section_path: Life/Death
section_name: Death
paragraph_text: Death
  
  The new Emperor Daizong appointed Li Bai as a court counsellor in January 764, but by the time the imperial edict arrived in Dangtu, Anhui, Li Bai had already been reported dead for more than a year. Local authorities, however, were only able to ascertain that he died sometime in 762, with the date and cause of his death lost to history.
  
  Later writers speculated about Li's death. The ninth-century Tang poet Pi Rixiu suggested in a poem that Li had died of chronic thoracic suppuration (pus entering the chest cavity). According to another source, Li Bai drowned after falling from his boat one day while drunk, as he tried to embrace the reflection of the moon in the Yangtze River.