A Textual Study of Li Bai's "On the Road from Lishui"

The record in the old gazetteer

Volume 11 of the Kangxi edition of the Lishui County Gazetteer, the "Literature" section, carries a poem title ascribed to Li Bai:

自溧水道中哭王炎三首 李 白 — Kangxi Lishui County Gazetteer, 卷之十一·艺文志

Translated: Three Poems Mourning Wang Yan on the Road from Lishui, by Li Bai.

Only the "Literature" section of that edition has been examined for this site; no record of Li Bai's movements in Lishui has been found in its other volumes, and none is inferred from them.

The scenic-area account

A page run by the Wuxiang Water Town scenic area states that Li Bai left a number of poems in Lishui, including "Fenjin Well" and three poems "Mourning Wang Yan on the Road from Lishui". The page is published by the scenic area itself, cites no evidence, and carries limited authority.

The two readings of Lishui

One reading takes Lishui in the poem's title to mean present-day Lishui District in Nanjing, so that the poem was written while Li Bai was travelling through Lishui.

The other takes Lishui to mean a waterway near Liyang, so that "on the road" refers to a journey by water and has nothing to do with present-day Lishui.

Both readings are recorded in the source material held by this site; scholarly and other accounts differ, and this entry sets the two side by side without deciding between them.

Uncertainties

First, what Lishui refers to in the poem's title is undecided. This site holds no collation of editions and no chronological biography of Li Bai, and the poem's inclusion in the old gazetteer does not by itself establish that it was written in present-day Lishui.

Second, apart from the scenic-area page, no source held by this site mentions the poem "Fenjin Well"; its title and attribution remain to be checked.

Third, only volume 11 of the Kangxi edition has been examined; whether other volumes contain related records has not been checked.