Court official who first hailed 李白 as an immortal banished from heaven. Children learn his 咏柳 and 回乡偶书, about coming home after fifty years to children who take him for a stranger.
Hè Zhīzhāng shì Tángcháo de shīrén, huódào le bāshí duō suì.
He Zhizhang was a Tang dynasty poet who lived into his eighties.
Tips
mistakes
《回乡偶书》 opens 少小离家老大回，乡音无改鬓毛衰, 'left home young, back home old; my accent unchanged, my temples gone thin'. The last character, 衰, is a famous trap: many people learned it as cuī to rhyme with huí, but school textbooks mark it shuāi.
history
Li Bai recalled that at their first meeting He Zhizhang paid for their wine by unhooking the gold tortoise of his official dress, the story behind 金龟换酒. 杜甫 pictured him drunk, riding his horse as if sailing a boat: 知章骑马似乘船.
