Bring In the Wine (Full-Text Jizi) · Li Bai

Li Bai · The Immortal Poet · Tang · Li Bai

“君不見黃河之水天上來，奔流到海不復回。君不見高堂明鏡悲白髮，朝如青絲暮成雪。人生得意須盡歡，莫使金樽空對月。天生我材必有用，千金散盡還復來。” “Have you not seen the Yellow River’s waters falling from the sky, racing to the sea, never to return? … Heaven made my talent for some use; spend a thousand gold and it will all come back.” Li Bai’s most exuberant drinking song, all 176 characters (136 distinct) set vertically, each collected from public-domain calligraphy: 114 are in Yan Zhenqing’s hand, from rubbings of his Duobao Pagoda, Yan Family Temple, Yan Qinli, Zang Huaike, Magu Altar, Dongfang Shuo Portrait Eulogy, Guo Family Temple, Great Tang Restoration and Yuan Zi steles. Where no intact Yan character survives, Tang, then Song, then Yuan masters fill in: 飲 and 停 from Ouyang Xun’s Jiucheng Palace stele (Tang); 奔 from Cai Xiang’s Zhoujin Hall (Song rubbing), 宴 from Cai Xiang’s Wan’an Bridge (Song rubbing, written 讌), 醉, 醒 and 絲 from the Old Drunkard’s Pavilion stele in Su Shi’s hand, and 烹 from Su Shi’s ink scroll Ode to Zhongshan Pine Wine (Song); 裘, 徑, 兒, 沽, 銷, 恣, 饌 and 愁 from Zhao Mengfu’s ink scroll Xiaoxue, 斗, 酌 and 樽 from a rubbing of his regular-script Former Red Cliff Ode (樽 in its original form 尊), and 換 from a rubbing of his Song of Health (Yuan). 謔 and 寞 survive in no usable public-domain hand and are composites built from parts in the same Zhao scroll: 謔 = the 言 side of 誰 + 虐 from “夫妻相虐”; 寞 = the roof of 家 + 莫 from “自旦至莫”. Variant forms follow the sources: 迴 for 回, 鍾 for 鐘, 銭 for 錢, 尒 for 爾, 湏 for 須, 来 for 來; the top of 歡 is worn on the stone. Borrowed characters are matched to the Yan characters in stroke weight, size and ink tone. Plain paper ground.

$32 (reference) · ¥229 CNY

Case only · fits standard-size inserts (insert not included)