Bai Juyi

Biography

Bai Juyi was born on the twentieth day of the first lunar month of 772, the seventh year of the Dali era under Emperor Daizong of Tang, into a mid-level and lower official family in Xinzheng, Henan, described as having “long cultivated Confucian learning.” Historical sources record that his ancestral home was Taiyuan in Shanxi, and Bai Juyi himself claimed descent from the Qin general Bai Qi. Bai Qi’s twenty-fourth-generation descendant Bai Yong served as governor of Taiyuan under Northern Wei. Five generations after Bai Yong, Bai Jian became Minister of the Five Military Bureaus under Northern Qi and was granted land at Hancheng, present-day Weinan in Shaanxi, where his descendants settled. Bai Jian’s great-grandson Bai Wen served as acting Director of the Bureau of State Ceremonial under the Tang and moved to Xiagui in Huazhou, in present-day Linwei District, Weinan. Bai Wen’s sixth son Bai Huang served as magistrate of Gong County, lived in Zhengzhou, and had five sons. Bai Huang’s eldest son, Bai Jigeng, Bai Juyi’s father, served as Assistant Prefect of Xiangzhou. Bai Juyi was born in Xinzheng, Henan.

Soon after Bai Juyi’s birth, disorder broke out in Henan as the military governor Li Zhengji established separatist control over more than ten prefectures, bringing warfare and hardship to the population. When Bai Juyi was two, his grandfather Bai Huang, then magistrate of Gong County, died in Chang'an, and his grandmother died shortly afterward. In 780, the first year of the Jianzhong era, Bai Jigeng, who had served as a revenue clerk in Songzhou, was appointed magistrate of Pengcheng County in Xuzhou. A year later he was promoted to Assistant Prefect of Xuzhou for his role with Xuzhou prefect Li Wei in defending the city. In 782, to escape the warfare around Xuzhou, Bai Jigeng sent his family to settle in Fuli in Suzhou. In 783, because of the “Two Emperors and Four Kings” crisis in the Central Plains, the family fled again, this time to the Yue region.

In 786, Bai Juyi learned while in Jiangnan that the jinshi examination existed and began to study intensively. Having experienced warfare among regional military governors in his youth and poverty in early adulthood, he came into close contact with social conditions and the suffering of ordinary people. In 791 he returned to Fuli. Later, when Bai Jigeng was promoted to Assistant Prefect of Xiangzhou, Bai Juyi accompanied him to Xiangyang. In 794 his father died there, and Bai Juyi returned to Fuli to observe mourning.

In 798, Bai Juyi’s elder brother Bai Youwen became registrar of Fuliang County in Raozhou, and Bai Juyi accompanied him to Fuliang while the rest of the family moved to Luoyang. In 800 Bai Juyi travelled from Fuliang to Luoyang to visit his mother and passed the jinshi examination that same year. He entered Chang'an in 802. That winter he took the shupan bacui examination administered by the Ministry of Personnel and passed the following year together with Yuan Zhen and others. He was appointed Collator in the Palace Library. In 804 he moved his entire family to Guanzhong and settled at Jinshi Village in Yijin Township, Xiagui County.

In 806, Bai Juyi left his collator post to prepare for a special imperial examination. He and Yuan Zhen shut themselves away for several months to discuss contemporary political and social issues and compiled seventy-five essays under the title Celin. Many of these essays were closely related to Bai Juyi’s later political attitudes and literary theories. In the fourth month of that year, he took the special examination for “men of outstanding talent and knowledge who clearly understand practical administration,” was placed in the fourth grade, and was appointed county commandant of Zhouzhi in Jingzhao Prefecture. As a lower-ranking official, he became closely acquainted with popular hardship; his composition of satirical and admonitory poetry began during this period.

In 807, Bai Juyi served as examiner for the jinshi degree and as a collator at the Jixian Academy and was appointed Hanlin Academician. The following year he became Reminder of the Left and married a younger female cousin of Yang Yuqing. At this stage he participated in politics with intense enthusiasm. Following the principle that “any defect must be corrected and any violation remonstrated against,” he frequently submitted memorials to Emperor Xianzong. He advocated tax remission, rejection of extraordinary tribute, release of palace women, and restraint of eunuch power, and even criticized the emperor directly. Many of his recommendations were accepted, but the directness of his remonstrances also displeased Xianzong. The emperor once complained to Li Jiang that Bai Juyi was a young man whom he had promoted to rank and reputation, yet who treated him without due deference and was difficult to tolerate. Li Jiang argued that Bai Juyi’s conduct sprang from loyalty and instead urged the emperor to keep open channels for remonstrance. Bai Juyi also wrote a large body of admonitory poetry represented by the Ten Qinzhong Poems and the Fifty New Yuefu Poems. The source says these works caused powerful and privileged men to change expression, leading ministers to wring their hands and military powerholders to grind their teeth, and thereby offended members of the ruling elite.

In 810, after completing his term, Bai Juyi became a revenue clerk in Jingzhao Prefecture. In the fourth month of 811, his mother, Lady Chen, died, and he left office to observe mourning in Xiagui. In the winter of 814 he returned to court as Left Attendant Gentleman to the Crown Prince. The changed circumstances gave him time to reflect on his earlier conduct and on life more broadly. Buddhist and Daoist ideas that had long been present in his thinking grew stronger. In a verse he wrote that following the straight path had quickly brought blame, while crooked advancement was not his desire, and that within ten years the vigorous spirit in his breast had been exhausted. His political enthusiasm began to decline.

In the seventh month of 815, Chancellor Wu Yuanheng was assassinated. Bai Juyi angrily submitted a memorial demanding a rigorous pursuit of the murderers. Those in power regarded this as speaking beyond the responsibilities of his office, because he served the crown prince rather than as an official remonstrator and had spoken before the remonstrance officials. At the same time, people who already disliked him accused him of frivolity and lack of moral character, arguing that although his mother had died after falling into a well while looking at flowers, he had written poems on “viewing flowers” and on a “new well,” which they claimed offended moral teaching and should not be publicly circulated. Officials were already irritated by his outspoken criticism and used the opportunity to request his demotion to a prefecture south of the Yangtze. Secretariat Drafter Wang Ya then argued that Bai Juyi was unsuitable to govern a prefecture. The court consequently demoted him further to marshal of Jiangzhou, present-day Jiujiang in Jiangxi.

Although Bai Juyi’s mother did die after falling into a well while viewing flowers, Bai had written many flower poems before her death, while Song-period records place the now-lost “New Well” poem around the first year of Yuanhe. The source therefore argues that these accusations could not in themselves constitute a valid offense. His demotion was more likely connected with the satirical poems that had offended powerful people. The Jiangzhou demotion became a turning point in his life. Before it, he had embraced the ideal of helping both the state and the people; afterward, he gradually turned toward the ideal of cultivating himself when politically frustrated. He continued to care about ordinary people, but his actions no longer had the same intensity as before. Even so, he generally managed to live calmly in Jiangzhou. He built a cottage north of Incense Burner Peak on Mount Lu and associated with local monks. During this period he wrote many poems of personal feeling, including the celebrated Song of the Pipa. In the year of his demotion he also wrote the famous Letter to Yuan Jiu, in which he set out his philosophy of life and his theory of poetry in a clear and systematic form.

In 818, Bai Juyi’s younger brother Bai Xingjian came to Jiangzhou to join him. When Bai Juyi was appointed prefect of Zhongzhou, Bai Xingjian travelled upstream with him. On the journey they met Yuan Zhen at Huangniu Gorge; the place the three visited together became known as Sanyou Cave. During Bai Juyi’s service at Zhongzhou, he planted flowers on a slope east of the city and named the place “Dongpo.” He took office as prefect in 819. In the winter of the same year he was recalled to Chang'an and appointed Vice Director in the Bureau of Receptions of the Department of State Affairs. In 820 he became Director of the Bureau of Receptions and was assigned to draft edicts, received the rank Chaosan Dafu, and was allowed to wear red robes. He and Yuan Zhen were thus serving together in the drafting offices.

In 821 Bai Juyi became Secretariat Drafter. Emperor Muzong, however, led an indulgent life, and leading officials were unequal to their responsibilities. Bai Juyi repeatedly submitted memorials on policy toward the military governors of Heshuo, but Muzong did not adopt his proposals. Bai therefore requested an outside post and in the seventh month of 822 was appointed prefect of Hangzhou. There he found that six ancient wells had fallen into disrepair and supervised their dredging to address the city’s drinking-water needs. He also found West Lake silted and farmland suffering from drought, so he repaired embankments and stored lake water for irrigation, alleviating damage from drought. He wrote the Stone Inscription of Qiantang Lake, setting out policies, methods, and precautions for lake management and had it carved on stone by the lakeside for later officials. The source states that it had a major influence on subsequent management of Hangzhou’s waters. Before leaving office, Bai Juyi left part of his official salary in the prefectural treasury as a revolving fund for future Hangzhou officials, to be replenished after use. The fund reportedly remained in operation until the Huang Chao rebellion, when documents were burned or scattered and its later fate became unknown.

While Bai Juyi was in Hangzhou, Yuan Zhen had also left the chancellorship and become Surveillance Commissioner of eastern Zhejiang. Because the two jurisdictions were not far apart, they exchanged many poems and once met near their boundary for several days. When Bai Juyi’s term in Hangzhou ended, Yuan Zhen asked him for all his writings and compiled them into the fifty-volume Bai Shi Changqing Ji.

After completing his Hangzhou appointment, Bai Juyi was assigned as Left Adviser to the Crown Prince with detached service in the Eastern Capital, Luoyang. In 825, the first year of Baoli under Emperor Jingzong, he became prefect of Suzhou. To improve water and land transportation there, he had a seven-li canal dug from Tiger Hill eastward to Changmen and a road built along the north side of the canal. It became known as Qili Shantang, or Shantang Street. He later left office because of illness and travelled with Liu Yuxi in the Yangzhou and Chuzhou region.

In 827, Emperor Wenzong recalled Bai Juyi to court and appointed him Director of the Palace Library. He was given a purple-and-gold fish-pouch and changed to purple official robes. During an imperial birthday celebration in the ninth month, Wenzong summoned Bai Juyi together with the monk Weicheng and Daoist Zhao Changying to lecture before Linde Hall. Bai Juyi’s reasoning was profound, his argument sharp, and his language clear and fluent, and the emperor was deeply impressed. In the first month of 828 Bai became Vice Minister of Justice and was enfeoffed as Baron of Jinyang County with a fief of three hundred households. In spring 829, because of illness, he returned to Lüdaoli in Luoyang and requested a detached-service post, becoming Crown Prince’s Guest.

During the Dahe era Bai Juyi lived amid the Niu–Li factional struggle. His wife was an aunt of Yang Yingshi, who was close to the Niu-faction leader Li Zongmin. Bai feared being treated as one of Li Zongmin’s faction and losing office, so he asked to remain in quiet posts to avoid political danger. During this period he rarely completed a full term, often leaving office because of illness, and strongly preferred detached-service appointments. The source states that knowledgeable contemporaries praised this choice. In 831 he became mayor of Henan. Yuan Zhen died in the seventh month of that year. The following year Bai Juyi wrote his epitaph and donated all of the sixty or seventy ten-thousands of cash Yuan’s family had given him as a writing fee to Xiangshan Monastery in Luoyang. In 833 Bai again received a detached appointment as Crown Prince’s Guest.

After the Sweet Dew Incident, in which “officialdom was laid low and the community of scholars grieved,” Bai Juyi lost still more interest in an official career. In 836 he was appointed prefect of Tongzhou but pleaded illness and declined to go. He was then made Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince, promoted to Marquis of Fengyi County, and remained in Luoyang. In the winter of 839 he suffered a paralytic illness and remained bedridden for several months. He released household entertainers including Fansu and Manzi and wrote his own epitaph, while continuing to compose poetry during his illness. In 841 he left the post of Junior Preceptor and his salary ceased. In 842 he retired with the title Minister of Justice and received half salary.

Bai Juyi’s later life largely embodied his philosophy that when unable to act in public affairs, one should cultivate oneself. He lived for long periods in retirement at Xiangshan near Luoyang, became a devout Buddhist, called himself Xiangshan Jushi, and became a disciple of the poet-monk Ruman. He often accompanied himself with poetry, wine, and the qin. In his Biography of Master Zuiyin, he described a life in which he would become drunk, awaken, compose, drink again, and become drunk again in a repeating cycle, hence the name Zuiyin Xiansheng. In 844, at age seventy-three, he paid for the removal of rocky shoals near Longmen that obstructed boats. After completion, he wrote Two Poems with Preface on Opening the Eight Rock Shoals at Longmen as a commemoration. The source interprets the poem as showing that his ideal of helping the world when in a position to do so remained alive. In the eighth month of 846 Bai Juyi died of illness. He was posthumously granted the office of Right Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs, given the posthumous name Wen, and buried at Longmen, in the area now known as Bai Garden at the Longmen Grottoes.

Major Activities

Bai Juyi was one of the most representative poets of the mid-Tang period. His prose was precise and polished, and he was especially accomplished in poetry. His writing was straightforward and accessible, giving rise to the saying that even an elderly woman could understand it. He advocated the New Yuefu Movement and argued that poetry should not be separated from reality but should draw on real events and reflect contemporary circumstances. His famous formulation was that prose should be written for its own age and poetry for actual affairs. He became one of the major leaders of realist literature after Du Fu.

His important poems include Song of Everlasting Sorrow, Song of the Pipa, Ten Qinzhong Poems, Fifty New Yuefu Poems, A Question for Liu Nineteen, and Grass on the Ancient Plain: Farewell, while major prose works include Letter to Yuan Jiu and Celin. Song of Everlasting Sorrow and Song of the Pipa are representative poems of personal feeling and have remained widely recited. The Ten Qinzhong Poems and Fifty New Yuefu Poems are representative works of social admonition that reflect contemporary social realities in broad and penetrating ways. Bai Juyi wrote poetry so assiduously that he himself remarked that some might call him a “king of poetry” or a “poetry demon,” while Emperor Xuanzong of the late Tang, according to the source, praised him after his death as a “poetry immortal.”

Bai Juyi’s works circulated widely during his own lifetime among different regions and social groups and also abroad, including on the Korean Peninsula and in Japan. He was ranked alongside Yuan Zhen, and the pair were called “Yuan-Bai.” They were partners in a movement for literary reform. Their collections, the Yuan Shi Changqing Ji and Bai Shi Changqing Ji, were associated with a style called the Changqing style, also known as the Yuanhe style. In later life Bai Juyi exchanged many poems with Liu Yuxi, and the two were called “Liu-Bai.”

In his early years Bai Juyi participated actively in political reform and showed concern for popular welfare. As Reminder of the Left, he repeatedly memorialized Emperor Xianzong, advocating tax relief, refusal of extraordinary tribute, release of palace women, and restrictions on eunuchs, and even directly criticized the emperor. In 815, after Chancellor Wu Yuanheng was assassinated, Bai submitted a memorial demanding a rigorous pursuit of the killers. He was demoted to marshal of Jiangzhou in connection with the affair, but later generations praised his willingness to remonstrate frankly.

Bai Juyi also had notable achievements in local government. As prefect of Hangzhou he supervised dredging of six wells to improve drinking-water supplies, repaired embankments and stored lake water for irrigation, and wrote the Stone Inscription of Qiantang Lake, which was carved near the lake. As prefect of Suzhou he had the Shantang Canal and Qili Shantang Street built, improving water and land transportation. In later life, during the Niu–Li factional struggle, he requested quiet detached-service posts to avoid political danger. Although he did not participate actively in the factional contest, the source says that knowledgeable people praised his choice to preserve personal integrity.

Bai Juyi travelled widely across China. As a youth, warfare forced him to move among Henan, Suzhou, the Yue region, and Xiangyang. As an adult official, he lived or served in Chang'an, Zhouzhi, Jiangzhou, Zhongzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Luoyang. During his demotion to Jiangzhou he built a cottage north of Incense Burner Peak on Mount Lu and associated with local monks. On his way to Zhongzhou he met Yuan Zhen at Huangniu Gorge, and the place visited by the three travellers became known as Sanyou Cave. In Zhongzhou he planted flowers on a slope east of the city and named it “Dongpo.” In later life he lived in retirement at Xiangshan near Luoyang, often visited the Longmen area, and exchanged poems with Liu Yuxi. In 844, at the age of seventy-three, he paid for the removal of rocky shoals near Longmen that obstructed navigation.

Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen were lifelong friends. In 802 they both passed the shupan bacui examination and formed a close friendship. Together they promoted the New Yuefu Movement and exchanged many poems, becoming collectively known as “Yuan-Bai.” After Yuan Zhen’s death, Bai Juyi wrote his epitaph and donated the entire writing fee of sixty or seventy ten-thousands of cash from Yuan’s family to Xiangshan Monastery in Luoyang.

In later life Bai Juyi exchanged many poems with Liu Yuxi, and the two were called “Liu-Bai.” They travelled together around Yangzhou and Chuzhou. Bai also associated with poets including Li Shen, Zhang Ji, and Wang Jian. During his court career he had collegial relations with Li Jiang, Cui Qun, and others. His wife was a younger female cousin of Yang Yuqing, creating marriage ties with the Yang family.