Tang Dynasty: history, culture, and political significance

Li Po's corpus of work reveals the poet's unabashed joie du vivre and celebration of sensory pleasures, particularly the pleasure found in drink. His lifestyle parallels the content of his poems, too, as Li PO was known not for being an elite or erudite poet but an eccentric and a wanderer. His role at court became that of poet-fool, and as Stephen Owen points out, "people in power in China liked to keep a couple of these around. It was considered sort of nice to have one. They entertained you. They were supposed to be wild and free." Most of Li Po's work have a "wild and free" quality. Li Po poems do not seem to make a point or generate deep philosophical meaning as they do capture the pure pleasure of living in the moment and enjoying the human experience, especially an intoxicating one. Nature also plays a strong role in Li Po's poems, showing his Taoist predilections. Li Po's work conveys an element of transcendence, as if through the seemingly superficial act of drinking one perceives the true and pleasingly simple nature of reality and truth. The self-reflection taking place in "Drinking Alone with the Moon" and the revelry in "Bring in the Wine" serve similar functions in Li Po's worldview, in that they both provide the keys to understanding the simple pleasures in life.

Drinking is not a metaphor for Li Po, but a concrete act to be taken at face value, one that is critical not just in social interactions but also for a mystical or transcendent experience. In "Drinking Alone with the Moon," the narrator relishes his solitude, generating companionship out of an interaction with the moon and his own shadow. "I raise my cup, invite the bright moon; / facing my shadow, together we make three," (lines 3-4). Far from being a lamentation on loneliness, "Drinking Alone with the Moon" becomes a celebration of solitude. The narrator "invites" the moon, too, which because of the light it emits, creates the speaker's shadow. "Together we make three," (line 4). Now, the speaker is not alone because he recognizes the value in self-reflection. The moon is literally a reflective body, so it makes sense that a person interested in self-reflection would choose both the moon and his own shadow as drinking companions. The moon symbolizes reflection as an act and phenomenon, and the shadow is the object of reflection. Moreover, the speaker is not bothered by his shadow-self; he is comfortable with the darker parts of his being just as he enjoys the night, replete with its curtain of stars in the Milky Way (line 14). He "sings" and "dances" with his companions, who move with him because they are his own reflections (lines 9-10). Thus, Li Po shows how it is possible to find joy in every moment.

The seeking and expressing of joy in intoxication is also a main motif in "Bring in the Wine," but in the latter, Li Po lauds the social and celebratory function of alcohol. Longer in verse and more elated and excited in style than "Drinking Alone with the Moon," "Bring in the Wine" also shows how the speaker cultivates a relationship with celestial bodies. "Drinking Alone with the Moon" languishes like a lonely evening; whereas "Bring in the Wine" buzzes by like a party. When the narrator asks both old master Cen and young scholar Danqiu to "Bring in the wine!" he expands his social circle to show that drinking does indeed have a social component and is not to obliterate the senses at all, but to enhance them. "Let your cups never rest!" the poet explains, creating a more festive and party-like atmosphere than in "Drinking Alone with the Moon." Whereas "Drinking Alone with the Moon" is literally about drinking alone, "Bring in the Wine" is about drinking with other people to celebrate. In "Drinking Alone with the Moon," the speaker sings and dances with only moon and shadow as companions, but in "Bring the Wine," the narrator says to his companions, "Let me sing you a song!" and refers to bell and drum too (line 15).

If "Drinking Alone with the Moon" is introverted, then "Bring in the Wine" is its extraverted counterpart. These two poems together capture the paradoxical nature of Li Po's work, as the poet served as a quintessential joker who delivers poignant truths through humor. Nature imagery, a cornerstone of Taoist art, makes its way into both "Drinking Alone with the Moon" and "Bring in the Wine," reminding the reader that understanding essential truths requires an appreciation of the beauty in the natural world. In "Drinking Alone with the Moon," the natural world is screened off, the moon being the only connection between the speaker and the outside world. In "Bring in the Wine," the first line eludes to the way the Yellow River's waters emerge from Heaven, and "enter the ocean, never to return," (line 1-2). The eternity alluded to here, of the waters "never to return," is paralleled by the reference to the Milky Way in "Bring in the Wine."