⬅️ 唐诗 Tang Poems
Bai Juyi (白居易，772-846 AD) was a poet and government official of middle Tang Dynasty. He was one of the most prolific poets in Tang, with nearly three thousands poems extant today. Different from many other poets and scholars in ancient China, Bai Juyi used plain, direct and easy to understand language to compose his poems. It was said he would read his poems to old women on market or on street. If they could not understand the poems, Bai Juyi would rewrite them. That made his poems extremely popular. He once was on a trip and found that from government officials and scholars to monks, widows and servants, people from all works of life could recite his poems.
But the vernacular style was not the only character of Bai Juyi's works. His poems were also known for their social satire, political criticism and strong sense of responsibility. He once divided his own works into four categories, namely satire, leisure, sorrow and miscellany. He believed poetry for the best should scrutinize current politics (补察时政) and for the least should help to discharge people's sympathy （泄导人情）. All his life he carried a principle of Confucianism into practice: "When in obscurity, to preserve your integrity; when in a prominent position, to make the world benefited by your success". Bai Juyi started his career from a minor advisory position after he passed the Jinshi imperial examination in 800 AD. He never hesitated to admonish and sometimes bluntly pointed out the emperor's mistakes. At one point the Emperor Xianzong (宪宗) was so mad that he complained to his prime minister. The prime minister Li Jiang (李绛) explained to the emperor that it was Bai Juyi's way to show his gratitude to the promotion. During this period of his life, Bai Juyi also composed a large volume of poems in that he satirized corruption and spotlighted the suffering of ordinary people. And that brought him enemies at imperial court.
In 815 AD, Bai Juyi was forced into exile to Jiangzhou (江州), modern day Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province (江西九江). The demotion marked a turning point of his attitude towards politics and life. He started to seek comfort from Buddhism since then. After 4 years in exile, Bai Juyi was recalled back to capital. After the new Emperor Muzong (穆宗) succeeded to the throne in 819 AD, Bai Juyi was sent away again. But this time he was sent to Hangzhou (杭州),a more flourishing area, and later to Suzhong (苏州). As the governor of Hangzhou, Bai Juyi ordered to rebuild a strong dike to control the flow of water of the famous West Lake. The new dike provided irrigation to the nearby farmland and relieved the drought that farmers had suffered for years. People called the new dike Bai Causeway to honor Bai Juyi. In addition, he also ordered to dredge six abandoned wells to improve the quality of fresh water available to people of Hangzhou. When Bai Juyi was the governor of Suzhou, he ordered the construction of the Shantang Canal (山塘河) which connected Huqiu (虎丘) with the west gate of Suzhou. With the sludge dug from the canal, Bai Juyi built a dam on the north bank of the canal. On the top of the dam, a street named Shantang Street was constructed. It turned into a pedestrian mall later. Today both Bai Causeway on West Lake and Shantang Street along Shantang Canal are extremely popular tourist destinations and cultural heritages in China.
After recalled back to the capital, Bai Juyi served in various positions. Most of them were nominal posts. Eventually he retired at Longmen, Henan (河南龙门). The area where Bai Juyi's retirement residence was located is famous for over 110,000 statues of Buddhas carved out of the rock. He spent his final years there compiling his works. In 842 AD, Bai Juyi died at age of 76.
