Life And Mortality In Li Po's The Moon At The Fortified Pass

People search for the answers to universal questions that pertain life and death, as well as attempt to face their mortality, and have done so since prehistoric times. These struggles are documented in various cultures across the world. The beautiful poetry of Japan and China are an excellent example of this. Chinese literature often addresses universal questions about death, life, and mortality, such as Form, Shadow, Spirit, written by T’ao Ch’ien, which addresses the inability to escape death; The Moon at the Fortified Pass, written by Li Po, which expresses that one’s purpose in life is to face his mortality and fulfill his duties regardless of this knowledge; and the aforementioned Form, Shadow, Spirit, which also states that one should find a balance in his life when living with the understanding of his death.
Form, a personified version of the human body, comments: They call us earth’s most divine and wise things, but. . .One moment we appear in this world, and the next, we vanish, never to return. (T’ao Ch’ien, 5-8) He tries to say that life is transient. While the earth seems to last forever, human life is fleeting. Once a person dies, all of them is gone and it cannot be prevented despite one’s efforts. Spirit, a personified version of the human soul, confesses: It’s never-ending analysis that wounds us. . . . Once your time comes to an end, you end; not another moment lost to all those lonely worries. (T’ao Ch’ien 51, 53-56) He enlightens the other two when he says that one should not concern himself too much with trying to prevent death because it will happen regardless of what one tries. Both Form and Spirit agree that one cannot, in fact, escape death because it is essential to the circle of