The Great Poet Tai Bai is Drunk Now

Li Bai, also called Li Tai Bai, was a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907), who lived a romantic life. He wrote more than 900 poems, which remain popular among ordinary Chinese people to this day. His poems are an artistic portrayal of reality as well as his own spiritual life during the glorious age of the Tang Dynasty. He frankly expresses his expectation of achieving academic honours, as well as his anxiety regarding the Emperor's tolerance of corrupt ministers.

Li Tai Bai [played by Dong Po An] is deprived of his position as a successful candidate in the imperial civil service examination because he has no money to bribe the two men in charge of the exam: Prime Minister Yang Guozhong, the country's de facto ruler, and the eunuch Gao Lishi. The poet's name, however, is already popular among scholars and officials of the time. As an outstanding artist himself, the Emperor enjoys reading Li Tai Bai's poems, and appoints the poet an Academician Bachelor at the imperial court. This is a position with no real function except accompanying the Emperor and his concubines to certain social activities. Li Tai Bai dislikes the palace power struggles, and once loudly proclaims that he is not happy to serve and observe officials who are so corrupt, yet so powerful. These officials — including Prime Minister Yang Guozhong — see the poet, of course, as a thorn in their side.

One day, the ruler of a southeastern kingdom sends a messenger to the Tang capital. The messenger presents his credentials to the court in his local language, which none of the officials can understand. The Emperor feels he has lost face, and that the Tang Dynasty has been shamed. Li Tai Bai, who has been drinking with friends at a small inn, is summoned to the palace. He reads the letter without a single mistake, dumbfounding the envoy. When Li Tai Bai is asked to write a reply, he demands that Prime Minister Yang Guozhong prepare the paper for the letter, and that the eunuch Gao Lishi clean his boots as he writes.