Victor's Pursuit of Serenity Chapter 15

The vulgar Song people often criticized Li Bai for another kind of vulgarity. For example, Su Che said that he "likes fame and does not know the meaning of morality." Su Che said this, probably thinking of Li Bai's response to Prince Yong's call. In fact, Li Bai's response to Emperor Xuanzong's call may not be consistent with his description of himself, but when the poet received the imperial edict, he wanted to pack his luggage overnight. He wrote a poem at that time, the last few lines are:

"It is too late to persuade the emperor, I ride my horse and travel a long way. The foolish woman of Kuaiji bought me lightly, so I left home and went west to Qin. I laughed at the sky and went out, how can I be a weed."

We all know how a villain looks when he is successful; it seems that when a great man is successful, he doesn't look very good either. When Li Bai went to Chang'an, "those who laughed at me for being humble in the past came to ask for my greetings and friendship", which made him feel very proud; although he was not given an important position, it was not the case in his own description. He would mention this encounter whenever he had the chance, and it seemed that he regarded it as the peak of his life. In addition, when talking about the "foolish woman" in the poem quoted above, he also wrote another poem, which showed his determination: "When I left home, my wife pulled my clothes tightly and asked me how many days it would take me to return from my journey to the west. If I had worn a golden seal when I came back, I would have seen Su Qin not get off the plane." Speaking of "weeds", Li Bai always looked down on people who did not achieve anything, and was ashamed to be compared with people like Yi Zhi and Yuan Xian, not to mention the unknown and humble people.

Despite this, most readers, including me, still like Li Bai from the bottom of their hearts. Li Bai has a vulgar and superficial side, but who doesn't? As long as the vulgarity is sincere and the superficiality is naive, it can still be liked by others. Li Bai cannot be inferior to others. In my opinion, this is a valuable quality. Another valuable quality is not to be superior to others. It is not completely clear how good Li Bai is in this aspect, but it seems that he is not the kind of hard-hearted person who does whatever it takes. Some of his fierce ambitions have to give way to his compassion from time to time. Then, there is almost nothing that makes us feel that although this person is a bit annoying, he is quite approachable after all.

What matters is that Li Bai is the spokesperson for secular fantasy. Since ancient times, we secular people, ordinary people, have been wandering outside the palace with some fragmented fantasies and daydreams, shy and unable to find decent descriptions. When we meet Li Bai, it is like having a shelter. His poetic talent saved him, and also saved countless ordinary people from being tongue-tied when describing their ambitions.