Research On Bai Juyi’s Zither Poem

Chinese zither is an ancient national instrument of our country, which greatlyaffects our traditional culture. It’s not just a simple instrument and the meaning of whichis not limited to entertainment. Zither is an important carrier for the ruling class tocultivate their moral character and achieve the aim of harmonizing the heaven and earth,is the symbol of ancient literati’s identity, is the emotional sustenance of the literati whoown the lofty ideal and noble character. Bai Juyi was a scholar who loved and knewzither. We looked up ‘Collection and Annotation of Bai Juyi’ and got122poems onzither, the number of which was the largest among the works of poets in Tang Dynasty.He played zither to amuse and comfort himself. Meanwhile, he paid attention to thepublic aesthetic change towards zither music and made his point on the effect of itssound and decline. This article studied Bai’s zither poems and discussed the aesthetictemperament, music theory, ideology of zither and poem in these poems. With theresearch on Bai’s intention course, we can provide evidences for the comprehensivestudy of Bai Juyi.This article was divided into the following five parts.The introduction summarized the creating status of Bai’s zither poem and theaffinity between Bai and zither. We also introduced the research status of his zitherpoem and defined its scope.The first chapter ‘Bai Juyi’s zither poem’ was divided into two sections. Section1investigated the number of Bai’s zither poem in ‘Collection and Annotation of Bai Juyi’through the method of table listing. Section2overviewed Bai’s zither poems andclassified the objects of which into zither chanting, music chanting and image of zither.The second chapter ‘Bai Juyi’s pleasure from zither’ was divided into two sections.Section1discussed the clam, pure and lofty imagery that Bai pursued of the zither music.Section2described the leisurely and generous temperaments in Bai’s zither poem whichwere mainly the characters of comfort, pleasure, open-mind and optimism.The third chapter ‘Bai Juyi’s knowledge of zither’ was divided into two sections.Section1investigated the decline of zither music and Bai’s aesthetics of ‘detestingvulgar music and promoting elegant ones’ by studying ‘dumped zither’. Section2was about the spread and changes of Bai’s ideology on zither and poem. As his roughpolitics career, Bai changed his ‘universal responsibility’ thoughts into the thoughts ofseclusion.The epilogue summarized the discussion above and got the conclusion that notonly Bai’s zither poem reflected his aesthetics and enjoyment, his ideology on zither&poem and the music theory contained in zither poem provided some evidences for theresearches on the musical development of Middle Tang Dynasty.