Nine Books with Yuan is an essay by Bai Juyi, a writer in the Tang Dynasty. The first paragraph of this paper is an introduction, which briefly explains the purpose and background of writing. In the second and third paragraphs, starting from the genesis of poetry, I put forward my own views on what is the essence of poetry. The fourth to seventh paragraphs list writers and works in the history of literature, describe the general situation of the development and changes of poetry in past dynasties with very concise sentences, and clarify the fine tradition of reflecting reality since the Book of Songs.
Extended data writing background:
This letter was written in the 10th year of Yuanhe (8 15), when 44-year-old Bai Juyi was in the position of Sima Ren in Jiangzhou. From the age of 29, Jinshi and later, after more than ten years of officialdom turmoil, he was demoted to Sima, who has a position and no right in Jiangzhou.
After experiencing the heaviest blow in his life, he was filled with grief and indignation, and his thoughts were inevitably contradictory and hesitant. At this time, he received Yuan Zhen, a good friend of Tongzhou Sima at that time. He wrote this long letter with rich content and sincere feelings in a remote town in the cold winter.
Bai Juyi takes the Confucian doctrine that "poverty is the only way to help the world, and success is the way to help the world" as the criterion, which shows that he wrote "satirical poems" to express his ambition to help the world, and its purpose is "to make people sick just for singing, and to be known to the emperor". He wrote "leisure poems" to show the meaning of "being alone", especially after being relegated to Jiangzhou.
He turned from positive to negative in political thought and wrote a lot of "leisure poems". The so-called outlook on life of "not only economic benefits, but also independence" is the reflection of his ideological contradiction, which led his later years' creation to a negative and decadent road.