushu Jicheng edition:
Night Thoughts (靜夜思)

床前明月光，Bright shines the Moon before my bed;

疑是地上霜，Methinks ’tis frost upon the earth.

舉頭望明月，I watch the Moon, then bend my head

低頭思故鄉。And miss the hamlet of my birth.

This song is among the first classical songs that are taught to children in China, often by their parents.  A music sheet book of its Chinese version exists.[42]
Use of persona
Li Bai also wrote a number of poems from various viewpoints, including the personae of women. For example, he wrote several poems in the Zi Ye, or "Lady Midnight" style, as well as Han folk-ballad style poems.
Technical virtuosity
Li Bai is well known for the technical virtuosity of his poetry and the mastery of his verses.[30] In terms of poetic form, "critics generally agree that Li [Bai] produced no significant innovations... In theme and content also, his poetry is notable less for the new elements it introduces than for the skill with which he brightens the old ones."[30]
Burton Watson comments on Li Bai's famous poem, which he translates "Bring the Wine": "like so much of Li [Bai]'s work, it has a grace and effortless dignity that somehow make it more compelling than earlier treatment of the same."[43]
Li Bai's yuefu poems have been called the greatest of all time by Ming-dynasty scholar and writer Hu Yinglin.[44]
Li Bai especially excelled in the Gushi form, or "old style" poems, a type of poetry allowing a great deal of freedom in terms of the form and content of the work. An example is his poem "蜀道難", translated by Witter Bynner as "Hard Roads in Shu". Shu is a poetic term for Sichuan, the destination of refuge that Emperor Xuanzong considered fleeing to escape the approaching forces of the rebel General An Lushan. Watson comments that, this poem, "employs lines that range in length from four to eleven characters, the form of the lines suggesting by their irregularity the jagged peaks and bumpy mountain roads of Sichuan depicted in the poem."[30]
Li Bai was also noted as a master of the Jueju, or cut-verse.[45] Ming-dynasty poet Li Pan Long thought Li Bai was the greatest jueju master of the Tang dynasty.[46]
Li Bai was noted for his mastery of the Lüshi (poetry), or "regulated verse", the formally most demanding verse form of the times. Watson notes, however, that his poem "Seeing a Friend Off" was "unusual in that it violates the rule that the two middle couplets... must observe verbal parallelism", adding that Chinese critics excused this kind of violation in the case of a genius like Li.[47]
Influence

In the East
Li Bai's poetry was immensely influential in his own time, as well as for subsequent generations in China. From early on, he was paired with Du Fu. The recent scholar Paula Varsano observes that "in the literary imagination they were, and remain, the two greatest poets of the Tang—or even of China". Yet she notes the persistence of "what we can rightly call the 'Li-Du debate', the terms of which became so deeply ingrained in the critical discourse surrounding these two poets that almost any characterization of the one implicitly critiqued the other".[48] Li's influence has also been demonstrated in the immediate geographical area of Chinese cultural influence, being known as Ri Haku in Japan. This influence continues even today. Examples range from poetry to painting and to literature.
In his own lifetime, during his many wanderings and while he was attending court in Chang'an, he met and parted from various contemporary poets. These meetings and separations were typical occasions for versification in the tradition of the literate Chinese of the time, a prime example being his relationship with Du Fu.
After his lifetime, his influence continued to grow. Some four centuries later, during the Song dynasty, for example, just in the case of his poem that is sometimes translated "Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon", the poet Yang Wanli wrote a whole poem alluding to it (and to two other Li Bai poems), in the same gushi, or old-style poetry form.[49]
In the 20th century, Li Bai even influenced the poetry of Mao Zedong.
In China, his poem "Quiet Night Thoughts", reflecting a nostalgia of a traveller away from home,[50] has been widely  "memorized by school children and quoted by adults".[51]
In the West
There is another musical setting of Li Bai's verse by the American composer Harry Partch, whose Seventeen Lyrics by Li Po for intoning voice and Adapted Viola (an instrument of Partch's own invention) are based on the texts in The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet translated by Shigeyoshi Obata.[52] In Brazil, the songwriter Beto Furquim included a musical setting of the poem "Jing Ye Si" in his album "Muito Prazer".[53]
Ezra Pound
Li Bai is influential in the West partly due to Ezra Pound's versions of some of his poems in the collection Cathay,[54] (Pound transliterating his name according to the Japanese manner as "Rihaku").  Li Bai's interactions with nature, friendship, his love of wine and his acute observations of life inform his more popular poems. Some, like Changgan xing (translated by Ezra Pound as "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter"),[54] record the hardships or emotions of common people. An example of the liberal, but poetically influential, translations, or adaptations, of Japanese versions of his poems made, largely based on the work of Ernest Fenollosa and professors Mori and Ariga.[54]
Gustav Mahler
The ideas underlying Li Bai's poetry had a profound impact in shaping American Imagist and Modernist poetry through the 20th century. Also, Gustav Mahler integrated four of Li Bai's works into his symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde. These were derived from free German translations by Hans Bethge, published in an anthology called Die chinesische Flöte (The Chinese Flute),[55] Bethge based his versions on the collection Chinesische Lyrik by Hans Heilmann (1905). Heilmann worked from pioneering 19th-century translations into French: three by the Marquis d'Hervey-Saint-Denys and one (only distantly related to the Chinese) by Judith Gautier. Mahler freely changed Bethge's text.
Translation
Li Bai's poetry was introduced to Europe by Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, a Jesuit missionary in Beijing, in his Portraits des Célèbres Chinois, published in the series Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages, &c. des Chinois, par les missionnaires de Pekin. (1776–1797).[56]  Further translations into French were published by Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys in his 1862 Poésies de l'Époque des Thang.[57]
Joseph Edkins read a paper, "On Li Tai-po", to the Peking Oriental Society in 1888, which was subsequently published in that society's journal.[58] The early sinologist Herbert Allen Giles included translations of Li Bai in his 1898 publication Chinese Poetry in English Verse, and again in his History of Chinese Literature (1901).[59] The third early translator into English was L. Cranmer-Byng (1872–1945). His Lute of Jade: Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China (1909) and A Feast of Lanterns (1916) both featured Li's poetry.
Renditions of Li Bai's poetry into modernist English poetry were influential through Ezra Pound in Cathay (1915) and Amy Lowell in Fir-Flower Tablets (1921). Neither worked directly from the Chinese: Pound relied on more or less literal, word for word, though not terribly accurate, translations of Ernest Fenollosa and what Pound called the "decipherings" of professors Mori and Ariga; Lowell on those of Florence Ayscough. Witter Bynner with the help of Kiang Kang-hu included several of Li's poems in The Jade Mountain (1939). Although Li was not his preferred poet, Arthur Waley translated a few of his poems into English for the Asiatic Review, and included them in his More Translations from the Chinese. Shigeyoshi Obata, in his 1922 The Works of Li Po, claimed he had made "the first attempt ever made to deal with any single Chinese poet exclusively in one book for the purpose of introducing him to the English-speaking world.[56]
Li Bai became a favorite among translators for his straightforward and seemingly simple style. Later translations are too numerous to discuss here, but an extensive selection of Li's poems, translated by various translators, is included in John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau, Classical Chinese Literature (2000)[60]
Exemplary translation

One of Li Bai's best known poems and a good example of his writing is his Drinking Alone by Moonlight (月下獨酌, pinyin: Yuè Xià Dú Zhuó), which has been translated into English by various authors, including this translation, by Arthur Waley:[61]
花間一壺酒。A cup of wine, under the flowering trees;

獨酌無相親。I drink alone, for no friend is near.

舉杯邀明月。Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,

對影成三人。For he, with my shadow, will make three men.

月既不解飲。The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;

影徒隨我身。Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.

暫伴月將影。Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave

行樂須及春。I must make merry before the Spring is spent.

我歌月徘徊。To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;

我舞影零亂。In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.

醒時同交歡。While we were sober, three shared the fun;

醉後各分散。Now we are drunk, each goes his way.

永結無情遊。May we long share our odd, inanimate feast,

相期邈雲漢。And meet at last on the Cloudy River of the sky.

(Note: the "Cloudy River of the sky" refers to the Milky Way)
To hear the poem read in Chinese and to see another translation, go to

See also

Chinese martial arts
Ci (poetry)
Classical Chinese poetry
Classical Chinese poetry forms
Guqin
Jiangyou
Modernist poetry in English
Monkeys in Chinese culture#Literature
Poetry of Mao Zedong
Shi (poetry)
Tang poetry
List of Three Hundred Tang Poems poets
Xu Yushi
A Quiet Night Thought

Notes

Translations into English
Cooper, Arthur (1973). Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems Selected and Translated with an Introduction and Notes (Penguin Classics, 1973). ISBN978-0-14-044272-4.
Hinton, David (2008). Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN0-374-10536-7, 978-0-374-10536-5
Hinton, David (1998). The Selected Poems of Li Po (Anvil Press Poetry, 1998). ISBN978-0-85646-291-7
Holyoak, Keith (translator) (2007). Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu. (Durham, NH: Oyster River Press). ISBN978-1-882291-04-5
Obata, Shigeyoshi  (1922). The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet. (New York: Dutton). Reprinted: New York: Paragon, 1965. .
Pound, Ezra (1915). Cathay (Elkin Mathews, London). ASIN
Stimson, Hugh M. (1976). Fifty-five T'ang Poems. Far Eastern Publications: Yale University. ISBN0-88710-026-0
Seth, Vikram (translator) (1992). Three Chinese Poets: Translations of Poems by Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu. (London: Faber & Faber). ISBN0-571-16653-9
Weinberger, Eliot. The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry. (New York: New Directions, 2004). ISBN0-8112-1605-5. Introduction, with translations by William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, and David Hinton.
Watson, Burton (1971). Chinese Lyricism: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN0-231-03464-4

Sun, Yu [孫瑜], translation, introduction, and commentary (1982). Li Po-A New Translation 李白詩新譯. Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, ISBN962-07-1025-8
Background and criticism
Edkins, Joseph (1888). "Li Tai-po as a Poet", The China Review, Vol. 17 No. 1 (1888 Jul) . Retrieved from , 19 January 2011.
Eide, Elling (1973). "On Li Po", in Perspectives on the T'ang. New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 367–403.
Frankel, Hans H. (1978). The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) ISBN0-300-02242-5.
Kroll, Paul (2001). “Poetry of the T’ang Dynasty,” in Victor H. Mair.  ed., The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. (New York: Columbia University Press,  2001). ISBN0-231-10984-9, pp.274–313.
Stephen Owen 'Li Po: a new concept of genius," in Stephen Owen. The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T'ang. (New Haven Conn.: Yale University Press,  1981). ISBN978-0-300-02367-1.
Varsano, Paula M. (2003). Tracking the Banished Immortal: The Poetry of Li Bo and its Critical Reception (University of Hawai'i Press, 2003). ISBN978-0-8248-2573-7,
. Lists and evaluates scholarship and translations.
Waley, Arthur (1950). The Poetry and Career of Li Po (New York: MacMillan, 1950). ASIN
Wu, John C.H. (1972). The Four Seasons of Tang Poetry. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle. ISBN978-0-8048-0197-3
Further reading
Hsieh, Chinghsuan Lily. "" () (PhD thesis). The Ohio State University, 2004.

 at the Encyclopædia Britannica
Wikilivres has original media or text related to this article:  (in the public domain in New Zealand)

Online translations (some with original Chinese, pronunciation, and literal translation):
 at Poems Found in Translation
 Extensive collection of Li Bai poems in English
, in Chinese using simplified and traditional characters and pinyin, with literal and literary English translations by .
, in Chinese with English translation by Witter Bynner, from the Three Hundred Tang Poems anthology.
, the Ezra Pound/Ernest Fenollosa translations of poems principally by Li Po (J., Rihaku)
 Variety of translations of Li Bai's poetry by a range of translators, along with photographs of geographical sites relevant to his life.
 from More Translations From The Chinese by Arthur Waley, 1919  (includes six titles of poems by Li Po).
, Obata's 1922 translation.

 at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)


The period from the end of the First World War until the start of the Depression in 1929 is known as the "Jazz Age". Jazz had become popular music in America, although older generations considered the music immoral and threatening to old cultural values.[1]  Dances such as the Charleston and the Black Bottom were very popular during the period, and jazz bands typically consisted of seven to twelve musicians. Important orchestras in New York were led by Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman and Duke Ellington. Many New Orleans jazzmen had moved to Chicago during the late 1910s in search of employment; among others, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and Jelly Roll Morton recorded in the city. However, Chicago's importance as a center of jazz music started to diminish toward the end of the 1920s in favor of New York.[2]
In the early years of jazz, record companies were often eager to decide what songs were to be recorded by their artists. Popular numbers in the 1920s were pop hits such as "Sweet Georgia Brown", "Dinah" and "Bye Bye Blackbird". The first jazz artist to be given some liberty in choosing his material was Louis Armstrong, whose band helped popularize many of the early standards in the 1920s and 1930s.[3]
Some compositions written by jazz artists have endured as standards, including Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Ain't Misbehavin'". The most recorded 1920s standard is Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish's "Stardust".[4] Several songs written by Broadway composers in the 1920s have become standards, such as George and Ira Gershwin's "The Man I Love" (1924), Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" (1927) and Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" (1929). However, it was not until the 1930s that musicians became comfortable with the harmonic and melodic sophistication of Broadway tunes and started including them regularly in their repertoire.
1920

In 1920,  the jazz age was underway and was indirectly fueled by prohibition of alcohol.[5] In Chicago, the jazz scene was developing rapidly, aided by the immigration of over 40 prominent New Orleans jazzmen to the city, continuous throughout much of the 1920s, including The New Orleans Rhythm Kings who began playing at Friar's Inn.[5] However, in 1920, the cabaret business began in New York City and the growing number of speakeasies developing in the cellars of New York City provided many aspiring jazz musicians with new venues which gradually saw many musicians who had moved to Chicago ending up in on the east coast.[5] It is important to note that Classic Blues became very prominent from 1920 after Mamie Smith recorded Crazy Blues and grew in popularity along with jazz.[5]
In 1920, Paul Whiteman and his band recorded Whispering in New York City, in a subgenre known as symphonic jazz. Meanwhile, in New York City Adrian Rollini began playing bass saxophone with the California Ramblers and would later in the decade play with Bix Beiderbecke.[5] Duke Ellington had developed in a successful band leader and Louis Armstrong began to amaze audiences with New Orleans Jazz.[5]
1921

Standards
1921 – "The Sheik of Araby" is a song composed by Andrew Lamont with lyrics by Harry B. Smith and Francis Wheeler. It was written in response to the popularity of the Rudolph Valentino film The Sheik.[6] The Club Royal Orchestra introduced the song on their first recording in 1921.[6] The two recordings of trombonist Jack Teagarden have been cited as a big influence for the song's standard status.[6]
1922

In 1922, Chicago and New York City were becoming the most important centres for jazz, and jazz was becoming very profitable for jazz managers such as Paul Whiteman who by 1922 managed some 28 different jazz ensembles on the East Coast, earning more than $1 million in 1922.[7] Yet as a form of music it was still not appreciated by many critics, including Anne Faulkner, who passed off jazz as "a destructive dissonance," asking if the music "put the sin in syncopation"and Henry van Dyke who described jazz as "an unmitigated cacophony, a species of music invented by demons for the torture of imbeciles."[8]
Chicago in 1922 in particular was attracting bands such as Joe "King" Oliver's Creole Jazz Band at the Lincoln Gardens, joined by Louis Armstrong on 8 August 1922 and the Austin High Gang featuring Frank Teschemacher (clarinet), Jimmy McPartland (cornet), Richard McPartland (guitar and banjo) and Lawrence "Bud" Freeman (sax) who began playing at the Friar's Inn in Chicago.[7] Meanwhile, on the New York scene, Duke Ellington arrived in New York City with Sonny Greer and banjo player Elmer Snowden and met his idol James P. Johnson, Fats Waller who had begun to make a name for himself with his piano rolls and Willie "The Lion" Smith.[7]Coleman Hawkins, already well noted for his high level of profiency joined Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds and were later hired in New York by Fletcher Henderson.[7]
Jazz began to emerge in the Soviet Union with the "First Eccentric Orchestra of the Russian Federated Socialist Republic – Valentin Parnakh's Jazz Band ".
1923

Standard
1923 – "Charleston"[9] is a jazz orchestration for the Charleston dance, composed by James P. Johnson with lyrics by Cecil Mack. Introduced by Elisabeth Welch in the 1923 Broadway musical Runnin' Wild,[10] its success brought the Charleston dance to international popularity.[11] Johnson's original rhythmic accompaniment inspired several later songs, many of which used the word "Charleston" in the title.[10] The song was played in the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, with James Stewart and Donna Reed, at a dance scene.[12] It was also a featured production number in the 1950 film Tea for Two.[12]
1923 – "Tin Roof Blues" is a jazz composition by George Brunies, Paul Mares, Ben Pollack, Leon Roppolo and Mel Stitzel of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.[13] The band first recorded the tune in 1923, and it became a major influence for later white jazz groups.[14] It is one of the early New Orleans jazz pieces most often played.[15] Credited to Rhythm Kings band members on the original record, the tune may have been based on Joe "King" Oliver's rendition of "Jazzin' Babies Blues" by New Orleans pianist Richard M. Jones.[14] Jo Stafford's 1953 hit "Make Love to Me" used the tune's music with ad
1924

In 1924, the improvised solo had become an integral part of most jazz performances[16] Jazz was becoming increasingly popular in New Orleans, Kansas City, Chicago and New York City and 1924 was something of a benchmark of jazz being seen as a serious musical form.[17][18] John Alden Carpenter made a statement insisting that jazz was now 'our contemporary popular music',[19] and Irving Berlin made a statement that jazz was the "rhythmic beat of our everyday lives," and the music's "swiftness is interpretive of our verve and speed". Leopold Stokowski,  the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1924, publicly embraced jazz as a musical art form and delivered praise to various jazz musicians.[20] In 1924, George Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue, widely regarded as one of the finest compositions of the 20th century.[21]
Black jazz entrepreneur and producer Clarence Williams successfully recorded groups in the New Orleans area, among them Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong.[16]  Williams, like Armstrong soon moved from New Orleans and opened a record store in Chicago. In Chicago, Earl Hines formed a group and incidentally inhabited the neighboring apartment to Armstrong while he was in Chicago.[22] Also in Chicago, trumpeter Tommy Ladnier begins playing in Joe Oliver's band. Meanwhile, Bechet soon moved to New England with Ellington during the summer of 1924, playing dances and later New York City.
In 1924, in jazz, ensembles in the Kansas City area began play a style with a four even beat ground beat as opposed to a New Orleans two beat ground beat behind a 4/4 melody.[22] Charlie Parker grew up in Kansas City listening to this style of jazz.
In 1924, Django Reinhardt became a guitarist and began playing the clubs of Paris.[22] Noted Classic Blues singer Bessie Smith began to achieve major fame.[22]
In October 1924, Louis Armstrong joined Fletcher Henderson's band in New York City upon his wife's insistence. They began performing at the Roseland Ballroom on 51st street and Broadway in Manhattan.[22] His new style of jazz playing greatly influenced the style of other New York musicians such as Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington.[23] Ellington and his Washingtonians performed at the Hollywood Club on 49th street and Broadway, while Bix Beiderbecke and the Wolverines, renamed Personality Kids performed at the Cinderella Ballroom on 41st street and Broadway. On 5 December 1924, a 17-year-old Jimmy McPartland replaced Beiderbecke in the Wolverines (Personality Kids) band and violinist Dave Harmon joins.[24]
1925

Standards
1925 – "Dinah"[25][26] is a song composed by Harry Akst with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. It was introduced by Eddie Cantor in the musical Kid Boots and popularized by Ethel Waters's 1925 version, played significantly slower than the original.[27] Bing Crosby's rendition with the Mills Brothers was a number one hit in 1932,[27] and it was sung by Crosby in the film The Big Broadcast.[28] Dinah Shore used it as her theme song, and took her stage name from the song title.[28][29]
1925 – "Squeeze Me"[30] is a jazz song composed by Fats Waller. The lyrics were credited to Clarence Williams, although Andy Razaf claims to have actually written the lyrics.[31] The song was based on an old blues tune called "The Boy in the Boat".[31] It was introduced by Buster Bailey. Albert Brunies's Halfway House Orchestra recorded an important instrumental version in 1925, and later the same year Williams made a popular recording with Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins and vocalist Eva Taylor.[31] Bessie Smith recorded an influential blues version in 1926.[31]
1925 – "Sweet Georgia Brown"[25] is a jazz song composed by Maceo Pinkard with music by Kenneth Casey. Bandleader Ben Bernie popularized the song and was given co-credit for the lyrics, although it is unclear whether or not he participated in the writing.[32][33] Bernie's recording with his Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra stayed at number one of the pop charts for five weeks.[34] The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team has been using Brother Bones and His Shadows' version as their anthem since 1952.[35] Several later jazz tunes have been based on the song's chord progression, such as Jackie McLean's "Donna", Miles Davis's "Dig" and Thelonious Monk's "Bright Mississippi".[34]
1925 – "Tea for Two"[25] is a show tune from the Broadway musical No, No, Nanette, composed by Vincent Youmans with lyrics by Irving Caesar. The first hit recordings were by The Benson Orchestra of Chicago and Marion Harris in 1925.[36] Art Tatum famously played the song in a 1931 cutting contest with Fats Waller and James P. Johnson.[36] Tatum's use of substitute chords on the tune had a lasting effect on jazz harmony, and his 1939 piano solo recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1986.[36][37] The song became one of the most popular songs of the 1920s, and continues to be performed often.[38][39][40] Caesar has said that the lyrics took him only five minutes to write.[41]
1926

Standards

1926 – "Big Butter and Egg Man"[43] is a jazz song written by Percy Venable for Louis Armstrong and May Alix. It was first recorded by Armstrong's Hot Five; the original 1926 recording contains one of Armstrong's most highly regarded cornet solos.[44][45]
1926 – "Bye Bye Blackbird"[46][47][48] is a song composed by Ray Henderson with lyrics by Mort Dixon. It was first recorded by Gene Austin, whose rendition became a number one hit. Nick Lucas recorded a popular version the same year.[49] Among jazz performers, the tune only gained popularity after its inclusion on the soundtrack of the 1955 film Pete Kelly's Blues and on Miles Davis's 1957 album 'Round About Midnight.[49]
1926 – "'Deed I Do"[50] is a song composed by Fred Rose with lyrics by Walter Hirsch.[51] It was introduced by vaudeville performer S. L. Stambaugh[52] and popularized by Ben Bernie's recording.[53] It was influential clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman's debut recording, made with Ben Pollack and His Californians in 1926.[54] Ruth Etting's rendition of the song became a top ten hit in 1927.[55]
1926 – "If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)" is a song composed by James P. Johnson with lyrics by Henry Creamer. It was introduced by Clarence Williams' Blue Five with vocalist Eva Taylor.[56] McKinney's Cotton Pickers popularized the song with their 1930 recording and used it as their theme song.[57] Louis Armstrong also recorded a popular version in 1930.[56]
1926 – "I've Found a New Baby"[46][58][59] is a song by Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams. Also known as "I Found a New Baby", it was introduced by Clarence Williams' Blue Five. The Benny Goodman Orchestra's 1940 version includes an influential guitar solo by Charlie Christian.[58] Charlie Parker recorded the tune several times, first in 1940 as part of the Jay McShann Orchestra. Parker's interpretation was influenced by Lester Young, and the saxophonist even included quotations from Young in his later recordings.[60] The tune is particularly popular among Dixieland bands.[58]
1926 – "Muskrat Ramble"[61] is a jazz composition by Kid Ory. Lyrics were added in 1950 by Ray Gilbert.[62] First recorded by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five in 1926, it became the group's most frequently recorded piece.[63] Composer credit was given to Ory, although bandleader Armstrong has claimed to have written the song himself.[63] Others, like New Orleans clarinetist Sidney Bechet, have argued that it was originally a Buddy Bolden tune titled "The Old Cow Died and the Old Man Cried".[64] The tune was a prominent part of the Dixieland revival repertoire in the 1930s and 1940s.[63]
1926 – "Someone to Watch Over Me"[25] is a show tune from the Broadway musical Oh, Kay!, composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Gertrude Lawrence introduced the song on stage, singing it to a rag doll. Lawrence also made the first hit recording of the song in 1927. Lyricist Howard Dietz claims to have come up with the song's name and helped with the lyrics, but received no official credit. The song's jazz popularity was established in the mid-1940s by the recordings of Billy Butterfield, Eddie Condon, Coleman Hawkins and Ike Quebec.[65]
1926 – "Sugar"[66] is a song by Maceo Pinkard, Edna Alexander and Sidney D. Mitchell. It was first recorded by Ethel Waters in 1926[67][68] and popularized as a standard by Eddie Condon's 1927 recording that featured first-timers Gene Krupa, Joe Sullivan and Frank Teschmaker.[66] The song is also known as "That Sugar Baby o' Mine",[66] and is not to be confused by another song named "Sugar" from 1927, written by Jack Yellen, Milton Ager, Frank Crum and Red Nichols.[69]
1927

Standards
1927 – "Blue Skies"[46][70] is a show tune by Irving Berlin from the musical Betsy. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart had originally written a solo number for Belle Baker, titled "This Funny World", but the star was unsatisfied with the song and asked Berlin to write a show-stopper for the musical.[71][72] Berlin responded with "Blue Skies", and on the opening night the audience demanded 24 encores of Baker's song.[72] A 1927 rendition by Ben Selvin and His Orchestra, recorded under the name "The Knickerbockers", became a number one hit. Al Jolson performed the song in 1927 in the first ever feature-length sound film, The Jazz Singer.[72] Jazz renditions include Benny Goodman's 1938 concert in Carnegie Hall and Tommy Dorsey's 1941 recording with young Frank Sinatra on vocals.[72]
1927 – "'S Wonderful" is a show tune from the Broadway musical Funny Face, composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was introduced on stage by Adele Astaire and Allen Kearns.[73] The vocalist most associated with the song is Fred Astaire, who recorded it in 1952 accompanied by Oscar Peterson's band. Astaire also sang the song with Audrey Hepburn in the 1957 musical film Funny Face. Stan Getz's 1950 recording with Horace Silver revived the tune as a jazz standard.[73]
1928

Standards
"Basin Street Blues"[46][74][75] is a blues song written by Spencer Williams and introduced by Louis Armstrong. Trombonist and singer Jack Teagarden recorded the song several times, first in 1929 with the Louisiana Rhythm Kings. Teagarden's 1931 recording with The Charleston Chasers, led by Benny Goodman, popularized the song. An additional verse was later added by Teagarden and Glenn Miller, who also claimed to have written the lyrics for the chorus.[76]
"Crazy Rhythm"[25] is a show tune composed by Roger Wolfe Kahn and Joseph Meyer with lyrics by Irving Caesar. It was introduced in the Broadway musical Here's Howe by Ben Bernie, who also made a successful vocal recording.[77] Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra recorded it the same year with vocalist Franklyn Baur. The song has inspired the names of several albums, jazz groups, organizations and nightclubs.[78]
"Creole Love Call"[79][80] is a jazz composition by Duke Ellington, James "Bubber" Miley and Rudy Jackson.[81] It was based on the melody of "Camp Meeting Blues" by Joe "King" Oliver.[82] Ellington's recording is known for the wordless vocal performance by Adelaide Hall.[81][83] The tune is also known as "Creole Love Song".[79]
"If I Had You" is a popular ballad by Irving King (a pseudonym for James Campbell and Reginald Connelly) and Ted Shapiro. It was popularized in Britain by Al Bowlly with Fred Elizalde and His Orchestra, and shortly thereafter by Rudy Vallée in the United States. It was marketed as "the favorite fox-trot of the Prince of Wales". The first jazz recording was made in 1941 by Benny Goodman's sextet. Art Blakey recorded a memorable ballad version with saxophonist Lou Donaldson in 1954.[84]
"Lover, Come Back to Me"[85] is a show tune from the Broadway show The New Moon, composed by Sigmund Romberg with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Paul Whiteman, the Arden-Ohman Orchestra and Rudy Vallée all recorded hit versions in 1929 while the musical was running. Billie Holiday performed the song on several records, first in 1944.[86] Nat King Cole revived the song in 1953.[87] A part of the composition was based on Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Barcarolle.[86][87]
"Mack The Knife" is a song from The Threepenny Opera, composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. Originally called "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" in German, the song was translated into English by Marc Blitzstein in 1954. The first jazz recording was made by Sidney Bechet in 1954 under the title "La Complainte de Mackie". Louis Armstrong's 1955 version established the song's popularity in the jazz world.[88] It is also known as "The Ballad of Mack the Knife".[88]
"Nagasaki"[89] is a jazz song composed by Harry Warren with lyrics by Mort Dixon. It was first recorded by Friar's Society Orchestra.[90] The Ipana Troubadors made a hit recording in 1928.[91] The most famous jazz versions were recorded by Benny Goodman in 1936 and 1947.[91] Fletcher Henderson played it in 1934 in the Harlem Opera House as the "national anthem of Harlem".[92]
"Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise"[46][93] is a song from the Broadway show The New Moon, composed by Sigmund Romberg with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The first jazz recording was made by Artie Shaw in 1938.[94] The tune was a regular number in the Modern Jazz Quartet's repertoire; it was already considered a standard when the group recorded their first rendition in 1952.[95][96]
"Sweet Lorraine"[97] is a song composed by Cliff Burwell with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. Teddy Wilson's version was the first to make the pop charts in 1935.[98] The song is closely associated with Nat King Cole, who recorded it in 1940 and several times afterwards.[98] According to a common story, Cole's singing career started in 1938 when a drunk customer insisted on the pianist singing "Sweet Lorraine" during a show.[98][99]
1929

Standards
"Ain't Misbehavin'"[25][100][101] is a song from the musical revue Hot Chocolates, composed by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks with lyrics by Andy Razaf. Leo Reisman and His Orchestra was the first to take the song to the pop charts in 1929, followed by several artists including Bill Robinson, Gene Austin and Louis Armstrong. At the intermission of Hot Chocolates at the Hudson Theatre, Armstrong made his Broadway debut playing a trumpet solo on the song.[102] Waller's original instrumental recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984.[37]
"Black and Blue"[103][104] is a song from the musical Hot Chocolates, composed by Fats Waller with lyrics by Harry Brooks and Andy Razaf. It was introduced by Louis Armstrong. Ethel Waters's 1930 version became a hit.[105] The song is also known as "What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue".[105]
"Honeysuckle Rose"[25][46][106][107] is a song from the musical revue Load of Coal, composed by Fats Waller with lyrics by Andy Razaf. It was popularized by Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra in 1933.[108] Waller's 1934 recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.[37] Benny Goodman's Orchestra played a 16-minute jam session on the tune in their 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, featuring members from the bands of Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Charlie Parker used a part of the song's harmony in "Scrapple from the Apple" (1947).[108]
"Just You, Just Me"[109] is a song from the film Marianne, composed by Jesse Greer with lyrics by Raymond Klages. It was introduced by Marion Davies and Cliff Edwards. Lester Young recorded the tune several times. Thelonious Monk's 1948 composition "Evidence" was loosely based on it.[110]
"Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)" is a show tune from the Broadway musical Show Girl, composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn. It was introduced on stage by Ruby Keeler and Dixie Dugan, accompanied by the Duke Ellington Orchestra.[111][112] Keeler's husband and popular singer Al Jolson appeared at the opening performance and sang a chorus of the song from the third row, creating a sensation and popularizing the song.[111]
"Mean to Me"[113][114] is a song composed by Fred E. Ahlert with lyrics by Roy Turk. It was first recorded by Ruth Etting. The song was a regular number in Billie Holiday's repertoire, and Holiday's 1937 recording with saxophonist Lester Young is considered the definitive vocal version. Young later made an instrumental recording with Nat King Cole and Buddy Rich.[115]
"More Than You Know"[46][116] is a Broadway show tune composed by Vincent Youmans with lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Billy Rose. Introduced by Mayo Methot in Great Day, the song became a hit even though the musical only lasted for 29 performances. Ruth Etting took it to number nine in 1930, and sexophonist Benny Carter played an acclaimed trumpet solo on his 1939 recording, despite the trumpet not being his main instrument.[117]
"Rockin' Chair"[118][119][120] is a song by Hoagy Carmichael. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong in a duet with the composer.[121] Carmichael has said that he wrote the song as a kind of sequel to his 1926 "Washboard Blues", which had lyrics by Fred Callahan.[122] The song was made famous by Mildred Bailey, who used it as her theme song.[123] Bailey's first hit recording was made in 1937.[124]
"Stardust"[46][125][126] is a song composed by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. Originally recorded by Carmichael as a mid-tempo jazz instrumental, the 1930 romantic ballad rendition by Isham Jones and His Orchestra became a top-selling hit. Louis Armstrong recorded an influential ballad rendition in 1931. The song is arguably the most recorded popular song, and one of the top jazz standards. Billboard magazine conducted a poll of leading disk jockeys in 1955 on the "popular song record of all time"; four different renditions of "Stardust" made it to the list, including Glenn Miller's (1941) at third place and Artie Shaw's (1940) at number one.[127] The title was spelled "Star Dust" in the 1929 publication, and both spellings are used.
"What Is This Thing Called Love?"[25] is a song written by Cole Porter for the musical revue Wake Up and Dream. It was introduced by Elsie Carlisle in London. Ben Bernie's and Fred Rich's recordings made the charts in 1930. One of the best-known instrumental versions was recorded by Clifford Brown and Max Roach with Sonny Rollins in 1956. The song's chord progression has inspired several later compositions, including Tadd Dameron's bebop standard "Hot House".[128]

Bibliography

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The climate of Chile comprises a wide range of weather conditions across a large geographic scale, extending across 38 degrees in latitude, making generalizations difficult. According to the Köppen system, Chile within its borders hosts at least seven major climatic subtypes, ranging from low desert in the north, to alpine tundra and glaciers in the east and southeast, humid subtropical in Easter Island, Oceanic in the south and Mediterranean climate in central Chile. There are four seasons in most of the country: summer (December to February), autumn (March to May), winter (June to August), and spring (September to November).
On a synoptic scale, the most important factors that control the climate in Chile are the Pacific Anticyclone, the southern circumpolar low pressure area, the cold Humboldt current, the Chilean Coast Range and the Andes Mountains. Despite Chile's narrowness, some interior regions may experience wide temperature oscillations and cities such as San Pedro de Atacama, may even experience a continental climate. In the extreme northeast and southeast the border of Chile extends beyond the Andes into the Altiplano and the Patagonian plains, giving these regions climate patterns similar to those seen in Bolivia and Argentina respectively.
Regions

“It [Chile] has four months of winter, no more, and in them, except when there is a quarter moon, when it rains one or two days, all the other days have such a beautiful sunshine...”—Pedro de Valdivia to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Subtropical

The climate of Easter Island is subtropical maritime. The lowest temperatures are registered in July and August (18°C - 64°F) and the highest in February (maximum temperature 28°C - 82.4°F [1]), the summer season in the southern hemisphere. Winters are relatively mild. The rainiest month is April, though the island experiences year-round rainfall.[2] As an isolated island, Easter Island is constantly exposed to winds which help to keep the temperature fairly cool. Precipitation averages 1,118mm per year. Occasionally, heavy rainfall and rainstorms strike the island. These occur mostly in the winter months (June–August). Since it is close to the Pacific High and outside the range of the ITCZ, cyclones and hurricanes do not occur around Easter island.[3]
Dry arid

The Atacama Desert is the driest  place on Earth, and is virtually sterile because it is blocked from moisture on both sides by the Andes mountains and by the Chilean Coast Range. The cold Humboldt Current and the Pacific Anticyclone are essential to keep the dry climate of Atacama Desert. The average rainfall in the Chilean region of Antofagasta is just 1mm per year. Some weather stations in the Atacama have never received rain. Evidence suggests that the Atacama may not have had any significant rainfall from 1570 to 1971.[4] It is so arid that mountains that reach as high as 6,885 metres (22,590 feet) are completely free of glaciers and, in the southern part from 25°S to 27°S, may have been glacier-free throughout the Quaternary — though permafrost extends down to an altitude of 4,400 metres and is continuous above 5,600 metres. Studies by a group of British scientists have suggested that some river beds have been dry for 120,000 years.
Some locations in the Atacama do receive a marine fog known locally as the Camanchaca (garúa in Peru), providing sufficient moisture for hypolithic algae, lichens and even some cacti. But in the region that is in the "fog shadow" of the high coastal crest-line, which averages 3,000 m height for about 100km south of Antofagasta, the soil has been compared to that of Mars.
Mediterranean

The climate of Central Chile is of temperate Mediterranean type, with the amount of rainfall increasing considerably and progressively from north to south. In the Santiago area, the average monthly temperatures are about 19.5°C in the summer months of January and February and 7.5°C in the winter months of June and July. The average monthly precipitation is no more than a trace in January and February and 69.7 millimeters in June and July. By contrast, in Concepción the average monthly temperatures are somewhat lower in the summer at 17.6°C but higher in the winter at 9.3°C, and the amount of rain is much greater. In the summer, Concepción receives an average of twenty millimeters of rain per month; in June and July, the city is pounded by an average of 253 millimeters per month. The numerous rivers greatly increase their flow as a result of the winter rains and the spring melting of the Andean snows, and they contract considerably in the summer. The combination of abundant snow in the Andes and relatively moderate winter temperatures creates excellent conditions for Alpine skiing. Areas around the Bío-Bío River, historically called La Frontera corresponds to southern limit of the mediterranean climate, with typical mediterranean fruits such as avocado, citrus, olives and grapes being cultivated north of it and oat, wheat, apples and potatoes to the south. This more or less drastic transition is caused by the split of the westerlies at these latitudes (~37° S) into one branch going to the southeast and another to the northeast, to this it is necessary to add the north-south lowering of the Chilean Coast Range which reduced the rain shadow effect.[5]
Temperate oceanic

In Zona Sur and the northern part of Zona Austral the climate is Temperate oceanic. Here the Andean Cordillera intercepts moist westerly winds along the Pacific coast during winter and summer months; these winds cool as they ascend the mountains, creating heavy rainfall on the mountains' west-facing slopes. The northward-flowing oceanic Humboldt Current creates humid and foggy conditions near the coast. The tree line is at about 2,400 m in the northern part of the ecoregion (35° S), and descends to 1,000 m in the south of the Valdivian region. In the summer average temperature can climb to 16.5°C (62°F), while during winter the temperature can drop below 7°C (45°F).[6]
Subpolar oceanic
The seasonal temperature in Zona Austral is greatly moderated by its proximity to the ocean and is known for stable constant temperatures, only small variability with season. The heaviest rainfalls goes between April and May and snow season goes all through Chilean winter (June till September), although the average temperature does not descend below 1°C in coastal areas. This is the coldest region of South America.
Climate charts for different locations of Chile from north to south

See also
Agriculture in Chile
Drought in Chile
Geology of Chile
Glaciers of Chile
Natural regions of Chile
White Earthquake

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 at Archive.today(archived January 15, 2013)
 (in Spanish)


This is a list of large aircraft.
The US Federal Aviation Administration defines a large aircraft as any aircraft with a certificated maximum takeoff weight of more than 12,500lb (5,700kg) [1]
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) defines a large aircraft as either "an aeroplane with a maximum take-off mass of more than 5,700 kilograms (12,600 pounds) or a multi-engined helicopter."[2]

Fixed-wing
Civilian

Military

Experimentals and prototypes

Projects and designs

Helicopters and rotary-wing aircraft

Airships

See also
Wide-body aircraft

Citations

Sources

 at Global Aircraft
 at Aerospaceweb