The Banished Immortal Taibai: Poetry That Holds the Nine Provinces in Place

I am Li Bai, courtesy name Taibai, an ordinary scholar from Shu.

I don’t know that in my previous life I was an exiled immortal from the heavens, or that something lies hidden within me. I only know that drinking makes me want to write poetry, and whenever I write a poem, my dantian stirs, as if something inside it is taking root.

Others cultivate immortality through spiritual energy. I do it by writing poetry. Poetry comes from the human heart, and wine is brewed from grain. The Heavenly Court can’t monitor either. They think I’m just a scholar who wanders the mountains and writes poems for his own amusement. No one knows what lies within me.

Only when the An Lushan Rebellion erupts do I discover the Heavenly Court’s conspiracy behind this catastrophe. A demonic seed lies within An Lushan, the Poetry Prison Star Lord wants to seize my poetic meridians, and my poetry has already, without my realizing it, grown into a power capable of subduing the Nine Heavens.

The mountains and rivers become poetry; my poetic meridians subdue the Nine Heavens. This time, I’ll make both heaven and earth know: the poetry remains, the wine remains, and I remain.