The ambitious Li Bai used to travel to Chang’an in about his thirties. Soon after that, he was invited there by an imperial edict. His merely threeyear stay in Chang’an happened to be the critical point of the Tang Dynasty’s turning from flourishing to decline. This aroused his criticism of the upper classes of Chang’an society. As a consequence, he was victimized as the target of public attack on the pretext of employing an incompetent person. However, the twoyear court service as a member of the imperial academy left a lingering gratitude for appreciation of his talent by Emperor of Xuanzong in the poet’s mind, which never lessened in the rest of his life. During the nearly twenty days that followed, he wrote about two stock themes in his poems: a neverceasing reminiscence of his experience as a member of the imperial academy, which he often used as a means for formal visits, and an everstrong nostalgia for Chang’an, which constantly occurred in his poems. As a result, Li Bai had two contradictory sides in his personality: the great side of criticizing Chang’an and experiencing unhappiness and complaint of the people there, and the vulgar side of showing off his brilliant experience as an elegant official poet. It was just this defect in his personality that resulted in his stating repeatedly about the same theme by the same means and mode of writing.

Li Bai; poetry in the Tang Dynasty; psychology of writing; mental state of writing