1. Wang Wei (692-761, one theory is 699-759), whose courtesy name was Mojie and whose name was Mojie Jushi. His ancestral home was Qi County, Shanxi. His father moved to Puzhou (now Yongji, Shanxi). City), so he was from Hedong. He was a poet and painter of the landscape pastoral school in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. He was known as the "Buddha of Poetry" and has more than 400 poems in existence today. Important poems include "Lovesickness", "Mountain Dwelling in Autumn Twilight", etc.
Wang Wei was influenced by his mother and was proficient in Buddhism. His name "Vimalakirti" was taken from the Buddhist "Vimalakirti Sutra". Together with Meng Haoran, they are collectively known as "Wang Meng". Wang Wei studied the Taoism in Xuezhuang and was proficient in poetry, calligraphy, painting, music, etc. He was famous among Kaiyuan and Tianbao for his poetry, which was especially long in five words and mostly eulogized about landscapes and countryside. Together with Meng Haoran, he was called "Wang Meng" and was known as the "Poetry Buddha" . His calligraphy and painting were so exquisite that later generations regarded him as the ancestor of Nanzong landscape painting.
2. Bai Juyi (February 28, 772-September 8, 846), whose courtesy name was Letian, and later nicknamed Xiangshan Jushi and Mr. Zuiyin, was known as a great educator in the poetry world. His ancestral home is Taiyuan, Shanxi, and he was born in Xinzheng, Henan. He was a litterateur in the Tang Dynasty. He had precise articles and was especially good at writing poems. He was one of the most representative poets in the mid-Tang Dynasty. The work is so approachable that it is said that "an old woman can understand it".
Bai Juyi was actively engaged in political reform in his early years, cared about people's livelihood, advocated the New Yuefu Movement, and advocated that poetry creation cannot be divorced from reality, and must be based on real events and reflect the conditions of the times. He is an important leader of practical literature after Du Fu. One of the characters. Although he still cared about people's livelihood in his later years, due to political frustration, he often indulged in poetry and drinking, and wrote "The Biography of Mr. Zuiyin" to express his feelings.
Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen are as famous as "Yuan Bai". Yuan and Bai were partners in the literary innovation movement. They wrote "Yuan's Changqing Collection" and "Bai's Changqing Collection" respectively, which are known as "Yuan Bai". It is Changqing style, also known as Yuanhe style. In his later years, Bai Juyi sang many songs with Liu Yuxi and was known as "Liu Bai".
Extended information
1. Wang Wei had a positive attitude towards life and political ambitions in his youth. He wrote poems about frontier fortresses and knights, such as "Longxi Journey", using the lyrics of song. The genre, describing various aspects of subject matter, has the vigorous style of Cen Shen and Gao Shi.
Wang Wei’s later works of singing about landscapes truly represent his poetic art. The works are mainly five-character works such as "Birdsong Stream", which describes retired life, pastoral landscapes, and pursues a quiet and leisurely spiritual life. The style is quiet and simple.
Wang Wei and Li Linfu had a close relationship. Wang called Li a "philosopher and craftsman" in "He Pu She She Jin Gong's Retinue Wen Tang". During Li's tenure, Wang Wei served as a doctor in the Treasury Department and a doctor in the Official Department, the highest ranking of the fifth rank. The two are also painting friends.
2. Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen were good friends. They had similar understandings of the function of poetry and prose, so they became comrades in the New Yuefu Movement. At the same time, their poetry skills were comparable, so they often sang and harmonized. play. Bai Juyi often lived in Luoyang in his later years and often communicated with Liu Yuxi.
The prose works of Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen were famous in the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. At that time, their literary reputation was still higher than that of Han Yu. Later, the literary names of Yuan and Bai were not prominent, for several reasons: first, because the classical prose movement of the Northern Song Dynasty advocated the promotion of Han Yu; second, because the names of Yuan and Bai poems were too popular, their literary reputation was obscured.
Bai Juyi attached great importance to allegorical poetry, and his creative intention was to use poetry to make up for the shortcomings of current politics. Representative works include "Qin Zhongyin", "New Yuefu", etc. The practice of poetry theory put forward relatively systematic remonstrances on many social problems at that time. It is a representative work of realism in Chinese classical poetry.