Abstract: The meeting with Su Ting in Chengdu proved to be an important event in Li Bai's early literary life when Li Bai was encouraged and directed. Before the meeting, Li Bai's writing was more of a local literature than of a literary master starting a new literature. Su Ting was then lauded as "Master Pen" (Da Shoubi), and his appreciation of Li Bai's literary talent, to the extent that he compared Li Bai to Sima Xiangru, was influential on Li Bai's late writing. Especially, Su Ting's comments on the relationship between rhetoric (Ci-cai 辞采) and vigor of style (Feng-gu 风骨) and the relationship between talent (Cai 才) and learning (Xue 学) were instrumental to Li Bai's creative practice.

Key words: Li Bai, Su Ting, vigor of style (Fenggu), Sima Xiangru, local literary tradition