A Chinese Biographical Dictionary 455
and became on very intimate terms with the Heir Apparent, but in consequence of a lampoon on Yang Kuo-chung he was sent away from Court. Upon the accession of the Emperor Su Tsung in 756 he returned, and was offered an appointment which he declined, remaining however in close relationship with the Emperor. This offended the eunuch Li Fu-kuo, and he was compelled to seek safety in flight. But the Emperor sent for him to come back, and from that time he was always a trusted counsellor of the reigning monarch, serving first and last under four Emperors. As a youth he was very much given to the study of Taoism and used to wander about on the mountains, pondering upon the secret of immortality. He refused to marry, and later on gave up all except natural food, such as berries, fruit, etc., and devoted himself to that form of breathing which is believed by the Taoists to result in immortality. He became reduced to a skeleton , and received the nickname of 鄴仙子骨 Collar-bone Immortal of Yeh, referring to the rank of Marquis of Yeh, conferred upon him in 787. He is said to have had an immense library, filling no less than 30,000 shelves; hence the phrase 鄴, in the sense of many books.
1181
Li Po 李白 (T. 太白. H. 青蓮). AD.? 705-762. A native of 巴西 Pa-hsi in Sŭch'uan, of Imperial descent. Just before he was born his mother dreamt of the planet Venus, and from this he was duly named. At ten years of age he was already a poet, and as he grew up he developed a taste for sword-play and adventure. He wandered as far as Shantung, and retiring to a mountain together with K'ung Ch^ao, * Han Chun,
- P'ei Chng, ^ ^ |9 Chang Shu-niing, and |li^yP^' T'ao
Mien, formed the hard-drinking coterie known as the 竹溪大逸 Six Idlers of the Bamboo Brook. About A.D. 742 he reached Ch'ang-an, and there his poetry attracted the notice of Ho Chi-
