Bai Juyi

Bai Juyi (Chinese白居易, Pinyin Bái Juyi / Bó Juyi, W.-G. Pai Chu -i, * 772 in Xinzheng, Henan, Luoyang † 846 ) was a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. His style name (字Chinese, Pinyin zì ) was Letian (乐天, Letian ).

Life

Bai Juyi was the son of a poor but educated family. At a young age he wrote his first poems. 800, he was a lecturer in the Imperial Palace Library, together with Yuan Zhen, who was one of his closest friends. From 807 he was a member of the Hanlin Academy, but was demoted due to fierce criticism by 815 into exile in the provincial city of Jiujiang. However, Kaiser Muzong put him down 822 again as Mandarin in Hangzhou and Suzhou.

Work

From Bai Juyi more than 2800 poems have survived, as many as by any other poet of the Tang Dynasty. The most famous is about the Empress Yang Guifei, who was killed while fleeing from rebels from the entourage of the Emperor. He was by its plain language in his lifetime a very popular poet of simple people and also gained about China's borders awareness.

In many of his poems are found socially critical allusions, through which he made ​​many enemies.

Effect

The Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai got its name inspired by the poem " Pipa Song".