The Banished Immortal

In his own time (701&#150;762) Li Bai&#146;s brilliant poems&#151;shaped by Daoist thought filled with an irrepressible lust for life&#151;were never given their proper due. Nonetheless his lines rang out on the lips of tavern singers soldiers and writers throughout the Tang dynasty and his deep desire for a higher more perfect world gave rise to his nickname: the Banished Immortal. With the instincts of a master novelist Ha Jin draws on a wide range of historical and literary sources to weave the great poet&#146;s life story following Bai from his origins on the&#160;western frontier to his rambling travels as a young man. Jin also takes us through the poet&#146;s later years&#151;in which he became swept up in a military rebellion that altered the course of China&#146;s history&#151;and the mysterious circumstances of his&#160;death. <br> &#160;<br> Today Bai&#146;s verses remain an inextricable part of the Chinese language&#151;taught to schoolchildren recited at parties and toasts&#151;and are famed throughout the world. <i>The Banished Immortal</i>&#160;is an extraordinary portrait of a poet who both transcended his time and was shaped by it and whose ability to live love drink dance and mourn without reservation produced some of the world&#146;s most enduring verses.