Is Li Bai a Han Chinese?

There is no exact historical record of Li Bai's nationality.

In fact, Li Bai's life and family background were kept secret in the Tang Dynasty, and Li Bai himself rarely mentioned it. Although the exploration of Li Bai's life experience has never stopped since the founding of New China, it is inconclusive.

While there is still a debate about the birthplace of Li Bai in China, Kyrgyz scholars almost agree that Li Bai was born in Broken Leaf City, and more Kyrgyz scholars have turned their research direction to Kyrgyz translation of Li Bai's poems, Li Bai's poems and the Silk Road, Li Bai's life and creation.

Beshi Mbev, director of Kyrgyzstan's neighboring countries department, said at the seminar that the international seminar "Li Bai and the Silk Road" provided a platform for scholars from Kyrgyzstan and China to communicate with each other. He sincerely hopes that the two peoples will develop and prosper together on the basis of friendly exchanges and cooperation.

However, unlike the lively academic research on Li Bai, few ordinary Kyrgyz people know about Li Bai, not to mention that such a great poet may have been born in their country.

Xinhua News Agency reporter visited "Li Bai's former residence" in Broken Leaf City. There is no other protection, maintenance and museum except an earthen bag with some grass. Almost all the tourists who went there to pay homage to the poet's birthplace came from China.

Professor Zhu thinks this is a great pity, because Li Bai writes in Chinese, so his influence in Central Asia is far lower than that of Genghis Khan. Zhu found that experts from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and other countries around China agreed that Li Bai was born in Broken Leaf City. They are also happy to see a poet born in Central Asia finally become the spokesman of China culture. Therefore, he summed up the opinions of experts from all sides, and thought that Li Bai was a very important common denominator under the background of advocating the Silk Road culture, and he could become the image spokesperson of China culture and move towards today's Silk Road. ?

It is reported that this is the first transnational academic seminar on the poet Li Bai, attended by more than 60 experts and scholars from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.

In the Tang Dynasty, when there was no birth certificate, big data and cloud computing, it was really difficult to verify where Li Bai was born. At present, there are two widely accepted views in academic circles. One is that Li Bai was born in Broken Leaf City in Central Asia, and the other is that Li Bai was born in Changlong County, Mianzhou, Shu County, which is now Qinglian Township, jiangyou city, Sichuan Province.

At this seminar, almost all Chinese and foreign experts tend to say that Li Bai was born in Broken Leaf City. Broken Leaves, an important town set up in the Western Regions in the Tang Dynasty, is also called "Anxi Four Towns" with Qiuci, Shule and Yutian in the Tang Dynasty, and is located near tokmak, Kyrgyzstan (the site of Akbeg Sim).

Professor Zhu, director of Peking University China Ancient History Research Center who specializes in Li Bai, said in an interview that many domestic scholars believe that Li Bai was born in Sichuan and he was born in Shandong. However, many scholars who studied Li Bai and Du Fu after the founding of New China, including Chen Yinque and Guo Moruo, think that Li Bai was born in Central Asia.

Zhu said that there are indeed many mysteries in Li Bai's life, because his poems do not clearly explain his life experience. As we all know, the trade on the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty was one of the most prosperous periods in history, and the exchanges between various ethnic groups were also very prosperous at that time. Many nationalities outside the Tang Dynasty entered the sphere of influence of the Tang Dynasty. Unfortunately, these peoples lack genealogy and records of their origins in China.

For the study of Li Bai's birthplace, it is more important to confirm that before Li Bai's death, someone prefaced his Selected Works (Li Zuoxu, hereinafter referred to as Li Zuoxu). In the preface, it is mentioned that Li Bai was born in Central Asia, which refers to the border areas of the western regions in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, the tombstone rebuilt more than 50 years after Li Bai's death (written by Fan, hereinafter referred to as Fan's Monument) also mentions that he was born in "Tiaozhi".

Professor Zhu believes that some experts and scholars sincerely hope that a great poet like Li Bai should be born in China, but even if Li Bai was born in Central Asia, it will not damage the glory of China culture. Because it also shows the strong attraction and centripetal force of China culture at that time, which made foreign nations willing to join in the creation and integration of China culture.

Li Bai didn't tell his life story or hide something. It is still difficult to determine whether he is a Han nationality, a semi-final of the conference, or a mixed-race person.

At the seminar, although experts generally agreed that Li Bai was born in broken leaves, it was impossible to determine whether he was a Han Chinese born in broken leaves or a barbarian.

Ge Jingchun, a researcher at Henan Academy of Social Sciences, said at the seminar that Li Bai's family background is very complicated. Maybe his family didn't give him the answer, or maybe Li Bai knew it clearly, but he didn't want to explain it clearly or he couldn't, so people haven't thoroughly researched his family background so far. However, from a large number of materials, we can feel that Li Bai is inextricably linked with the cultures of Central Asia and the Western Regions.

Qi Dongfang of Peking University Institute of Archaeology and Culture mentioned in his argument that according to historical records, a major case happened in the court of Sui Dynasty. Li Hun, a powerful minister, was accused of rebellion, and more than 30 people from Li Hun and other clans were executed. The surviving young and old all moved outside the ridge, and one of them flowed into the broken leaf. Scholars have verified that Li's A Room with Broken Leaves is the fifth ancestor of Li Bai, who was born in broken leaves.

Teacher Qi Dongfang's words, if spoken in today's popular language, probably mean: Li Bai's ancestors were high-ranking court officials at the end of Sui Dynasty. Accused of rebellion, more than 30 people in Li Bai's ancestral home were sentenced to death, and the surviving old people and children fled to other places, and a group of people arrived near tokmak, Kyrgyzstan, where Li Bai was born.

However, the School of Literature and Journalism and Communication of Minzu University of China mentioned in Preface and Fan Bei that Chen Yinque's textual research on Li Bai's family history asserted that Li Bai was "a person with a deeper clan in the West Lake", but the statement that Li Bai's ancestors smashed branches and leaves because of crimes at the end of Sui Dynasty was untrue.

Liang Sen believes that Chen Yinque's inference is based on historical data, which is quite convincing, but there are also doubts. However, these doubts are not enough to overturn Chen Yinque's textual research without targeted and reliable evidence.

Ge Jingchun of Henan Academy of Social Sciences pointed out at the seminar that whether Li Bai is a hybrid or a barbarian is still a question of speculation and debate. For example, Li Bai's appearance, Hao Wei, a poet in the Tang Dynasty and a die-hard fan of Li Bai, said that he was "hungry like a tiger with wide eyes", which is really not like a pure Han Chinese.

And his father named him Bai, and the words were too white. According to Fan, Li Bai's so-called "image-taking" astrology refers to the Chang Geng star (that is, the Taibai Venus, which appears in the southwest every evening), implying that the residence of Li Bai's ancestors and Li Bai's birthplace are both from the west. And Li Bai's father's name "Li Ke", Ge Jingchun also thinks that it is not a normal Chinese name, but should be called by locals to outsiders.