13 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Under Li Bai’s moon, wine, friendship and the ache of distance share the same sky.
The Collected Works of Li Bai gathers around a thousand surviving poems by the Tang dynasty poet. Moonlit nights, mountains and rivers fill these pages, alongside farewells, war and longing for home. Short, clear images bring you close to a voice that is playful, proud, lonely and quick to laugh at itself.
The collection moves from brief poems, many only four lines long, to bold ballads with a fast, rolling movement. Poems of the moon and wine sit beside farewells that turn friendship into landscape. Court life, war and exile cast their shadows, but you need no knowledge of Chinese history to enter these scenes.
What you’ll discover
- The moon as companion Meet the moon that returns so often it feels almost like a character.
- Friendship across the distance Feel how a farewell holds the weight of journeys and years apart.
- Wild roads and rivers Follow longer ballads through mountains and rivers, carried by bold, quick leaps.
- A voice with many moods Find pride, loneliness and laughter in poems that speak through short, clear images.
- Small poems, open landscapes Discover how just four lines can hold nature and the pain of distance.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy poetry about friendship, wine, moonlight, mountains, and travel will love this collection. Lovers of Tang dynasty literature and readers drawn to a poet’s voice alongside the history of his age will also find it appealing.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- One life holds many worlds
- Praise can also teach a ruler
- The river carries changing feelings
- Friendship matters more than rank
- Joyful drinking can conceal sorrow
- Withdrawal competes with serving the world
- Waiting women receive a voice
- Court favor becomes political danger
- Many voices form one restless life
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The Collected Works of Li Bai in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Collected Works of Li Bai
by Li Bai
A poet drinks alone under the moon, climbs Mount Tai, and is sent into exile in Yelang.
Challenging10–20 hours to read20 languages
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In short
Can one poet hold a waterfall, a cup of wine, and a whole war in the same pages? Li Bai tries.
The Collected Works of Li Bai at a glance
- Reading time
- About 14 h 10 min11 h 15 min fast, 16 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 201,800 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The collection follows the poet's life year by year
The collection is arranged by time. Each year opens with a short note on court events, then a line on where Li Bai is and how old he is. Then come the poems and prose of that year. Works that cannot be dated gather at the end.
The court notes name emperors and generals. Xuanzong rules for most of the story. An Lushan rises on the frontier, and his rebellion shakes the empire. One note says travelers can journey ten thousand li without a weapon. Later notes bring news of fallen capitals and fleeing emperors.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 25 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Li Bai. The Collected Works of Li Bai. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-collected-works-of-li-bai.
Li Bai. (2026). The collected works of Li Bai. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-collected-works-of-li-bai
Li Bai. The Collected Works of Li Bai. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-collected-works-of-li-bai.
@book{li2026collected,
author = {Li Bai},
title = {The Collected Works of Li Bai},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-collected-works-of-li-bai}
}
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What is The Collected Works of Li Bai about?
It gathers the rhapsodies, poems, letters, prefaces, and inscriptions of the Tang poet Li Bai, arranged by year. Together they follow his travels, friendships, court service, imprisonment, and exile, with notes on the events of each reign.
Why is Li Bai called the banished immortal?
The collection says the court official He Zhizhang greeted Li Bai in Chang'an with that name, and Li Bai later uses it himself in a preface. It suggests a being from heaven who has landed on earth.
What are the best-known poems in the collection?
Among the best-known are Bring in the Wine, Quiet Night Thoughts, the poems on the waterfall at Mount Lu, Seeing Meng Haoran Off from Yellow Crane Tower, and the two Changgan poems. They are easy to find by title.
The author
Li Bai
701–762 · Chinese Tang dynasty poet
Li Bai was a Chinese poet who lived from 701 to 762 during the Tang dynasty. He wrote poetry in the eighth century. He grew up in what is now Sichuan and travelled through China. He spent time at the imperial court in Chang’an, now called Xi’an, in the 740s.
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