viewed in John Minford and Joseph Lau's "Classical Chinese Literature" (2000).
One of the most notable wine drinkers in China’s long tradition of imbibers, Li Bai frequently celebrated the joy of drinking alone with his regular practice in swordsmanship. He reached a higher level of mastery to create his own style of fencing named "Tai Bai zui-jian" (Li Bai's Style of Drunken Sword). As legends run, his elusive art of drunken sword he picked up from one drunken beggar who once walked into an inn located deeply in the mountains. That man was ugly and covered with filth. He went from table to table, begging for handouts. Everyone was disgusted by him and tried to ignore him. The inn owner and the barmaids all denied him for service except for Li Bai who just checked-in to overnight. He took pity on the beggar and brought him to a back room to avoid the jeers of the others. He offered him a drink and, much to his amazement, the old man magically transforms into one of the eight immortals who also was the godhead of drunken swordplay and who rewarded the poet with a blessing.
Everything the poet did was tuned to the passage of time and the joys of Nature with brilliance and great freshness of imagination. The poem “Drinking Alone under the Moon” is likely from the post-court period of his life. Some other subjects that he studied in his poetry were swordplay, friendship and solitude constructed around the everlasting image of the moon with its multiple tints and mythological riddles. His imagination and humorous characteristics of a freethinker are apparent here in full. The following translation of the poem looks to give a line by line Chinese-English account.
月下獨酌 (Drinking Alone under the Moon)
花間一壺酒；A pot of hot liquor under the blooming trees I heat up time and again;--
獨酌無相親。Alone I feast as none of the intimates is nearby me.
舉杯邀明月；Raising my cup, I ask the bright moon to drink;
對影成三人。With him, my mime shadow, we make a good companionship of three.
月既不解飲；The moon, alas, has never understood wine,
影徒隨我身。While indisputable shadow follows me in all.
暫伴月將影；Yet with the moon as a tactical ally and the shadow as the general's aide
行樂須及春。I must be in high spirit, no less than that of the first spring flowers.
我歌月徘徊；For that, I sing my combat march, and the moon nods in time with its pace;
我舞影零亂。I square up with my sword, but my halting shadow tangles in moves. . .
醒時同交歡；While slightly tight, all the three observed the decencies,
醉後各分散。But upon getting deadly drunk, each goes his own way of gaiety.
永結無情遊；Then, setting off from the booze straight into a long voyage of oblivion,
相期邈雲漢。We make an appointment far away, drifting downstream along the Milky Way.
Drinking Alone under the Moon
A pot of hot liquor under the blooming trees
I heat up time and again;-- alone I feast
As none of the intimates is nearby me.
Raising my cup, I ask the bright moon to drink;
With him, my mime shadow, we make
A good companionship of three.
The moon, alas, has never understood wine,
While indisputable shadow follows me in all.
Yet with the moon as a tactical ally
And the shadow as the general's aide
I must be in high spirit, no less than
That of the first spring flowers.
For that, I sing my combat march
And the moon nods in time with its pace;
I square up with my sword, but
My halting shadow tangles in moves. . .
While slightly tight, all the three
Observed the decencies,
But upon getting deadly drunk,
Each goes his own way of gaiety.
Then, setting off from the booze
Straight into a long voyage of oblivion,
We make an appointment far away,
Drifting downstream along the Milky Way.
“Drinking Alone under the Moon” encompasses several characteristics that define Li Bai's personality. As a devotee to nature, wine, solitude, swordplay and humour he reveals much of himself in this piece of poetry. Therefore, the importance of this poem in understanding his other works is obvious. Let's begin from the beginning.
“A pot of hot liquor under the blooming trees
I heat up time and again;-- alone I feast
As none of the intimates is nearby me.
The first two original lines speak of repeated heating the wine pot as he stays alone, without his friends from the founded by him association of like-minded companions known as "The Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup," including He Zhi Zhang, Li Shi Zhi, Mr. Jin, Prince of Juyang, Cui Zong Zhi, Su Jin, Zhang Xü, and Jiao Sui. In his days at court, very soon the poet realised himself that he was unsuited to the imperial court life, allowing his conduct to become more and more reckless and unrestrained. He begged persistently to be allowed to retire from court. At last, the emperor gave him gold and sent him away. Li Bai roamed the country in every direction. The initial part of his poem shows a progression from the realistic into the imaginative and from the sober state to that of being slightly tipsy -- just notice the developed change in presentation of the next two lines:
“Raising my cup, I ask the bright moon to drink;
With him, my mime shadow, we make
A good companionship of three.
Now, in the lack of the real company, we start to see Li Bai’s imagination sparkling with wit and a cohesive involvement of wine in this scheme of "three-in-one." He does not seem to be drunk yet, just warmed-up before the main action he expects to be involved into as the logic development of the whole situation. This means that drunkenness is not his goal while he celebrates the seasonal flourishing he utilizes as a leap, upon which he is going to reach something "above his head." For this, he needs to forget of himself for awhile; therefore, his loneliness is not a problem for him. His playful treatment of Nature at this point is unmistakable: raising his cup together with the rising moon, he greets the flow of changing marked by appearing of his loyal shadow. For him, this is perfectly natural progress, as all things are mutual in the ways of Dao he used to appreciate most of all.
“The moon, alas, has never understood wine,
While indisputable shadow follows me in all.
These two lines are evidence of Li Bai's rich experience in drinking under the moon, with which he is on friendly terms and which is very good at shadowing, but not at boozing or making a good company. When the shadow shows off, Li Bai conducts as its real master, without further ado; hence, his 'manservant' follows him in all, attaching itself to one and only master.
“Yet with the moon as a tactical ally
And the shadow as the general's aide
This line proves the strategic thinking awakened in the poet's mind after a few drinks: the wine is starting to rouse his bravery and morale, as well as the keen insight of a true strategist, at least.
“I must be in high spirit, no less than
That of the first spring flowers.
Here, the poet stimulates himself, pumping with wine in order to be no less than the brave wild plum trees that are among many others but who are the first to throw the winter a challenge of being the herald of springtime. Wild plums have a very special place in Li Bai’s writing; he often resorts to them in order to enhance his imagery.
“For that, I sing my combat march
And the moon nods in time with its pace;
I square up with my sword, but
My halting shadow tangles in moves.
Upon becoming quite tipsy, it is the right time for Li Bai to expose himself as a warlord. Here, most probably, he pretends to be like General Pei Min, his tutor of swordsmanship. However, a plenty of drinking wine starts to speak itself loudly. He tells us of his clumsy mov
ements by bringing to the scene the picture of his aide, the halting shadow, which he blames for clumsiness, not himself. What a witty move we witness here! The reader can imagine utterly the picture which these two lines present. And then:
“While slightly tight, all the three
Observed the decencies,
But upon getting deadly drunk,
Each goes his own way of gaiety.
The following two lines depict the declining process unfolded from the very beginning till the end, summing up toward the final part of the poem. By now, he is plainly the worse for the drink, but, I should admit, he is still drinking. From now on, the poet retreats into himself, forgetting of his silent 'companions.' Becoming alone, he points out at the oneness with his own self, the pitch darkness at the bottom of his heart in contrast to the moon's brightness, his only temporary ally he has welcomed for producing the shadow, his devoted aide. This threefold scheme has been mapped out in advance in the previous lines or even further before the party was launched. This moment is very interesting and somewhat unique to Chinese art of war worked out and developed by forefathers of the Chinese way of strategic thinking, including Lao-zi, Guigu-zi, Sun Wu, Sun Bin, Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Liang and many others famously known and unknown strategists of old. It also shows that Li Bai lives the life which was destined for him by Heaven since his birthday. Being styled as "Poet of the Transcendental," he has now reached a point of becoming unconscious. In such a state between reality and what is beyond its virtual gates, he leaves his 'boon-companions,' the moon and his shadow, to have his own fun, which is revealed to him by means of