Bai Juyi was born in a small and medium-sized bureaucratic family. Born in Xinzheng, Zhengzhou (now Xinzheng County, Henan Province). Since 1 1 years old, she has been displaced by war for five or six years. I studied hard when I was a teenager. In the 16th year of Zhenyuan (800 years), he was a scholar, and in the 18th year, he got an excellent degree with Yuan Zhen. Two people are engaged. In the future, Bai Yuan was also famous for his poems. In the spring of nineteen years, he was awarded the provincial school secretary. In the first year of Yuanhe (806), he dismissed the proofreader, wrote 75 pieces of "Ce Lin", and was awarded the title of "knowing talents, knowing body and function". For watching the wheat harvest, everlasting regret and by the pond. Yuanhe returned to Korea in the second year, awarded a bachelor's degree in Hanlin in November, and served as a left gleaning in the following year. In four years, he launched the New Yuefu Movement with Yuan Zhen and Li Shen. In five years, Cao, a native of Jingzhao County, joined the army. At this time, he was still a bachelor of Hanlin, drafting letters and participating in state affairs. He can be outspoken about things without fear of powerful people and close ministers. In six years, Yuanhe was sent back to Beijing to serve because his mother was at home and had served her full term. In ten years, he was demoted to Sima Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi) for taking the lead in writing a letter demanding the urgent arrest of Wu's murderer. The following year, I wrote Pipa Travel. He began to "be an official in seclusion" and built a thatched cottage in Lushan. His thought has changed from "saving the world" to "being immune to the world", and more and more leisurely and sentimental poems have appeared. In the thirteenth year of Yuanhe, he changed to Zhongzhou Secretariat, returned to Beijing in the fifteenth year, and moved to Zhongshu Sheren. Due to the feud between the cronies of the DPRK and China, Yu Changqing requested to be released in the second year (822), and he was the secretariat of Hangzhou and Suzhou successively, which won the hearts of the people. In the first year of Emperor Wenzong Daiwa (827), he was supervised by the secretary, transferred to assistant minister of punishments the following year and settled in Luoyang for four years. Later, he served as the guest of the Prince, Henan Yin and Shaofu Prince. In the second year of Huichang (842), he became an official with the minister of punishments. In Luoyang, he entertained himself with poetry, wine, Zen, Qin and mountains and rivers, and often sang with Liu Yuxi, who was called Liu Yuxi. In Huichang four years, eight stone beaches were dug in Longmen for the benefit of boat people. At the age of 75, he was buried at Pipa Peak in Xiangshan, Longmen, Luoyang. Li Shangyin wrote an epitaph for him.
be an official
Life is divided into two periods, with Sima being demoted to Jiangzhou at the age of 44. The early period is the period of helping the world, and the later period is the period of being independent. Bai Juyi was a 29-year-old scholar in the 26th year of Zhenyuan. Successive provincial school secretary, provincial school secretary, Hanlin bachelor. During the Yuanhe period, he stayed to clean up the mess and wrote a lot of satirical poems, including Ten Famous Poems of Qin Zhongyin and Fifty Poems of New Yuefu, which made the dignitaries gnash their teeth and grieve. In the sixth year of Yuanhe, Bai Juyi's mother died in Chang 'an because of mental disorder. According to the rules at that time, Bai Juyi returned to his hometown for three years and returned to Chang 'an after the funeral. The emperor arranged for him to be a doctor. In June of the 10th year of Yuanhe, when Bai Juyi was 44 years old, Prime Minister Wu and imperial envoy Zhong Cheng Pei Du were assassinated. Wu died on the spot and Pei Du was seriously injured. For such a big event, the eunuch group and the old bureaucratic group in power at that time kept calm and were in no hurry to deal with it. Bai Juyi was very angry. For the sake of law and order, he urged the authorities to strictly arrest the murderer. However, instead of praising his enthusiasm for state affairs, those in power say that he is an official of the Eastern Palace, and it is trespassing to talk about state affairs in front of the admonishers. So he was demoted to the state secretariat. Wang Ya said that her mother fell into the well while looking at flowers and died. He wrote poems about flowers and wells, which hurt filial piety. Such people are not worthy of governing the county, so they are demoted to Jiangzhou Sima. In fact, the reason why he offended was those allegorical poems. ? The official demotion to Jiangzhou dealt a great blow to Bai Juyi. He said that he "eliminated the troubles and happiness on the surface and the right and wrong in his chest", and his early Buddhist and Taoist thoughts also grew. Three years later, with the help of his good friend Cui Qun, he was promoted to the secretariat of Zhongzhou. In the fifteenth year of Yuanhe, Tang Xianzong died suddenly in Chang 'an, and Tang Muzong succeeded to the throne. Mu Zong loves talents, recalled Chang 'an, and became a foreign minister, doctor, doctor and sinologist. However, at that time, North Korea was in chaos, with ministers fighting for power and profit and infighting. Mu Zong is politically lazy and doesn't listen to advice. Therefore, Mu Zong was appointed as the secretariat of Hangzhou in the second year of Changqing, and Suzhou was appointed as the secretariat after the expiration of Hangzhou. In his later years, he was divided into the eastern capital by the Prince. A 70-year-old official. Compared with the previous period, he is much more negative, but after all, he is a poet who has made a difference and actively pleaded for the people. Some of his poems at this time still show his concern for the country and the people. He is still diligent in political affairs and has done many good things, such as dredging six wells dug by Li Bi and solving the problem of drinking water for the people. He built a long dike on the West Lake to store water and irrigate the fields, and wrote down the easy-to-understand Stone of Qiantang River, which was carved on a stone to tell people how to store water and drain water. He thought that as long as the dike was as good as law, it would not suffer from drought. This is the famous "Bai Causeway".
Be addicted to alcohol
Bai Juyi's grandfather Huang Bai and his father Bai Ji Terrier are both poets. In this family background, Bai Juyi studied very hard and eventually became a poet. But Bai Juyi, like Li Bai and Du Fu, was a heavy drinker. Zhang Wenqian said in Tiaoxi Fish in Conghua: Although Tao Yuanming loves to drink, he can't drink often because of his poor family. Drinking with him are farmers who collect firewood, catch fish and farm land, and the location is also in the Woods and fields. Bai Juyi makes wine at home, and every time he drinks, he must be accompanied by silk and bamboo and served by prostitutes. All the people who drink with him are social celebrities, such as Pei Du and Liu Yuxi.
At the age of 67, he wrote a biography of Mr. Drunk Sound. This drunken Mr. Yin is himself. In his biography, he said that there was a man named Mr. Zuiyin, and he didn't know his name, hometown and official position. He only knew that he had been an official for 30 years and retired to Los Angeles. He lives in ponds, bamboo poles, trees, pavilions, pontoons and so on. He likes drinking, reciting poems, playing the piano and playing with drunkards, poetry lovers and piano lovers. This is also the case. Bai Juyi has been to temples, mountains, springs and rocks inside and outside Luoyang.
Whenever the weather is beautiful, or it snows, he invites guests to his house, first painting the jar, then writing poems, and then holding silk and bamboo. So while drinking, I recited poems and played the piano. There is a boy playing "wearing a dress and feathers" and a little prostitute singing "Yang Liuzhi", which is a great pleasure. It didn't stop until everyone was drunk. Bai Juyi sometimes went to the wild on a whim, put a piano and a pillow in the car, hung two hip pots on bamboo poles on both sides of the car, drank with the piano and came back happily. ? According to Poor You Ji, Bai Juyi has a pond at home where he can row a boat. He entertained guests, and sometimes on the boat, he ordered people to hang more than 100 empty bags beside the boat, which contained wine and delicacies, and went with the boat. When he wants to eat or drink, he pulls them up, and when he finishes eating or drinking, he pulls up another one until he finishes eating or drinking.
In this way, it must be different from Tao Yuanming's predicament. ? Fang Shao's Zhai Bo Discriminations says: Of the 2,800 poems written by Bai Letian, 800 were drunk. This number is not small.
When he drinks, he sometimes drinks alone. For example, when he was a secretariat in Suzhou, he was busy with official business and dismissed him with wine. He drank wine all day to relieve his nine days' hard work. He said: "Don't underestimate a day of drunkenness, that is to eliminate nine days of fatigue. Without nine days of fatigue, how can we cure the people of the whole state? If you don't get drunk for a day, how can you entertain yourself? "He combined wine with labor. ? More is drinking with friends. He said in the poem "Drunk with Li Eleven and Remember Yuan Jiu"; When you are drunk, you will break your spring worries, and when you are drunk, you will make wine. In the poem "To Yuan Zhen", it is said: Flower swimming on the pommel horse, a glass of wine in the snow. In the poem "Drinking, Drinking, Dreams and Late Period", he said; * * * Put 10,000 in a bucket and 70 in three years. In the poem "A suggestion for my friend Liu", he said: There is a ray of green in the old bottle and a trace of red in the static furnace. With dusk and snow coming, how about a glass of wine? Wait, wait.
Luzhen, a native of Yining, Henan Province, carved a biography of Mr. Zuiyin on a stone and stood beside the tomb. Legend has it that Luoyang people and tourists from all over the world know that Bai Juyi was addicted to alcohol all his life, so they all came to sweep the grave to propose a toast as a souvenir. The wide land in front of the tomb is often wet and never dry. Brewing? Bai Juyi's home-brewed wine is of outstanding quality. He wrote a poem for his wine: "in the mouth of the altar, jade liquid is golden grease;" It is pleasant to play and enjoyable to taste; Hospitality, then frown; After four or five minutes of deliberation, I entered the limbs. " ("Bai Juyi Volume"). ? The history of Bai Juyi's wine-making is not only recorded, but even today, the story of "Bai Juyi's wine-making New Year's Eve to enjoy his neighbors" has been circulated in Weibei for generations.
achievement
Bai Juyi was an outstanding poet in the middle Tang Dynasty. His poetic thoughts and creations, which emphasize popularity and realism, occupy an important position in the history of China's poetry. In Jiu Shu Tong Yuan, he clearly said: "Servants aim to help the two, and they are independent. Always serve the Tao, and invent poetry. Calling it a satirical poem is also aimed at helping others; It's not bad to call it leisure poetry. " It can be seen that among Bai Juyi's four kinds of poems: irony, leisure, sentimentality and miscellaneous law, the first two reflect his "serving the service and always being good", so they are the most valued. His poetic thoughts are mainly based on early satirical poems.
As early as the early Yuan Dynasty, Bai Juyi showed a tendency to emphasize realism, popularity and allegory: "If there is no textual research on today's praise and demotion, there is a lack of punishment and persuasion;" If the poem "The Beauty Sting" does not test politics, then the significance of the make-up test will be abolished. ..... The satirist who admonishes Ci Fu, though wild, will be rewarded. "The role of poetry is to punish evil and persuade good, and make up for current politics. The means of poetry is praise and criticism, and it is admonition and irony. Therefore, he advocated: "establish an official who collects poems, open a satirical way, examine their gains and losses, and understand their feelings." (Poetry Sixty-nine) He opposes the simple pursuit of "high palace rhythm" and "strange writing" without content, and even more opposes the gorgeous poetic style of "mocking the wind and making flowers" since Qi and Liang Dynasties. In the preface to new Yuefu, he clearly pointed out that the standard of writing poetry is: "the quality and path of his words are easy to distinguish for those who want to see;" "His words are straightforward and he admonishes those who want to listen; Its business is nuclear and true, so people who use it can send messages; Its body is very smooth and can be played in music songs. " Here, "quality and diameter", "straightness and tangent", "core and reality" and "smoothness and smoothness" respectively emphasize that the language should be simple and popular, the discussion should be straightforward and exposed, the writing should be absolutely false and pure, the form should be smooth and fluent, and it has the color of ballads. In other words, poetry must be authentic, easy to understand and easy to sing in order to be considered the ultimate.
Bai Juyi's above requirements for poetry have only one purpose, that is, to make up for current politics. So he went on to say: "In short, for the monarch, for the minister, for the people, for things, for things, not for writing." (Preface to New Yuefu) In Nine Books with the Same Yuan, he recalled his early creation and said, "Since I came to Korea, I have been older and read more. Every time he talks to others, he asks more current events; Every time you read history, you should seek truth and Tao, and you will know that articles are written in time and songs and poems are written in things. " The first thing to do for time is to show it to the king. He also said: "I don't know when to avoid it" (the second of two painful poems about Tang Qu), and created a large number of satirical poems reflecting the sufferings of people's livelihood, but the general direction is "only songs make people sick, hope the emperor can know" (sent to Tang Sheng). Because only when the people's feelings are heard in heaven, the emperor opens the door and reaches the people's feelings, will politics tend to be calm.
Pipa Xing and Song of Eternal Sorrow are Bai Juyi's most successful works, and the outstanding feature of their artistic expression is the strengthening of lyric factors. Compared with the previous narrative poems, although these two works also use narrative and description to express events, they can no longer simplify the events, and only use one central event and two or three main characters to structure the whole article, such as the dramatic Ma Wei incident that the author is about to take over, but in the most lyrical psychological description of the characters and the rendering of the environmental atmosphere, they pour ink like rain in order to enjoy themselves, even though Pipa is such a story. In addition, the lyricism of these two works is also manifested in creating an appropriate atmosphere and setting off the artistic conception of poetry with selected images. For example, in Song of Eternal Sorrow, "He gazed at the desolate moon from the temporary palace, and he heard the bell in the late rain, cutting it on his chest"; "Maple leaves and mature rushes rustle in autumn" and "When the river mysteriously expands to the full moon" in the pipa; Or combine the bleak moonlight, the patter of rain at night and the heartbreaking bell into a charming scene; Or use rustling maple leaves, flowers and boundless rivers and the moon to form a sad and lonely picture, revealing sadness, sadness and depression.
Theme and theme concentration are one of the artistic features of Bai Juyi's satirical poems. He usually only chooses the most typical things, highlights a theme, and the theme is clear. Secondly, the artistic features of Bai poetry are also reflected in the portrayal of characters. He can grasp the characteristics of the characters and draw the characters vividly by line drawing. However, Baishi's poems are not simple. He often uses simple sentences to express meanings and has achieved amazing artistic effects. The poem "Light Fat" describes the spirit of the ministers, doctors and generals attending the meeting, as well as the richness of wine and food on the table, but ends with the following sentence: "There is a drought in the south of the Yangtze River, and people in Quzhou eat people." What a tragic scene this is.
Leisure poems and allegorical poems are two kinds of poems that Bai Juyi pays special attention to. Both of them are realistic, vulgar and thrifty, but they are quite different in content and mood. Irony poems aim at "supporting the two", which are closely related to social politics and write more about lofty sentiments and excitement; Leisure poems are meant to be "exclusive", "content with harmony, and give play to one's temperament" (Nine Books of Yuyuan), thus showing an indifferent, peaceful and leisurely state of mind.
Bai Juyi's leisurely poems have a great influence on later generations. His simple language style and indifferent and leisurely mood have been praised repeatedly. However, in contrast, the "leisure" thought of retiring from politics and being content with peace, and the attitude of returning to Buddhism and imitating Tao Yuanming in these poems have far-reaching influence because they are more in line with the psychology of later literati. For example, Bai Juyi said, "If you fight for two snail horns, you'll get a dime a dozen" (No.7 of Let's Drink Seven Songs), "If you fight for the snail horns, I'll send the body in the firelight of the stone" (No.2 of Drink Five Songs) and "I'll know what happened to the snail horns later" (No.8 of Wu Zeng's Can Change My Diet). That is to say, on the basis of the names given by the Song people, "the names of drunkards, pedants and Dongpo all come from Bai Letian's poems" (Gong Yizheng's "Notes on Mustard Seeds"). Zhou Bida, a poet in the Song Dynasty, pointed out: "Su Wenzhong, a loyal minister in this dynasty, did not pay much attention to permission, only loved Lotte and wrote poems many times. Gage's articles are all about words, but they are honest and generous, outspoken, full of words, affectionate with people and indifferent to things. Living in Huangzhou, the first name is Dongpo, which must have started from Lotte Zhongzhou. " (Poems of Erlaotang) All these show the influence track of Bai Juyi and his poems.
Poetry theory
Bai Juyi's thought combines Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Go your own way, take Confucianism and Taoism as the saying, "If you are rich, you will help the world, and if you are poor, you will be immune to it." His ambition of "helping the world and the people" is mainly based on Confucian benevolent policies, including the theory of Huang Lao, the technique of treating filial piety and the method of practicing Korean; His mind of "being alone" absorbed the concepts of contentment, uniformity and freedom of Laozi and Zhuangzi and the Buddhist thought of "liberation". The two are roughly bounded by Bai's demotion of Jiangzhou Sima. Bai Juyi not only left nearly 3,000 poems, but also put forward a whole set of poetic theories. He compared poetry to a fruit tree and put forward the viewpoint of "root feeling, Miao character, Watson and true meaning" (nine books are the same). He believes that "emotion" is the fundamental condition for writing poetry, and "those who move people should not care about emotion first" (nine books at the end of Yuan Dynasty). The emergence of emotion is helpful and tied up with current politics. Therefore, poetry creation cannot be divorced from reality, but must be based on various events in real life and reflect the social and political situation of an era. He inherited the tradition of "beauty and beauty" since the Book of Songs and attached importance to the realistic content and social function of poetry. Emphasize the role of poetry in exposing and criticizing political abuses. He put forward a series of principles in the method of poetry expression. His poetic theory is of progressive significance for urging poets to face up to reality and care about people's livelihood. It also has an important influence on the poetic style that has gradually emphasized form since Dali (766 ~ 779). However, overemphasizing the subordination of poetry creation to the needs of real politics will inevitably constrain the artistic creation of poetry and the diversification of poetry styles.
General analysis of creation
Bai Juyi once divided his poems into four categories: allegory, leisure, sentimentality and heteronomy. Generally speaking, the first three categories are ancient bodies, and the latter category is near bodies. The first three categories are roughly divided by content, but they overlap. Among these four types of poems, Bai himself pays more attention to the first two types, and thinks that satirical poems embody the "ambition to be satisfactory to both sides"; Leisure poems show the meaning of "being independent"; It is a direct embodiment of his life goals. Sentimental poems and miscellaneous poems are "either seduced by one thing or sent by a smile, born spontaneously, not in life" (Yuan Zaju "Nine Books"). Satire is the essence of white poetry. His poems are easy to understand, fluent and natural. His representative works include 50 pieces of New Yuefu and Qin Zhongyin 10. They widely reflect the major issues in all aspects of social life in the middle Tang Dynasty, and focus on describing the darkness of reality and the suffering of the people. These poems are fiercely worded and have no scruples, breaking through the tradition of "gentle and honest" poetry teaching, and are very prominent in ancient poems criticizing current politics. Satire is more direct in form. The narrative is complete, the plot is vivid, and the plot of the characters is meticulous and vivid. The other part of satirical poetry uses allegory to support things and natural images to support political feelings. These two kinds of works have profound and broad generalizations, concentrated themes, vivid images and clear language. Some "new Yuefu" still adopt the sentence pattern of "337", which has traces of folk popular literature and art. Leisure poems show the tranquility of his early seclusion in the countryside, emphasize the political function of poetry and strive for popularity. His poetry style is simple and easy to understand, which can be said to be simple and close to ancient times, so it is widely spread and has far-reaching influence on later generations. His 60 poems "New Yuefu" and "Qin Zhongyin" really make people sick, and every sentence must be strictly regulated, which is as famous as Du Fu's "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells". The long narrative poems "Song of Eternal Sorrow" and "Pipa Journey" represent his highest artistic achievements.
Yearning for life and interest in leading an honest and clean life. Many poems also promote the idea of contentment, peace and happiness. However, some poems show dissatisfaction with reality from the side, which shows that his pursuit of leisure is only a helpless relief. Sentimental poems are the most famous narrative poems "Song of Eternal Sorrow" and "Pipa Journey", and they are also well-known chapters with vivid images, coherent plots and beautiful language. The Song of Eternal Sorrow sings the story of marriage and love between Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty and Yang Guifei, which not only satirizes the beauty of emperor China's lust for love, but also shows endless sympathy and regret for this endless sorrow. Pipa has a sense of "returning to the world" and has outstanding language achievements. These two poems are full of twists and turns in narrative, meticulous in writing, good at parallelism, smooth and harmonious in sound and rhyme, and widely circulated. Bai also has many gifts for relatives and friends, sincere and sincere, simple and moving. However, in this kind of poems, there are many sad colors that lament the old people's illness and death, and Buddhist thoughts that get rid of the hubbub. Miscellaneous poems are the most in white poems, and some intriguing lyric landscape poems are very famous, with a few strokes and a lot of business. In addition, there are some long sentences and poems that tell the truth and contrast the melody. There is a glass of light, wine shadow and amorous feelings, which is quite imitated by people at that time. White poetry was widely spread at that time, from the court to the folk, and its reputation spread far and wide in Xinjiang, Korea and Japan. White poetry has a great influence on later literature. Pi Rixiu, Lu Guimeng, Nie, Luo Yin and Du Xunhe in the late Tang Dynasty and Wang Yucheng, Mei, Su Shi, Lu You, Wu and Huang Zunxian in the Qing Dynasty were all inspired by the style of white poetry. Bai Juyi's poems have the greatest influence in Japan. He is Japan's favorite poet of the Tang Dynasty. His poems are often quoted by Japanese classical novels. It can be said that Bai Juyi is the pinnacle of China's poems in the Tang Dynasty in the Japanese mind. ? Playwrights of later generations also re-created according to the story of Bai poetry, such as Wu Tongyu and Fairy Palace, which was adapted by Bai Pu and Hong Sheng according to Song of Eternal Sorrow. Ma Zhiyuan and Jiang Shiquan wrote Tears in Shirt and Autumn in Four Strings respectively based on Pipa. White poems and white sentences were also adopted by the three generations of characters in Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Bai Juyi is not a literary group of Han and Liu, but he is also an advocate and creator of new style ancient prose. His seventy-five articles "Ce Lin" are outstanding in knowledge, popular in discussion and profound in writing, and are political papers tracking Jia Yi's "public security policy"; Yuan Jiu Shu is an important literary criticism document in Tang Dynasty. Notes such as Caotang Collection, Lengquan Pavilion Collection, Preface to Three Visits to Cave, and Preface to Litchi Map are concise and to the point. It is a masterpiece in the prose of Tang Dynasty. Bai Juyi is also a powerful promoter of ci creation. Poems such as Memorizing Jiangnan, Langtaosha, Flowers Without Flowers and Sauvignon Blanc paved the way for the development of literati ci. Bai Juyi, Li Bai, Du Fu and Liu Yuxi are also called "poetic immortals".