Bai Juyi
Bai Juyi, whose courtesy name was Letian and also known as Xiangshan Jushi. His ancestral home is Taiyuan [now part of Shanxi]. , when his great-grandfather arrived, he moved to Xiaye (now north of Weinan, Shaanxi). Bai Juyi's grandfather Bai Huang once served as the county magistrate of Gong County [Gongyi, Henan] and was a good friend of the then magistrate of Xinzheng [part of Henan]. Seeing the beautiful mountains and rivers of Xinzheng and the simple folk customs, Bai Huang liked it very much, so he moved his family to Dongguozhai Village (today's Dongguo Temple) in the west of Xinzheng City. Bai Juyi was born on the 20th day of the first lunar month in the seventh year of Dali (AD 772) of Emperor Daizong of the Tang Dynasty in Dongguo House. Wuzong died in Luoyang [belonging to Henan] in August of the sixth year of Huichang (846) at the age of 75. In his later years, when he became the Crown Prince Shaofu, he was given the posthumous title "Wen" and was known as Bai Fu and Bai Wengong in the world. In literature, he actively advocated the New Yuefu Movement, advocating that articles should be written according to the times and poems should be written according to the events. He wrote many poems that lamented the current times and reflected the people's sufferings, which had a great influence on later generations. He is a very important poet in the history of Chinese literature.
His life can be divided into two periods, beginning with his being demoted to Jiangzhou Sima at the age of 44. The early period was a period of benefiting the world, and the later period was a period of taking care of oneself. Bai Juyi was awarded Jinshi at the age of 29 in the 26th year of Zhenyuan (800). He successively served as secretary of the Provincial School, Shuzhiwei, and Hanlin bachelor. The first poem and fifty poems of "New Yuefu", these poems made the powerful gnash their teeth, sigh, and change their color. In the sixth year of Yuanhe, Bai Juyi's mother died of mental disorder in Chang'an. According to the rules at that time, Bai Juyi returned to his hometown to observe mourning for three years. After completing his mourning, he returned to Chang'an. The emperor arranged for him to become Dr. Zuo Zanshan. In June of the tenth year of Yuanhe, when Bai Juyi was 44 years old, Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng and Yushi Zhongcheng Pei Du were assassinated. Wu Yuanheng died on the spot and Pei Du was seriously injured. For such a major event, the eunuch group and the old bureaucracy group that were in power at the time actually remained calm and were not in a hurry to deal with it. Bai Juyi was very angry, so he went to Shu to advocate for the murderer to be severely punished and to enforce law and order. However, instead of praising him for his enthusiasm for state affairs, those in power said that he was an official of the Eastern Palace and it was an act of trespass to talk about government affairs before admonishing officials. They also said that his mother fell into a well and died while looking at flowers. He wrote "Appreciating Flowers" His poems and poems about wells are harmful to filial piety. Such people are not worthy of being Dr. Zuo Zanshan and accompanying the prince to study, and should be expelled from the capital. So he was demoted to Jiangzhou Sima. In fact, the reason for his offense was those satirical poems.
Being demoted to Jiangzhou was a heavy blow to Bai Juyi. He said that he "eliminates all worries and joys on his face, and all the thoughts of right and wrong in his chest", and his Buddhist and Taoist thoughts grew in his early years. Three years later he was promoted to governor of Chungju. In the 15th year of Yuanhe, Tang Xianzong died violently in Chang'an, and Tang Mu Zong succeeded to the throne. Mu Zong loved his talents and recalled him to Chang'an, where he successively served as the secretary's member, Wai Lang, the host and guest, Zhong Zhi Gao, Zhong Shu Sheren, etc. However, the court was in chaos at that time, with ministers vying for power and fighting openly and secretly. Mu Zong was politically idle and did not listen to advice. So he strongly requested to be transferred to other places. In the second year of Emperor Changqing's reign, Mu Zong was appointed as the governor of Hangzhou. After his term in Hangzhou was completed, he was appointed the governor of Suzhou. In his later years, he was appointed as the guest of the prince to the Eastern Capital. He became an official at the age of seventy. Compared with the earlier period, he was much more negative, but after all, he was a poet who had made a difference and actively petitioned for the people. Some of his poems at this time still revealed his concern for the country and the people. He was still diligent in political affairs and did many good deeds, such as dredging the six wells dug by Li Mi to solve the people's drinking water problem; he built a long embankment on the West Lake to store water for irrigation, and wrote a popular article The easy-to-understand "Qiantang Lake Stone Record", carved on the stone, tells people how to store and release water. It is believed that as long as "the embankments are in accordance with the law and the water is stored and released in a timely manner," they will not suffer from drought. This is the famous "White Causeway".
Bai Juyi's grandfather Bai Huang, father Bai Jigeng and maternal grandfather are all poets. Under this family background, Bai Juyi studied very hard and eventually became a poet. But Bai Juyi, like Li Bai and Du Fu, was also addicted to alcohol. Zhang Wenqian said in "Tiaoxi Yuyincong Hua": Although Tao Yuanming likes to drink, due to his poor family, he cannot drink fine wine often. The people who drink with him are country people who collect firewood, catch fish, and farm fields, and the location is also in the woods. In the fields, Bai Juyi's family brewed fine wine. Every time he drank, there would be silk and bamboo accompaniment, and child prostitutes served him. Those who drank with him were all celebrities in society, such as Pei Du, Liu Yuxi, etc.
When he was 67 years old, he wrote "The Biography of Mr. Zuiyin". This Mr. Zuiyin is himself. In his "Biography", he said that there was a man named Mr. Zuiyin. He did not know his name, place of origin, or official position. He only knew that he had been an official for 30 years and retired to Luo City. His residence has a pond, bamboo poles, trees, terraces, bridges, etc. He likes drinking, reciting poetry, playing the piano, and having fun with drunkards, poets, and piano lovers. This is also true. Bai Juyi visited all the temples, hills, and springs inside and outside Luoyang City.
Whenever it was a beautiful day or a snowy morning or a moonlit night, he would invite guests to his home. He would first brush the wine jar, then open the poetry basket, and then hold silk and bamboo. So while drinking, he recited poems and played the piano. Next to me, there was a family boy playing "Neon Clothes and Feathered Clothes" and a little prostitute singing "Willow Branches". It was really a great pleasure. It didn't stop until everyone was drunk. Bai Juyi sometimes took pleasure in going out to play in the wild. He put a harp and a pillow in the car, and hung two wine bottles from bamboo poles on both sides of the car. He held the harp and drank wine, and then returned home exhausted.
According to "Qiongyouji", Bai Juyi's family had a pond where boating could be done. He hosted banquets for guests. Sometimes on the boat, he ordered people to hang more than a hundred empty bags beside the boat, filled with fine wine and delicacies, and go with the boat. When he wanted to eat and drink, he would pull them up. After eating and drinking, he would pull up one bag and another. Until you finish eating and drinking.
This is certainly different from Tao Yuanming’s plight.
The volume of Fang Shao's "Bo Zhai Bian" says: Among the 2,800 poems written by Bai Letian, there are 800 poems by drinkers. This number is not small.
When he drank, he sometimes drank alone. For example, when he was the governor of Suzhou, he was busy with official duties and drank wine to relieve himself of nine days of hard work. He said: Don't underestimate one day of drunkenness, it is to eliminate nine days of fatigue. How can the people of the state be cured without nine days of fatigue? How can you entertain your body and mind without a day of drunkenness? He used wine to combine work and rest.
It’s more about drinking with friends. In his poem "Drunk with Li Shiyi and Reminiscing about Yuanjiu", he said: When we are drunk together, we break the sorrow of spring, and when we are drunk, we break the flower branches to use as wine chips. In the poem "Gift to Yuan Zhen", it is said: A pommel horse ride under the flowers, a cup of wine in the snow. In the poem "Having a leisurely drink with Meng Degu and making an appointment for the later period", it is said that the emperor gave ten thousand dollars to a bucket and looked at each other for seventy years and three years. In the poem "Drunk with Li Shiyi and Reminiscing about Yuanjiu", it is said: green ants make new fermented wine, and a small red clay stove. It's snowing tonight, can I have a drink? And so on and so forth.
Bai Juyi was 75 years old when he passed away. Buried in Longmen Mountain. After his death, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem to commemorate him and said: "For sixty years, who taught me how to become a poetry immortal in the underworld? The floating clouds are not named Juyi, and the inaction of nature is named Lotte. The boy interpreted the song "Eternal Sorrow", Hu My son can sing "Pipa". The article has become popular. I thought of Qing for a while. It is said that Luoyang people and tourists from all over the world knew that Bai Juyi was addicted to alcohol in his life, so when they came to visit the tomb, they all used a glass of wine to pay homage. The land in front of the tomb was often wet and never dry.
Bai Juyi was A very noteworthy great poet in the Mid-Tang Dynasty, his poetic ideas and poetic creations, with their outstanding emphasis and full expression of popularity and realism, occupy an important position in the history of Chinese poetry. In "The Nine Books of Yuan Dynasty", he clearly said: "The servant's ambition is to be both helpful and good, and his behavior is to be unique. If you follow it from beginning to end, it is Tao, and if you talk about it and invent it, it is poetry. It is called an allegorical poem, and it is the ambition of concurrently helping others. It can be seen from this that among Bai Juyi's four categories of poems: allegorical, leisurely, sentimental, and miscellaneous, the first two categories embody his "consistent dedication." "The way of doing both and doing good alone is the most valued. His poetic ideas were mainly based on the creation of early allegorical poems.
As early as in "Celin" written in the early Yuan Dynasty, Bai Juyi showed the tendency of emphasizing reality, popularization, and allegory: "Today's articles of praise and criticism are not verified, and the way of punishment and encouragement is lacking. ; Poems that are beautiful and satirical are not political, so the meaning of supplementary inspection is abolished... Those who combine poetry with Jiongjie's satirical edicts should be praised despite their wild quality." (Sixty-eight "Yi Wen") Its function is to punish evil and encourage good, and to make up for the current affairs. The means of poetry are to praise and criticize, and to warn and slander. Therefore, he advocated: "Establish an official who collects poetry, develop the way of satire, observe the gains and losses of politics, and communicate with the people above and below. "Love." (Sixty-nine "Collecting Poems") He opposed the simple pursuit of "high palace rhythm" and "wonderful writing" without content, and was even more opposed to the gorgeous poetic style of "mocking the wind and moon and playing with flowers and plants" since Qi and Liang Dynasties. In the "Preface to New Yuefu", he clearly pointed out that the criteria for writing poetry are: "The words are clear and precise, and those who want to see them can easily tell them; their words are straightforward and clear, and those who want to hear them can be warned deeply; the things they say are clear and precise." "Solid," so that those who pick it can convey the message; its body is smooth and smooth, and can be broadcast in music and songs. "The words "quality and diameter", "straight and cut", "core and solid", and "smooth and smooth" here are respectively. It emphasizes that the language must be simple and popular, the discussion must be straightforward, the writing must be pure and false, and the form must be fluent and smooth, with the color of a ballad. In other words, poetry must be written in a way that is authentic and credible, easy to understand, and easy to sing to music, to be considered the ultimate.
The above-mentioned requirements made by Bai Juyi on poetry have only one purpose, which is to make up for the current affairs. So he went on to say: "In short, you should do it for the king, for the ministers, for the people, for things, for things, not for literature." ("Xin Yuefu Preface") In "Yu Yuan Jiu Shu", Looking back on his early creations, he said: "Since he came to the dynasty, he has grown older and read more and more things. Every time he talks to people, he inquires more about current affairs; every time he reads history, he seeks more theories and principles. Only then do he realize that the articles are written at the same time, and the songs are written at the same time. Poems are written for the sake of things. "When writing for the time and things, the first thing is to write for the king." He also said: "But it hurts the people's illnesses, and they don't know the taboos of the times" (Part 2 of "Two Poems on Injuring Tang Qu"), and created a large number of allegorical poems reflecting the people's sufferings, but the overall direction is "Only songs cause people's illnesses" , I hope the emperor will know it" ("Ji Tang Sheng"). Because only when the people's sentiments are heard by heaven and the emperor opens up the barriers and expresses human sentiments, will politics tend to be peaceful.
"Pipa Song" and "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" are Bai Juyi's most successful works. The outstanding feature of their artistic expression is the strengthening of lyrical factors. Compared with previous narrative poems, although these two works also use narration and description to express events, they simplify the events beyond simplicity. They only use one central event and two or three main characters to structure the whole poem, such as quite dramatic. The Mawei Incident in Mawei is described by the author in just a few strokes. However, in terms of the most lyrical psychological description of the characters and the rendering of the environment and atmosphere, he splashes ink like rain in order to enjoy it to the fullest. Works that focus more on encounter narratives also use emotions to closely connect sounds and events. Sounds arise with emotion, and emotions change with events, so that the process of the poem is always accompanied by moving emotional power. In addition, the lyricism of these two works is also reflected in the use of selected images to create the appropriate atmosphere and enhance the artistic conception of the poems.
For example, in "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", "I feel sad when I see the moon in the palace, and I hear the heartbreaking sound of bells in the night rain", "Maple leaves and flowers rustle in autumn" in "Pipa Song", "The vast river is soaked in the moon when we say goodbye" and other poems, or the cold moon is Color, pattering night rain, and heart-breaking bells combine to form an ecstatic scene, or rustling maple leaves, dill flowers, and the vast river moon form a sad and lonely picture, in which the desolate, sentimental, and wistful moods are revealed. The characters and events in the poem are all dyed, which makes readers feel shaken and helpless when faced with such artistic conception and atmosphere.
Leisure poems and allegorical poems are two types of poems that Bai Juyi particularly valued. Both have the characteristics of being practical, vulgar and fulfilling, but they are very different in content and mood. The allegorical poems aim at "general benefit", are closely related to social politics, and are often written with pride and enthusiasm; the leisure poems aim at "being alone", "contentment and peace, and playing with one's temperament" ("Jiu Shu" of the Yuan Dynasty) , thus showing an indifferent, peaceful, leisurely and leisurely mood.
Bai Juyi's leisurely poetry has a great influence on future generations. His simple and plain language style and indifferent and leisurely mood have been repeatedly praised. However, in comparison, the expressions expressed in these poems His "leisurely" thoughts of retreating from politics, being content and maintaining peace, and his life attitude of following the Buddha and the Elders, and imitating Tao Yuanming, are more consistent with the psychology of later generations of literati, so their influence is even more profound. For example, Bai Juyi said: "Fighting two snail horns, you get an ox hair" ("Seven Poems on Drinking Wine", Part 7), "What are you fighting over the horns of snails? This is reflected in the light of the stone fire" ("Five Poems on Drinking", Part 2) The poem, and "Later, I will make a detailed review of everything that happened in Wojiao" (Volume 8 of Wu Zeng's "Neng Gai Zhai Man Lu"). That is to say, based on the names given by people in the Song Dynasty, "the names of Drunken Old Man, Wandering Old Man, and Dongpo all come from Bai Letian's poems" (Gong Yizheng's "Jie Yin Notes"). Zhou Bida of the Song Dynasty pointed out: "In this dynasty, Su Wenzhonggong did not take permission lightly. He only respected and loved Lotte, and wrote many poems. All his articles were mainly about eloquence, loyalty and charity, uprightness, affection for people, and no attachment to things. They were roughly similar. . He was relegated to Huangzhou, and his first name was Dongpo, which must have originated from Lotte Zhongzhou." ("Erlaotang Poetry") All these show the influence of Bai Juyi and his poetry.