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*''Chinese / Japanese'': [[白]]居易 ''(Bai Juyi, Bo Juyi / Haku Kyoi)''
*''Chinese / Japanese'': [[白]]居易 ''(Bai Juyi, Bo Juyi / Haku Kyoi)''
Bai Juyi, along with [[Du Fu]], [[Li Bai]], and [[Wang Wei]], is considered one of the greatest Chinese poets in history. He is perhaps best known for authoring the "[[Song of Everlasting Sorrow]]" (C: ''Changhen ge'', J: ''Chôgonka''), a lengthy poem which tells the story of Imperial concubine [[Yang Guifei]].
Bai Juyi, along with [[Du Fu]], [[Li Bai]], and [[Wang Wei]], is considered one of the greatest Chinese poets in history, and perhaps the most esteemed of the four in Japan.<ref name=craig>[[Albert M. Craig]], ''The Heritage of Japanese Civilization'', Second Edition, Prentice Hall (2011), 57-59.</ref> He is perhaps best known for authoring the "[[Song of Everlasting Sorrow]]" (C: ''Chánghèn gē'', J: ''Chôgonka''), a lengthy poem which tells the story of Imperial concubine [[Yang Guifei]].
He was originally from Taiyuan in [[Shanxi province]], and later led a successful career as a scholar-bureaucrat at the Imperial Court. Bai's father, an assistant governor, died in [[794]], and so for a time, Bai, his mother, and his two brothers, moved around the country, living with relatively alternately in [[Suzhou]], [[Hangzhou]], and outside the capital. He passed the local [[Chinese Imperial examinations|civil service examinations]] in [[799]], and the national exams the following year, after which he composed a collection of one hundred statements on government & society, which he had published. Among these was an argument against the ban on members of the merchant & artisan classes sitting for the exams; the ban was eased shortly afterwards.
He was originally from Taiyuan in [[Shanxi province]], and later led a successful career as a scholar-bureaucrat at the Imperial Court. Bai's father, an assistant governor, died in [[794]], and so for a time, Bai, his mother, and his two brothers, moved around the country, living with relatively alternately in [[Suzhou]], [[Hangzhou]], and outside the capital. He passed the local [[Chinese Imperial examinations|civil service examinations]] in [[799]], and the national exams the following year, after which he composed a collection of one hundred statements on government & society, which he had published. Among these was an argument against the ban on members of the merchant & artisan classes sitting for the exams; the ban was eased shortly afterwards.
Bai was a staunch defender of [[Confucianism]] and critic of Imperial excess and ostentation; his poetry has been described as clear and intelligible, being written in a plain, accessible style.
Bai was a staunch defender of [[Confucianism]] and critic of Imperial excess and ostentation; his poetry has been described as clear and intelligible, being written in a plain, accessible style.
The [[Noh]] play ''[[Hakurakuten]]'' tells a fictional story of him journeying to Japan, and being turned back "in the name of Japanese poetry."<ref name=craig/> [[Konparu Zenchiku|Konparu Zenchiku's]] Noh play ''[[Yokihi|Yôkihi]]'' (C: Yáng Guìfēi) is among many works in Japan based upon Bai Juyi's famous epic.<ref>Beng Choo Lim, "Performing Furyû Nô: The Theatre of Konparu Zenpô," ''Asian Theatre Journal'' 22:1 (2005), 34.</ref>
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==References==
==References==
*Valerie Hansen, ''The Open Empire'', New York: W.W. Norton & Company (2000), 230, 237-238.
*Valerie Hansen, ''The Open Empire'', New York: W.W. Norton & Company (2000), 230, 237-238.
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[[Category:Heian Period]]
[[Category:Heian Period]]
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
[[Category:Artists and Artisans]]
[[Category:Artists and Artisans]]
