How popular is Bai Juyi in Japan? I'm afraid that Emperor Emei was the first head of Bai Juyi's Japanese support group. Many ancient books have recorded Emperor Xie's love for Bai Juyi. For example, he regarded the collection of Bai's Anthology as a pillow secret. For example, during his reign, the Japanese court set up an assistant reader of Bai's Anthology, and white poetry became a compulsory subject for the emperor ... Among them, the story between him and "Bai Letian of Japan" Ono was the most interesting: Xie. Change the word "empty" into the word "remote", and then give it to Ono for tasting. After reading it, Ono said that it is appropriate to change the word "remote" into the word "empty", and Emperor Emei suddenly became a stunned emperor, saying, "This is a happy sentence, try you, and the word" empty "is also there. Later heads of delegations such as Emperor Chang and Nariakira were also loyal fans of Bai Juyi, and Emperor Chang even expressed his enthusiasm: "The love of my life is that 7 volumes of Bai's collected works are also." What is good in the world will be bad in the next. Under the advocacy of the Emperor, the whole upper-class aristocrats in Japan frantically called for Bai Juyi, learning, understanding, reading and reciting the full text of Bai Juyi, which became a symbol of elegance and taste.
Among them, two female fans are the most elegant. Qing Shaona Yan, the author of Pillow Grass Zi and one of the thirty-six singing immortals in the Middle Ages of Japan, is very fond of Bai Juyi, and her nickname "Caoan" comes from Bai Juyi's "Orchid Flowers under the Golden Account, Lushan Mountain in the Caoan on a Rainy Night". In Pillow Grass, Qing Shao bluntly said that Selected Works of Zhaoming and Collection of Bai's Works are required reading for doctors. In the middle age of Qing Shaona Yan, she served as a female official in Zhonggong Stator (actually, she was a queen. At that time, four queens stood together and a new Zhonggong post was established). After a heavy snow, Zhonggong Stator asked the attendants around her, "What do you think of the incense burner peak snow?" When Qing Na said little, he immediately lifted the curtain and respectfully invited the stator of Zhonggong to overlook the scenery. This performance art is from Bai Juyi's sentence "Listen to the bell at the memorial temple, watch the curtain at the incense burner peak". The stator of Zhonggong is poetic, and Qing Shao is sensitive and understanding. This performance art is quite romantic for celebrities.
As the "three talented women in heian period" with the same fame as Qing Shao Na Yan, Murasaki shikibu (whose real name can't be tested, but her real name is Fujiwara) is not harmonious with Qing Shao Na Yan, but it doesn't affect the consistency of their tastes-Murasaki shikibu is also very fond of Bai Juyi, and has quoted more than 1 poems of Bai Juyi in his masterpiece Tale of Genji. Not only that, Bai Juyi set up by Murasaki shikibu in Shangdong Gate.
The Japanese imperial court's love for Bai Juyi also made people interested in Bai Juyi, and ordinary intellectuals joined Bai Juyi's support group. Later, there even appeared an association specializing in Bai Juyi. Keiko Baoyin, a well-known scholar in heian period, described his day's life: eating and reading-focusing on Bai Letian's poems, which also reflected the love of Bai Juyi among the Japanese people. Does Bai Juyi know that he is so popular in Japan? He probably knows. In the fifth year of Huichang (AD 845), Bai Juyi wrote in the Collection of Bai's Works, "There are five collections. Its writers in Japan, Silla countries and Beijing are not recorded here. " It can be seen that Bai Juyi must know that his poems are popular overseas.
Why are Bai Juyi's poems the most popular in Japan?
Ancient Japanese also liked Li Bai and Du Fu, but Bai Juyi was the most popular and popular one. Why Bai Juyi, because Bai Juyi's poems are widely circulated, or because Bai Juyi's understanding is smooth? These two reasons are of course the elements of Bai Juyi's poems' popularity, but they are not the main reasons. To understand the reasons, we must first understand Bai Juyi's poetic characteristics and Japanese aesthetic taste.
in the 1th year of Yuanhe (AD 815), Bai Juyi wrote a letter to his good friend Yuan Zhen, which was about Nine Books with Yuanhe. In this letter, Bai Juyi classified his poems into several categories: allegorical poems, leisurely poems, sentimental poems and miscellaneous poems.
since I picked it up, everything I feel is about beauty and thorns; And from Wude to Yuanhe, there are 15 satirical poems entitled "New Yuefu" because of things. Or retire from public service and live alone, or move away from home, content with peace, and sing a hundred poems about temperament, which are called "leisure poems" There are also things that are drawn from the outside, and the reason moves from the inside, and they are shaped by a hundred sighing people, which is called "sentimental poems." There are also five words, seven words, long sentences and quatrains, with more than 4 rhymes ranging from one hundred to two hundred, which are called "miscellaneous poems".
in our education, most of the time, the appreciation of Bai Juyi's poems focuses on his allegorical poems. As he said, his allegorical poems are written for the monarch, minister, people, things and things. The word "mourning for things" was first put forward by the Japanese scientist Kenju Xuan Chang in the Edo period. From the perspective of etymology and semantics, "mourning for things" is a process of change and development, from "mourning for things" to "mourning for knowing things". Therefore, the Japanese who are full of the spirit of "mourning for things" don't like Bai Juyi's allegorical poems, because politics is utilitarian and morality is secular. They don't belong to mourning for things, and they are not beautiful enough, so they can't be aesthetically appreciated.
Compared with the other three categories, we pay more attention to his concern for the country and the people, and praise his feelings for his home country. Even though his leisure poems and sentimental poems account for 9% of his poems, we still hold a derogatory attitude. For example, in the History of the Development of China Literature, Mr. Liu Dajie criticized Bai Juyi's leisure poems for paying too much attention to personal subjective feelings and lacking the positive significance of paying attention to the people in the early stage.
The Japanese are totally different from us in this respect. Their aesthetic interest makes them fall in love with Bai Juyi's leisurely poems, but they have no special preference for allegorical poems. In a word, Japanese people's aesthetic interest is "mourning for things". It is worth noting that Bai Juyi's "being alone" is not hiding in the mountains and rivers or simply emphasizing morality. He enjoys both splendor and spiritual detachment. There is both indifference to self-cultivation and sincere pursuit of worldly happiness and ingenuity. Intellectuals in heian period are impressed by Bai Juyi's attitude towards life, that is, he entered the WTO and was born. Bai Juyi's living condition is the ideal state they are pursuing.
After understanding this point, we will find that Bai Juyi's leisure poems and leisure poems simply don't meet the standards of "natural humanity", "good emotional upbringing" and "romantic elegance". How can such a gifted scholar, who is in line with the spirit of "knowing things and mourning" from poetry to people, not let the ancient Japanese be fascinated?