Bai Juyi

Lore & Background

Bai Juyi was born in 772 in Taiyuan, Shanxi, though he spent most of his childhood in Zhengyang, Henan. His family was poor but scholarly; his father was an Assistant Department Magistrate of the second-class. At age ten he was sent away to avoid a war in the north, living with relatives in Xuzhou in the Jiangnan area. His father's death in 794 led to hard times. He passed the jinshi examinations in 800 and may have taken up residence in Chang'an in 801. In 806 he was appointed to a minor post at Zhouzhi, not far from Chang'an. He became a member of the Hanlin Academy in 807 and served as Reminder of the Left from 807 until 815, except for a three-year mourning period after his mother died in 811. In 814 he held the title of Assistant Secretary to the Prince's Tutor. In 815, after overstepping his position by memorializing the emperor about the assassination of Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng, and due to poems used against him as a sign of lack of filial piety, Bai was demoted to Sub-Prefect and exiled to Jiujiang (then Xun Yang) in Jiangxi. After three years he was sent as Governor of a remote place in Sichuan. In 819 he was recalled to the capital. In 822 he was sent as Governor of Hangzhou, where he built a stronger dike and a dam to control water flow for irrigation, and ordered a causeway for walking. In 824 his commission expired and he relocated to a suburb of Luoyang. In 825, at age 53, he became Governor of Suzhou. After two years he became ill and retired. He later served in various posts, including as prefect in Henan, where his first son was born but died the next year. In 831 Yuan Zhen died. For the next thirteen years Bai held nominal posts but lived in retirement. In 832 he repaired part of the Xiangshan Monastery at Longmen, south of Luoyang, and began to call himself the 'Hermit of Xiangshan.'

Reader's Guide

Bai Juyi's significance lies in his accessible, vernacular poetic style that resonated across medieval East Asia, influencing Japanese literature under the name Haku Rakuten. His long narrative poems 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow' and 'Song of the Pipa' remain among his most famous works. As a politician, he served as governor of three provinces and undertook practical improvements, such as the irrigation works at West Lake in Hangzhou. His career was marked by conflict between his official duties and his outspoken poetry and memorials, which led to exile. His legacy includes both his literary contributions and his role in Tang governance during a period of rebuilding after the An Lushan Rebellion.

Did You Know?

• Bai Juyi was also known in Japan by the on'yomi reading of his courtesy name, Haku Rakuten.
• His younger brother Bai Xingjian was a short story writer.
• He lived through the reigns of eight or nine emperors, from the Dali regnal era of Emperor Daizong onward.
• During his exile, he was demoted to Sub-Prefect in Jiujiang after overstepping his position by memorializing the emperor about the assassination of Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng.
• As Governor of Hangzhou, he built a stronger dike and dam at West Lake to provide irrigation for farmland, and ordered a causeway for walking.