Bai Juyi became famous and talented at a young age, and at the age of sixteen, he was famous for "Giving The Ancient Grass Farewell". At that time, the famous scholar Gu Quan also quipped in his name: With such a skill, it is really easy to settle in the capital!
Bai Juyi was 29 years old in the Zhongshu Shilang examination under the fourth and first, 32 years old as the secretary of the provincial school scrivener, Bai Juyi is a poet with great influence in the world, not only in the Tang Dynasty literary circle is very high status, but also in the world literary circle, also widely renowned.
Bai Juyi's poems are generally easy to understand, and it is said that in order to make his poems understandable, he often read the poems to some illiterate old women, and if they could not understand them, they changed them until they could understand.
Bai Juyi was good at worshipping the Buddha, but he had always understood the principle of "color is emptiness", and later he planted a tree, and one day he saw this tree blossom in the wind, and suddenly he had an epiphany. So he happily wrote down the first seven words, and the whole poem was circulated for a thousand years in just 28 words:
"Monastic Flower" Tang. Bai Juyi
Wanting to enlighten the void as a Buddhist affair, he planted a fragrant tree in the monk's house. A closer look is Hua Yan Wei, which is convenient for the wind to bloom wisdom flowers.
The first two sentences of the poem are an account of the purpose of planting trees and the doubts in their hearts. Because many of the Buddhist teachings and scriptures are inherently difficult to understand, the author uses the growth of a tree to illustrate his thoughts.
The last two sentences of the poem begin to get to the point. The tree blossomed in the wind, much to the poet's delight. This flower blooms suddenly, not yesterday, but today it stands on the branch, swaying with the wind, which is the dependent arising in the Dharma; in a few days, it will pass away with the wind like other spring flowers.
People like them have spent their whole lives searching for the true meaning of life, and when they reach the day of enlightenment, they can be said to be suddenly enlightened, and all this is full of Zen, and everywhere embodies the meaning of "color is emptiness".
Bai Juyi's words and sentences are not very impressive, but the Zen and poetic meaning expressed in the poems make us deeply impressed, and he tells us about his confusion and epiphany with his usual plain style, which also has a profound impact on the literary circles of later generations.
Bai Juyi is recognized by most people as the title "Poetry Demon". The nickname comes from his own poem: "Drunkard and poetic magic, day and afternoon mourning to the west of the day." ”
His poems are good in the ordinary and Mandarin of the content of the poems, in order to ensure the maximum circulation of the poems - that is, to make them understandable to everyone, including the illiterate street vendors.
Excessive reading and writing reached the point where his mouth and tongue were sore and his fingers were sore, so he was called "poetry demon"—a praise for his personal madness in writing poetry.
During the Tang Dynasty, his poems spread to Silla, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries. In Europe, Bai Juyi was able to be on a par with Beethoven; in Korea, the prime minister was willing to exchange a hundred gold for a poem by Bai Juyi, and whether he could distinguish the authenticity of the poem; in Japan, even promoted the progress of the entire national culture.
The culture of the Chinese nation is broad and profound, has always attracted much attention, and is the world's oldest historical culture. The most exposed to the poems of Li Bai and Bai Juyi in our educational textbooks is that Bai Juyi's poems are more understandable.
Bai Juyi wrote more than 3,000 poems in his lifetime, and his poems are mainly divided into two types. One was to use metaphorical techniques to satirize the social corruption and incompetence of the time, and to ignore the people at that time. I only care about what I eat, drink and have fun. Another is to record what the Tang Dynasty was like at that time in a narrative way.
If you want to understand this great "poetry demon", you can take a look at the "Bai Juyi Poetry Collection" this set of books, after many research experts, select classics, popular, in line with today's children or our needs for poetry.