After Tang Xianzong ascended the throne, he made some political reforms and appointed some upright ministers like Li Jiang as prime ministers. But he still prized eunuchs. He wants to crusade against the buffer region and use a eunuch leader as commander in chief. This matter caused opposition from some ministers. The most fierce opposition is left gleaning Bai Juyi.
Bai Juyi was a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, who came from Xiayi (now the northeast of Weinan, Shaanxi). His reputation for being good at writing poems spread very early. Bai Juyi was clever since he was a child. He was only six or seven months old when he was born, and he could recognize the words "zhi" and "nothing". He began to learn to write poetry at the age of five or six. About when he was fifteen or sixteen, his father Bai Jigeng was an official in Xuzhou, and asked him to go to Chang 'an, the capital, to see the world and make friends with celebrities.
At that time, Chang 'an suffered great damage just after Zhu Ba's rebellion. Especially after years of war, there was a food shortage everywhere, and the price of rice in Chang 'an soared, which made life very difficult for the people.
At that time, Gu Kuang, a writer in Chang 'an, was brilliant, but arrogant. When he met the younger generation, he often relied on the old to sell the old. Bai Juyi heard Gu Kuang's fame, and brought his own manuscript to Gu Kuang's house for advice.
Gu Kuang heard that Bai Juyi was also an official's son, so it was hard not to receive him. Bai Juyi paid a visit to Gu Kuang and sent him a famous card and a poem.
Gu Kuang looked at the young man, then at the famous post, and saw the word "Juyi". He frowned and joked, "The price of rice in Chang 'an is very expensive recently, but I'm afraid it's not easy to live!"
Bai Juyi was inexplicably scolded by Gu Kuang, and he didn't care. He stood respectfully and asked for advice. Gu Kuang picked up the scroll and turned it over. His hand suddenly stopped, his eyes were fixed on the scroll, and he chanted softly:
boundless grasses over the plain, come and go with every season;
wildfire never quite consumes them, they are tall once more in the spring wind.
When Gu Kuang read this, his face showed excitement. He immediately stood up, held Bai Juyi's hand tightly and said enthusiastically, "Ah! It is not difficult to write such a good poem and live in Chang 'an. I just played a joke on you, don't take it amiss. "
After this meeting, Gu Kuang appreciated Bai Juyi's poetic talent very much, and boasted to everyone how amazing the children of the White House were. When word spread from mouth to mouth, Bai Juyi became famous in Chang 'an. In less than a few years, he passed the Jinshi exam. Tang Xianzong heard of his fame, and immediately promoted him to be a bachelor of Hanlin, and later sent him as a left gleaning.
Bai Juyi is not the kind of bureaucrat who strives for fame and gain and flatters his superiors. While constantly creating new poems and exposing some unhealthy phenomena in the society at that time, he repeatedly remonstrated with Xian Zong, especially against letting eunuchs master the military power.
This time, Bai Juyi dissuaded Xian Zong from making eunuchs commander in chief, which made Xian Zong very angry. He said to Li Jiang, the prime minister, "I promoted Bai Juyi, this boy. How can you be so disrespectful to me? I really can't stand it!"
Li Jiang said, "Bai Juyi dared to remonstrate directly in front of your majesty, not afraid of decapitation, which just shows his loyalty to the country. If we do his crime, I'm afraid no one will dare to tell the truth in the future.
Tang Xianzong reluctantly accepted Li Jiang's opinion and didn't dismiss Bai Juyi for the time being. However, after a few days, he was finally removed from his post of left gleaning and changed to the official position of the faction.
Bai Juyi wrote many poems, many of which reflect reality, such as Qin Zhongyin and New Yuefu. In these poems, some expose the evil of eunuchs bullying the people, some satirize the extravagant life of bureaucrats, and some reflect the suffering of working people. His poems were popular and easy to understand, and were welcomed by the broad masses of people at that time. Bai Juyi's poems were recited everywhere in the streets and lanes. It is said that when Bai Juyi finishes writing a poem, he always reads it to an illiterate old woman first. If there is something he doesn't understand, he will revise it until he can make her understand. This is only a legend, of course, but it shows that his poems are closer to the masses.
It is precisely because his poems reflect the reality that he offended the eunuchs and big bureaucrats in power and also attracted some people's curses and jealousy.
Some people want to frame Bai Juyi, but they can't find an excuse at the moment.
A few years later, Bai Juyi worked as a doctor in the East Palace of the Prince. On one occasion, Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng was assassinated by an assassin. The assassination had a complicated political background, and no one in the imperial court wanted to talk. Only Bai Juyi stood up, first of all, he wrote a letter to Xianzong, demanding that the murderer be wanted. Eunuchs and bureaucrats seized this opportunity, saying that Bai Juyi was not an admonisher, and he shouldn't have made arbitrary claims about court affairs, so he bitterly sued.
Then, a group of officials who have always hated Bai Juyi made a fuss and slandered Bai Juyi, throwing sewage at him. Some people say that Bai Juyi's mother drowned by watching flowers fall into a well, but Bai Juyi actually wrote poems such as "Appreciating Flowers" and "New Well". Isn't that a big unfilial thing?
After this Luo Zhi charge, no one can defend Bai Juyi, and Bai Juyi was finally demoted to Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi) to be a Sima.
Bai Juyi was demoted innocently, and after arriving in Jiangzhou, he was very depressed. One night, when he was seeing a guest off at Xupukou, Jiangzhou, he heard a plaintive pipa sound coming from the river, which made people ask. It turned out to be played by an elderly singer wandering in the Jianghu. Bai Juyi met the singer and listened to her sad story, which was very sympathetic. Reminiscent of their own experiences, causing full of worries. After I came back, I wrote the famous narrative poem Pipa Xing, which said:
her very first guitar-note had started me sighing, now, having heard her story, I was sadder still.
we are both unhappy -- to the sky's end, we meet. We understand. What does acquaintance matter?.
Later, Bai Juyi returned to Beijing several times and worked as a court official. However, the political affairs at that time were very chaotic, and it was impossible for an upright person like Bai Juyi to do anything. He devoted all his energy to poetry creation. In his life, he wrote more than 2,8 poems, which became a very precious legacy in the treasure house of Chinese literature.