'Bai Juyi' (,
772–
846) was a
Chinese poet of the
Tang dynasty. His poems are not cheerful, and were themed around his responsibilities as a governor of several small provinces to sympathise with his people. He is renowned in Japan as well, where he is called 'Haku Rakuten.'
Life
Bai Juyi was born in
Xinzheng to a poor but scholarly family. At the age of ten he was sent away from his family to be educated near
Chang'an. He passed the ''
jinshi'' degree in
800. His official career was initially successful: he was a Member of the
Hanlin Academy and Reminder of the Left from
807 until
815, when he was exiled for remonstrating too forcefully. His career resumed when he was made
Prefect of
Hangzhou (
822-
824) and then
Suzhou (
825-
827).
Works
He wrote over 2,800
poems, which he had copied and distributed to ensure their survival.
He is most notable for the accessibility of his work. It is said that he rewrote any part of a poem which one of his servants was unable to understand. He tried to use simple language and direct themes. Two of his most famous works are the long
narrative poems ''Song of Eternal Sorrow'', which tells the story of
Yang Guifei, and ''Song of the
Pipa Player''. Like
Du Fu, he also had a strong sense of social responsibility, and he is also well-known for his satirical poems, such as ''The Elderly Charcoal Seller''. Bai Juyi's accessibility made him extremely popular in his lifetime in both
China and
Japan, and he continues to be so today.
References
★ Pg. 330 of ''A History of World Societies, Fourth Edition'' by
McKay Hill Buckler. Published by
Houghton Mifflin 1999.
★ Gu, Xuejie,
"Bai Juyi". ''
Encyclopedia of China'' (Chinese Literature Edition), 1st ed.
External links
★
Translations of Chinese poems
★
Chinese poems in translation
★
Six Bai Juyi's poems included in ''300 Selected Tang Poems'', translated by
Witter Bynner
★ Nienhauser, William H (ed.). The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature. Indiana University Press 1986. ISBN 0-253-32983-3
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