The immense box office success of Chang'An, a Chinese animated film released this summer, has allowed many people to rediscover Li Bai, a Tang Dynasty (618-907) poet who rivals his contemporary Du Fu for the title of China's greatest poet of all time. A romantic in his view of life and also in his verse, Li is much loved for both his wildly imaginative poems and his carefree lifestyle.

The poet was always on the move. Records show Li visited 206 counties in 18 provinces, climbed some 80 mountains and crossed more than 60 rivers. According to a digital map created by a research team at Central China Normal University, the poet's travel range extended from Sichuan Province in the west to Zhejiang Province in the east, quite a large range considering the absence of modern transportation.

The team also mapped out the poet's emotional trajectories based on his poems. For Li, Jinling (nowadays Nanjing) was a place loaded with sad memories of farewells. Dangtu, a county in Anhui Province, was a bittersweet spot that witnessed both the poet's happy days of youth and his bleak end of life.

Li's highly nomadic lifestyle is part of a wider trend that saw the literati travel extensively throughout the country. The dynasty's astounding wealth and power furnished poets with a stable sphere in which they could travel safely, as well as an open environment with great social mobility. The paths these Tang Dynasty poets traveled not only reflect the socioeconomic changes of the time, but also transcend their era to become enduring symbols. Their poetic portrayals of the country's diverse landscapes have profoundly shaped Chinese people's spatial perception.

(Lifeweek, October 2)