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 (AD 838), Yue Shou of Taizai presented poems and pencils to the emperor from the items brought by the Tang merchants. 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. China in this era is, of course, an era when the Tang Dynasty and Bai Letian lived in the heyday of culture, while Japanese poetry is now in the heyday of China.
In "Tales of the Millennium" edited by Ping An scribe Da, * * received 1 165438 poems by Chinese and Japanese poets, and Bai Juyi's works accounted for 535, accounting for almost half. In Mr. He's Collection of Poems, * * * contains 588 poems, among which Bai Juyi's poems are 139. In the works such as Tale of Genji and Pillow Grass that came out in this period, quotations and flexible use of white poems can be seen everywhere. In Tale of Genji, there are 185 quotations from China classical literature, among which 106 is a white poem. There are 39 China classics quoted in Pillow Grass Zi, of which 13 is the most cited in the white corpus. Therefore, Bai Juyi's poems were widely circulated and had great influence at that time. This paper attempts to analyze the characteristics of Bai Juyi's poems, and further analyzes the reasons why Bai Juyi's literature is popular in heian period.
Bai Juyi's poems are easy to understand and fluent, and have been deeply loved by people since ancient times. After his works were introduced into Japan, they soon became the required reading materials for aristocrats, scholars and many literati in the Heian Dynasty. Japanese scholars have made various investigations on the reasons for the popularity of heian period white poems in Japan. Among them, the most representative is Jin Erlang ("heian period Literature and Baiji —— A Study on Poems of Sentences and Songs for a Thousand Years"): First, the social living conditions when Bai Poetry was produced were very similar to those in Heian period; Second, Bai Letian's identity and status are quite similar to those of our literati in peacetime; Third, Bai Letian's personality, hobbies and personality can almost be regarded as the typical Japanese type in our Heian period; Fourthly, in terms of quality and quantity, more than 70 volumes of Bai Wen Ji are large-scale literary events and dictionaries of heian period literati.
First of all, in terms of social environment and living conditions, Bai Juyi lived in the middle Tang Dynasty, which was a historical moment when the Tang Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline. The economic and cultural prosperity accumulated for a long time in the Tang Dynasty cannot simply be reduced to nothing. During this period of Bai Juyi's life, social development was still in its heyday, but under the influence of political movements, there was a helpless scene. At that time, during the Heian Dynasty, the centralized imperial power was gradually divided by the major military regimes. Just like the separatist regime in the Tang Dynasty, Japan's central power was also weakened by various families. The emperor and the ministers with empty titles in the palace can't resist the powerful families, only elegant.
Bai Juyi had a good social status among the literati in the middle Tang Dynasty. Even Jiangzhou, who has been demoted as an official, is at least a Sima, and because his poems are so popular that an old woman can understand them, no matter whether he is a bachelor who loves literary talent or a catchy ordinary person in society, he can suit both refined and popular tastes. At that time, Japanese literati were not dignitaries, but elegant celebrities, and they also realized the elegance and customs in the palace enjoyed by Bai Juyi.
When introducing Bai Juyi, we have to mention Pipa Xing, which shows Bai Juyi's personality and aesthetic taste more comprehensively. The aesthetics of night, moon, water and sound, and the final "mourning", are the aesthetic thoughts of "mourning things" practiced by the people of Heian Wang Dynasty and even the whole people in Japan from ancient times to the present. Every image in Bai Juyi's poems is consistent with the elegant image of "mourning" of Japanese literati. No wonder Ping An is a loyal admirer of Bai Letian, from the ruling and opposition parties to the emperor to the female officials. The static "sadness" that Japanese culture reveals from its bones coincides with Bai Juyi's leisurely and sentimental state of mind. In addition, Bai Juyi's Buddhism and Taoism thoughts gradually developed in his later years are all integrated into his poems. At that time, the social fashion trend of becoming a monk and cultivating oneself in Japan seemed simply satisfactory.
Bai Juyi wrote more than 3,800 works in his life, and the preserved works are also the most among the poets in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, Bai Juyi's own experience is tortuous and rich, and the scope of his works even covers all aspects of social life in the middle Tang Dynasty. At that time, the literary world of the Heian Dynasty in Japan advocated Chinese poetry, and whenever the literati met each other, most of them recited Chinese poetry to show their talents. For most beginners of Chinese poetry, it is difficult to write a good poem without any reference materials, which requires an example or dictionary for reference and imitation. Undoubtedly, Bai Wen Ji, which was spread to Japan at that time, played such a reference role. Bai Juyi is equivalent to the mentor of those literati who learn China's poems as elegant, and his poems are the best example. The grasp of image, rhythm, rhythm and theme is closer to the psychological orientation of peaceful literati than Du Fu who skillfully exerts rhythm and Li Bai who is unrestrained.
In peacetime, people appreciate and admire Bai Juyi, but they don't accept all his poems. Bai Juyi divided his poems into four categories: satire, leisure, sentimentality and miscellaneous law. He told himself: "a man with a beautiful husband is called irony;" Those who chant temperament are called leisure; Touching things is sentimental; Others are miscellaneous methods. " However, only leisurely and sentimental poems were popular in Pingan Dynasty. Bai Juyi's allegorical poems are highly valued, but they have not attracted the interest of peace-loving people. Bai Juyi's political enthusiasm faded in all kinds of setbacks in officialdom, which may be more ironic for the Ping 'an Dynasty, which had lost its autonomy in officialdom at that time. After abandoning those poems with political overtones, Pingan people are addicted to all kinds of interesting poems, which has to be said to be an honest reflection of their slightly decadent mental state unique to their thought of "mourning is greater than dying". However, the popularity of Bai Juyi's poems is the best medicine for the development of Japanese literature, culture and history in the Heian Dynasty and beyond.