Bai Juyi

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Bai Juyi

772-846

Poet

Early Life and Bureaucratic Career. A native of Weinan, Shanxi Province, Bai Juyi grew up during a period of military chaos and fled from his hometown when he was twelve. He was recognized as a literary prodigy after he wrote his “Grass on an Ancient Plain” at fifteen. He earned his jinshi (presented scholar) title by passing the official examinations for the imperial bureaucracy in 800 and was appointed jiaoshulang (collator of texts) two years later. In 806 he and his good friend and fellow poet Yuan Zhen wrote seventy-five essays suggesting solutions to social problems. As a result, in 807 Bai was appointed to membership in the prestigious Hanlin Academy in the Tang capital of Chang’an. The following year he was named zuoshiyi (commissioner to the left). In 813, however, the prime minister was assassinated, and Bai offended the court with his proposal for how to deal with the incident. As a result, he was sent to provincial posts, including marshal of Jiangzhou in Jiangxi Province (815) and governor of Hangzhou (822) and Suzhou (825).

Poetry. Bai was keenly aware of the suffering of common people, and, like Du Fu, he wrote many realistic and poignant poems expressing his sympathy for their plight. In 809 he created a new genre, the Xinyuefu (New Music Bureau Ballads), narrative poems dramatizing what he saw and felt about social and political abuses. His best-known poems are two long narrative ballads, Pipaxing (The Mandolin Ballad) and Changhenge (Song of Lasting Pain). Changhenge tells the love story of Tang emperor Xuanzong (ruled 712-756) and his beloved concubine Yang. Bai’s poems were widely acclaimed by the common people and were copied on the walls of inns and monasteries. Singing girls were paid high prices to perform his songs. According to one account, Bai often read his poems to an old peasant lady and revised any expression that she could not under-stand. Bai was also a musician and music critic. He wrote more than one hundred poems describing and commenting on various musical instruments and songs. Late in life, Bai became a devout Buddhist, calling himself Xiangshan jushi (Lay Buddhist of the Fragrant Mountain). His influence extended not only to later generations in China but also to Korea and Japan.