Analysis of the Meaning of Idioms in Selected Poems of Li Bai (李白)

Idioms serve as crucial components that illustrate the expressive capabilities of a society’s language and enhance stylistic richness. Their presence significantly enriches the narrative quality of literary works. Throughout Chinese history, literary creations have emerged in various periods, with distinct genres gaining prominence. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), poetry notably ascended as a leading literary form. This study investigates the idioms found in selected poems by Li Bai, an immortal poet emblematic of Tang poetry. Li Bai’s body of work includes over a thousand poems. The analysis focuses on his poems featured in Three Hundred Tang Poems (唐诗三百首), compiled by Gu Qing in 2009 and published by Zhonghua Shuju (中华书局), which is a vital resource for scholars of Tang poetry and is written in Chinese. Employing a qualitative research design, the study utilizes literature screening for data collection, followed by content analysis. The volume encompasses twenty-six poems attributed to Li Bai, eight of which contain a total of fifteen distinct idioms. The research includes translations of these poems into Turkish, provides a thematic overview, analyzes and categorizes the idioms by meaning, and offers suggestions for closely related Turkish idioms.