Li Bai - Name Variants

Name Variants

Li (李) is the family name, or surname; however, he has been and is known by various names. His given name is written with a Chinese character (白), which is romanized variously as Po, Bo, Bai, Pai, and other variants. Even in Hanyu Pinyin there is ambiguity, as Bái is the common variant and Bó the literary variant. His style name, also known as courtesy name, was Taibai (Wade-Giles: Tai-pai; 太白), literally "Great White," a reference to the planet Venus. Thus, combining the family name with the style name, his name appears in variants such as Li Taibo, Li Taibai, Li Tai-po, and others). Less commonly in English, he also may be known by the pseudonym (hao), Qīnglián Jūshì (Wade-Giles: Ching-lien Chu-shih; 青蓮居士), meaning Householder of the Azure Lotus, or the nicknames Poet Transcendent (simplified Chinese: 诗仙; traditional Chinese: 詩仙; pinyin: Shīxiān; Wade–Giles: Shih-hsien), Wine Immortal (Chinese: 酒仙; pinyin: Jiǔxiān; Wade–Giles: Chiu-hsien), Banished Transcendent (Chinese: 謫仙人; pinyin: Zhéxiānrén; Wade–Giles: Che-hsien-jen), Poet-Knight-errant (simplified Chinese: 诗侠; traditional Chinese: 詩俠; pinyin: Shīxiá; Wade–Giles: Shih-hsia, or "Poet-Hero"). In works in which the English transliteration is derived through Japanese, his name may be given as Ri Haku or Ri Taihaku. All of these variants, and more, with or without hyphenation, have been historically attested to.