Bai Juyi was an outstanding poet in the middle Tang Dynasty. His poetic thoughts and creations, which emphasize popularity and realism, occupy an important position in the history of China's poetry. In Jiu Shu Tong Yuan, he clearly said: "Servants aim to help the two, and they are independent. Always serve the Tao, and invent poetry. Calling it a satirical poem is also aimed at helping others; It's not bad to call it leisure poetry. " It can be seen that among Bai Juyi's four kinds of poems, satire, leisure, sentimentality and miscellaneous law, the first two poems are the most valued, because they embody his "serving the people and always being kind". His poetic thoughts are mainly based on early satirical poems.
As early as the early Yuan Dynasty, Bai Juyi showed a tendency to emphasize realism, popularity and irony: "If there is no textual research on today's praise and demotion, there is a lack of punishment and persuasion;" If the poem "The Beauty Sting" does not test politics, then the significance of the make-up test will be abolished. ..... Those who give ci and fu with admonition and irony are wild in nature. "The role of poetry is to punish evil and persuade good, and make up for current politics. The means of poetry is praise, criticism, admonition and satire, so he advocates: "Set up officials to collect poems, make sarcastic remarks, examine their gains and losses, and understand their feelings." (Poetry Sixty-nine) He opposes the simple pursuit of "high palace rhythm" and "strange writing" without content, and even more opposes the gorgeous poetic style of "mocking the wind and making flowers" since Qi and Liang Dynasties. In the preface to new Yuefu, he clearly pointed out that the standard of writing poetry is: "the quality and path of his words are easy to distinguish for those who want to see;" "His words are straightforward and he admonishes those who want to listen; Its business is nuclear and true, so people who use it can send messages; Its body is very smooth and can be played in music songs. " Here, "quality and diameter", "straightness and tangent", "core and reality" and "smoothness and smoothness" respectively emphasize that the language should be simple and popular, the discussion should be straightforward and exposed, the writing should be absolutely false and pure, the form should be smooth and fluent, and it has the color of ballads. In other words, poetry must be authentic, easy to understand and easy to sing in order to be considered the ultimate.
Bai Juyi's above requirements for poetry have only one purpose, that is, to make up for current politics. So he went on to say: "In short, for the monarch, for the minister, for the people, for things, for things, not for writing." (Preface to New Yuefu) In Nine Books with the Same Yuan, he reviewed his early creation and said: "Since I arrived in North Korea, I have read more when I am older. Every time he talks to others, he asks more current events; Every time you read history, you should seek truth and Tao, and you will know that articles are written in time and songs and poems are written in things. " The first thing to do for time is to show it to the king. He also said: "I don't know when to avoid it" (the second of two painful poems about Tang Qu), and created a large number of satirical poems reflecting the sufferings of people's livelihood, but the general direction is "only songs make people sick, hope the emperor can know" (sent to Tang Sheng). Because only when the people's feelings are heard in heaven, the emperor opens the door and reaches the people's feelings, will politics tend to be calm.
Pipa Xing and Song of Eternal Sorrow are Bai Juyi's most successful works, and the outstanding feature of their artistic expression is the strengthening of lyric factors. Compared with the previous narrative poems, although these two works also use narrative and description to express events, they can no longer simplify the events, and only use one central event and two or three main characters to structure the whole article, such as the dramatic Ma Wei incident that the author is about to take over, but in the most lyrical psychological description of the characters and the rendering of the environmental atmosphere, they pour ink like rain in order to enjoy themselves, even though Pipa is such a story. In addition, the lyricism of these two works is also manifested in creating an appropriate atmosphere and setting off the artistic conception of poetry with selected images. For example, in Song of Eternal Sorrow, "He gazed at the desolate moon from the temporary palace, and he heard the bell in the late rain, cutting it on his chest"; "Maple leaves and mature rushes rustle in autumn" and "When the river mysteriously expands to the full moon" in the pipa; Or combine the bleak moonlight, the patter of rain at night and the heartbroken bell into a charming scene; Or use rustling maple leaves, flowers and boundless rivers and the moon to form a sad and lonely picture, revealing sadness, sadness and loneliness.
Leisure poems and satirical poems are two kinds of poems that Bai Juyi pays special attention to. Both of them are realistic, vulgar and thrifty, but they are quite different in content and mood. Satire poems aim at "helping the two" and are closely related to social politics, and write more about lofty sentiments and excitement; Leisure poems are meant to be "exclusive", "content with harmony, and give play to one's temperament" (Nine Books of Yuyuan), thus showing an indifferent, peaceful and leisurely state of mind.
Bai Juyi's leisurely poems have a great influence on later generations. His simple language style and indifferent and leisurely mood have been praised repeatedly. However, in contrast, the "leisure" thought of retiring from politics and being content with peace, and the attitude of returning to Buddhism and imitating Tao Yuanming in these poems have far-reaching influence because they are more in line with the psychology of later literati. For example, Bai Juyi said, "If you fight for two snail horns, you'll get a dime a dozen" (No.7 of Let's Drink Seven Songs), "If you fight for the snail horns, I'll send the body in the firelight of the stone" (No.2 of Drink Five Songs) and "I'll know what happened to the snail horns later" (No.8 of Wu Zeng's Can Change My Diet). That is to say, on the basis of the names given by the Song people, "the names of drunkards, pedants and Dongpo all come from Bai Letian's poems" (Gong Yizheng's "Notes on Mustard Seeds"). Zhou Bida, a poet in the Song Dynasty, pointed out: "Su Wenzhong, a loyal minister in this dynasty, did not pay much attention to permission, only loved Lotte and wrote poems many times. Gage's articles are all about words, but they are honest and generous, outspoken, full of words, affectionate with people and indifferent to things. Living in Huangzhou, the first name is Dongpo, which must have started from Lotte Zhongzhou. " (Poems of Erlaotang) All these show the influence track of Bai Juyi and his poems.