Bai Juyi is undoubtedly the first China poet who has the greatest influence on Japanese Chinese literature and even ancient Japanese literature.
According to textual research, the time when Bai Juyi's works were first introduced to Japan was recorded in the Record of Emperor Wende of Japan. In the fifth year of He Cheng (838), Fujiwara, the Yueshou of Taizai Sauer, picked out Bai Yuan's poems and pens from the articles brought by Tang merchants and presented them to Ren Ming. Subsequently, the envoys in Tang Dynasty brought back more works one after another. Once his poems were introduced, they spread quickly and were deeply loved by Japanese literati at that time. According to "See Japan in Bibliography", there were Bai's Collected Works (70 volumes) and Bai's Changqing Collection (29 volumes) that spread to Japan at that time. According to the statistics of Japanese scholar Kim Jiro's "heian period Literature" and "White Anthology", in "Tales of the Millennium" edited by Ping 'an scribe Dajiang Weishi, * * received a total of1110 poems by Chinese and Japanese poets. According to Kawaguchi's statistics, in Fujiwara's poems, * * * contains 588 poems, among which Bai Juyi's poems are 139.
At that time, in Japan, anyone who talked about China's poetry must call it Selected Works and Bai Changqing Collection. According to Jiang Tan Copy, the fifty-second Japanese emperor Yi, who was contemporary with Bai Juyi, liked Bai Juyi's collected works best. According to legend, when he first got the White Anthology, he kept it a secret and read it secretly, which was regarded as a treasure. Later, he wanted to test whether the courtiers were knowledgeable, so he deliberately mispronounced Bai Juyi's poems to test whether the courtiers were familiar with Bai Juyi's poems. If it is, it means that the courtiers are very strong. Once, when Emperor Emei summoned Xiao Ye Yun, a courtier, he wrote a poem in Chinese, saying, "When the pavilion is closed, only the drums are heard at dusk, and when you go upstairs, you can see the ship." Xiao Ye said, "The masterpiece is very good, but it is better to change' far' into' empty'." The emperor sighed with emotion: "This is a sentence from Bai Letian. The word' far' is called' empty', which only makes Qing's ears and Qing's poetic thoughts comfortable." It can be seen that Xiao Ye Huang's recitation of Bai Juyi's poems has reached the level of recitation, so he is also called "Japanese Bai Letian". There is a similar record in Japan's Tea Talk in the History Museum.
Guan Yuan and Da Jiang, a family of Sinologists in Heian period, are also admirers of Evergreen Collection. According to the statistics of the article "Simple Grass" in Kinjiro's "Documents of Heian Period" and "Baiji", Baiji has been cited and used for more than 500 times, and has been innovated and developed. According to records, after receiving the Collection of Poetry, Weiqi praised the poem as "not as simple as Bai Zhuo" with the title of "Seeing the Collection of Right Prime Ministers", and noted at the end of the poem: "Bai Ji, which he loved all his life, has seventy volumes." Ping An Hospital also specially set up a lecture on "White Anthology", which was read by Dajiang Weishi to Emperor Ji and listened to, and later emperors attended the lecture. He also holds many command poems and sings around white poems. Murasaki shikibu, the author of Tale of Genji, as a female official of Empress Akiko, also taught Bai Ji to the Empress. In the works such as Pillow Grass and Tale of Genji that came out in this period, the flexible use of white poems can be seen everywhere. According to the statistics of Tale of Genji and Poems of White Poetry by Maruyama Kiko, Tale of Genji quoted China's classical literature 185, of which 106 were white poems. Bai Juyi was still alive then. Just as in the forty-six years of Wanli in Ming Dynasty, Daoyuan said in the movable type book (preface) of Selected Poems of White Poetry:
Poetry is famous for later generations, but I don't know Qian Qian. There were a few hopes at that time, but what about the situation abroad? ..... JiLin [note 1] Prime Minister exchanged one hundred gold for an article, which was so-called spread to Silla countries in Japan. Alas, the man on the right is also the highest in the country. Bohai visitors are proud of their books when they see their poems, such as Lotte. A person is right, but it's already embarrassing? In the past, the national program was prosperous, there were many people, and there was no quintessence of learning. Anyone who is good at using the author uses this as an excuse. If it is a Japanese song, a popular ballad, a small history, a miscellaneous book, a book of women and children, and does not touch the residual paste of irrigation concentration, it will be full of fragrance, but the country will be beautiful.
In our opinion, the greatest poets in the Tang Dynasty should be named Li Bai and Du Fu at the beginning, and Bai Juyi should be ranked behind. Why is Bai Juyi's influence in Japan unparalleled? The author believes that Bai Juyi's popularity in Japan is mainly based on the following three aspects:
First, the number of white poems is rich, and the materials are widely used, which is easy to learn and learn from. Bai Juyi lived to be 75 years old, and * * * wrote more than 3,000 poems, which were well preserved. Among all the Tang poems, * * * is composed of 39 volumes, which is the most complete preserved poem among the poets in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, due to Bai Juyi's rich experience, his poems covered all aspects of social life at that time. At that time, the Japanese Ping 'an literary world advocated Chinese poetry, met scholars, and recited Chinese poetry and poetry as its ability and talent. For most beginners of Chinese poetry, it is impossible to write a good poem out of thin air without any reference, so an example or dictionary is needed for reference and imitation. The Millennium Story compiled by DJI Guardian mentioned earlier is a kind of reference book produced in response to this demand. In this book, more than 1000 poems of China were collected and compiled in fifteen departments, including seasons, astronomical phenomena, geography, personnel, public affairs, vegetation, animals, feasting and parting. In order to facilitate Japanese scholars to find imitation references according to what they want to recite when writing Chinese poems. This is similar to the template used in our primary school. We read famous books or typical works when we are not good at writing articles. When we copy a lot of articles, we know how to write more. This is typical of the poets in Ping An Hospital. They leafed through the Millennium Ancient Poetry, and whenever they wanted to write a poem, they looked at that kind of work and used that kind of sentence. In any case, this is a kind of exercise. If you can get rid of it, you will establish your own style. The Japanese have their own chorus, but it is often transformed from the works of China literati. Senri Oe, the uncle of Dajiang Weishi, the editor of Millennium Ancient Poetry, compiled a book called Sentences and Songs. The book collects ancient poems and sentences from Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasty for reference when writing and singing. It is divided into nine departments: spring, summer, autumn, winter, romance, sightseeing, chores, parting and lyricism, and each department receives ten to twenty peace songs. First record poems according to their classics, and then echo songs; The harmony songs contained in it are translated and copied, or absorbed and transformed according to the original poems. Because Bai Juyi's output is high, his writing subjects are very extensive, and his personal life, official career and people's livelihood are all narrated and recited, so he naturally became the poet who wrote the most poems, and his rich works naturally became the first choice model for literati to learn poetry creation at that time.
Second, white poetry is simple, straightforward and fluent, and easy to understand and imitate. Bai Juyi's poems have absorbed a large number of folk languages, which are very popular, realistic and civilian, and are known as "an old woman can solve doubts". According to Huihong's "Cold Zhai Night Talk" in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, "every time Bai Letian writes a poem, he asks an old woman to explain it and ask her if she can explain it. If it is solved, record it; Don't get together if you don't understand. " Bai Juyi claimed to be: "people born in the valley are also bad people;" Lewd words and beautiful seaweed are born on those who hurt words. "Bai Juyi, with his genius, wrote poetry in pursuit of vulgarity, and did not avoid slang, saying things in the world, so he almost did it in white poetry. Therefore, Wang lamented: "The good words in the world are exhausted, and the slang in the world is exhausted." Gu pointed out in the Outline of China Literature History: "Gai's poems at that time were on a par with Wei and Han, and even praised the elegance of Xiao's poems, stressing self-esteem and self-glorification. Bai Juyi is mainly ear-oriented; This is obviously a reaction. Xun is very discerning and knowledgeable. You can understand Song of Eternal Sorrow and Pipa without footnotes today. His poems were popular all over the world at that time, from princes to wild ancient villages, and he had to play, which was quite appropriate. Therefore, Bai Juyi is a pure civilian poet. " [Note 2] According to Yuan Zhen's Preface to the Collection of Bai Changqing, it is recorded: "During the Bashu period, Chang 'an teenagers copied each other, contending for new words, naming themselves yuan and poems. ..... but in the past 20 years, there have been no books on the wall of the Forbidden Temple, all of which are the words of princes and concubines. " Bai Juyi also said in his own letter to Yuan Zhen: "Xia Yijun was hanging out with a prostitute, and the prostitute boasted,' Is the everlasting regret I recited the same as him? "Therefore, the price has been raised." The popularity of white poetry can be seen.
High songs are few. Li Bai's poem "Wang Yang" is arbitrary and difficult to imitate. Bai Juyi's poems are clear and fluent, like those of the lower classes in Ba Li, so they are sung by many people. Although Chinese poetry was popular in Japan at that time, after all, Chinese is a foreign language and difficult to understand. How many poets in China can reach the level of Li Bai and Du Fu, not to mention the Japanese? Therefore, no matter how enthusiastic the noble scribes of the Ping 'an Dynasty are about China's poems, no matter how enthusiastic they are about China's culture, it is not easy to write imaginative and profound poems with complicated China characters and unfamiliar China language! The poems of Li Bai and Du Fu are too difficult for them to learn. Only Bai Juyi's poems meet the requirements of reading and copying, so they are deeply loved by Pingan literati.
Thirdly, the "leisure" and "sentimental" aesthetic taste and Buddhist thought embodied in Bai's poems are in line with heian period's cultural background, which easily resonates with literati. Bai Juyi divided his poems into four categories: satire, leisure, sentimentality and miscellaneous law. He told himself: "A beautiful man is called irony; Those who chant temperament are called leisure; Touching things is sentimental; Others are miscellaneous methods. "
Bai Juyi's own satirical poems, especially Qin Zhongyin and New Yuefu, are most valued and praised. Among them, poems such as singing and dancing, buying flowers, selling charcoal Weng, Xinfeng brokeback Weng and so on, such as swords, are all well-known masterpieces. This is because Bai Juyi, who has just entered the official career, has a high enthusiasm for politics, so he will pay attention to things such as rent, tribute, maids and eunuchs. In order to write these allegorical poems reflecting the sufferings of people's livelihood, we can also put forward that "the article is timely, and the songs and poems are the same." Poetry advocate. Bai Juyi clearly declared in "Preface to New Yuefu" that these poems are "written for the monarch, ministers, people, things and things, not for writing", and said that such poems are aimed at "singing only makes people sick, and I hope the emperor knows".
However, Bai Juyi's political enthusiasm gradually faded with repeated setbacks. In the decades-long struggle between Niu and Li Changda, Bai Juyi was always excluded, and his early ambitions were gradually exhausted. In order to avoid disaster, he amused himself with poetry, wine, meditation and traveling, and created a leisurely poem with feelings. The poetry reveals the politics of seclusion everywhere, which satisfies Changle's thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi, as well as his yearning for a quiet and secluded pastoral life and his interest in leading a clean life. The greatest achievements in the poems about cherishing the memory are Song of Eternal Sorrow and Pipa, which have deep affection between the lines, vivid description, diverse atmosphere and harmonious rhythm, and have achieved high artistic achievements. But in Tongyuan and six years, my mother died and my daughter died. Bai Juyi lived in Wei Village for three years. He is poor and ill. He lives on the help of his good friend Yuan Zhen. Later, he was hated by the prime minister and was demoted to the state secretariat because he demanded the urgent arrest of Wu. He was also slandered by Wang Ya, a Chinese calligrapher, and was later demoted to Jiangzhou Sima. In the past few years, he suffered a series of blows from the loss of his loved ones and the frustration of his career, which made his thoughts change greatly. "From then on, the career will grow, and the world will never say anything" ("Heavy Topic"); In Jiangzhou, he called himself "a man who has fallen to the end of the world". From then on, I began to turn to Zen and ask Buddha.
As a man knocked down by the contradictions and troubles in the world, he regards Buddhism as the doctrine and practice of purifying the soul. [Note 3] Trying to get liberation from Buddhism. As "The Immortal Sound" said: "I will decide to learn Zen, and I will worry about it for a long time." In his later years, Bai Juyi became more tired of worldly troubles and tried to get rid of them. He took refuge in the pure land Sect, claiming to "get rid of the wheel of life and death" and "wash away the dust of troubles forever" (as before), thus setting foot on the pure land of the West. When painting Maitreya Buddha, he said that he would "burn incense as a gift and make a big wish" .. May I have an afterlife. In many of Bai Juyi's later works, Buddhist thoughts are obviously branded.
Bai Juyi lived in the era of the separatist regime in the buffer region after the Anshi Rebellion, and the unified and powerful Datang declined rapidly, and there were large and small separatist warlords. This is very similar to the social reality that the emperor's authority declined and Wu Tong rose everywhere in Heian period. However, in Ping 'an literature, few people accept Bai Juyi's satirical poems full of "saving the world". Although he praised Qi for punctuality, he wrote ten Poems on a Cold Morning, which reflected the living conditions of the people at the bottom of society, such as walkers, widowers, drug stores, postal kiosks, charterers and salt sellers. However, as decadent aristocrats or official classes in peacetime, they were never interested in the sufferings of the lower classes. Even if they are honest, they "can't see the clear declaration of Bai Juyi's intention in the Preface to New Yuefu and the Preface to Qin Zhongyin". Therefore, "according to the traditional Japanese concept, poetry should be elegant and charming, and it is probably impossible to be frank about this direct political criticism." What they appreciate is Bai Juyi's spirit of pursuing the unity of nature and man, the unity of mind and matter, his delicate grasp of seasonal changes, his thoughts of "leisure" and "sadness" running through Buddhism and Taoism, and his gloomy and sad mood. This is in line with the ancient Japanese's "mourning for things" and "elegance" mind, keen sense of season and aesthetic taste. [Note 5] At the same time, due to the rise and fall of the dynasty nobles in the last years of Ping 'an, the upper-class aristocrats who have always been addicted to prosperity have a sense of loss and deeply touched the impermanence of the world. The middle and lower class aristocrats who have always been dissatisfied with the status quo are more world-weary and pray for the paradise of the afterlife. They widely accept the idea of "disgusting filth and longing for pure land", which has contributed to the prevalence of Buddhist thought. This also aroused their deep admiration for Lao Zi and Zhuangzi in Bai Juyi's poems, as well as Buddhism's pursuit of liberation in the afterlife. They imitate Bai Juyi's love poems, indulge themselves and seek psychological sustenance and comfort. Tales of Genji, Pillow Grass, Tales of Ise, Diary of the Japanese Ministry of Peace, etc. They all clearly reflected the lifestyle and mental state of the nobles at that time.