A Farewell to Meng in the Yellow Crane Tower

“A Farewell to Meng in the Yellow Crane Tower” is Li Bai’s work during his grand tour of Shu. Li Bai is a poet who loves nature and likes to make friends. He “loved to travel to famous mountains all his life”. He spent his whole life roaming and wandering. He traveled all over the Central Plains and left many works praising the beauty of nature and friendship. In 727 A.D. (the fifteenth year of Kaiyuan Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty), Li Bai returned from his eastward tour and arrived in Anlu, Hubei. He was already twenty-seven years old. He has lived in Anlu for ten years, but most of the time he met friends with poetry and wine, and traveled abroad. In his own words, “I spent ten years in Anlu with wine”. That is to say, while living in Anlu, Li Bai met Meng Haoran, who was twelve years older than him. Meng Haoran admired Li Bai very much, and the two soon became close friends.

In March of Yangchun in 730 AD (the eighteenth year of Kaiyuan), Li Bai learned that Meng Haoran was going to Guangling (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu), so he asked someone to bring a letter and asked Meng Haoran to meet him in Jiangxia (now Wuchang District, Wuhan). A few days later, Meng Haoran disembarked by boat, and Li Bai personally sent him to the riverside. I wrote this song “Yellow Crane Tower sends Meng Haoran to Guangling” when I saw him off.