Li Bai Drunken and Asleep

Li Bai drunken and asleep is a painting from Soga Shohaku. Li Bai was a poet from Tang Dynasty. He was a genius and a romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. The poems were based on celebrations of friendship, then ature, solitude, and the joys of drinking wine. He drank so much that there was a story that Li drowned because he tried to grasp the moon's reflection in the river from a boat. In this painting he’s probably really drunk as well we can tell from his sloppy clothes, and didn’t seem to be able to walk straight. Li Bai had a strong sense of himself in his work. He knew how to self-fashion himself just like these literati painters. There’s a strong sense of nostalgia in his poem, and he aspired to connect to figures like Tao Yuan Ming, just as literati painters aligned themselves with past Chinese poets.