A Study On Bai Juyi's Leisure Poems

In the Tenth Year of Yuanhe (815 AD), Bai Juyi categorized his poems into four types: satirical poems, leisure poems, sentimental poems and unregulated verses. He further defined the four types. Among these types, Bai Juyi valued the satirical poems the most and regarded them as his best works. The only other type to match the satirical poems is his leisure poems. The leisure poems in a narrow sense refer to Bai Juyi's own categorization of some poems. He did not, however, stick to the practice of categorization after that. Yet his composition of leisure poems runs throughout his life. His poems that enjoy the greatest popularity include his The Eternal Regret, Songs of the Lute and the leisure poems. It is believed that leisure poems constitute the majority of his works and the major part of his late years. The author re-selects Bai Juyi's poems and redefines leisure poems in a broad sense with reference to Bai Juyi's own definition and his predecessor's understanding of leisure. Past study of Bai Juyi focuses on his The Eternal Regret, Songs of the Lute and satirical poems, giving them a deep thought and high evaluation, meanwhile neglecting his leisure poems.The dissertation makes a thorough study of Bai Juyi's leisure poems from their historical development, philosophical sources, contents, significance as well as their impact on literati in later dynasties and literature abroad.The dissertation is in eight chapters:The introduction section deals with the motive and purpose of the study. It also involves a literature review and an analysis of the deficiency of the previous studies as well as the significance of the present research.The first chapter demonstrates the object of the research, defining the concepts of "leisure" and "leisure poems" from previous literature, "leisure" (xianshi in Chinese) is made up of two different Chinese characters: xian (leisure) and shi(ease) .As time goes by, the two characters do not have much distinction. In mid-Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi combined the two characters and made them one word and made leisure poems a type of poetry. Thereafter, leisure poems have become one of the most important subjects in poetry history.