On Bai's "dual Combination Of Poetry And Music Ideas,

Poetry and music are of great significance in BaiJuyi's whole life. He not only was addicted to writing poetry, but also proposed many positions, views and opinions concerning poetry and music, thus forming his own system of thoughts about poetry and music. He considered poetry and music as tools in his political affairs. At the same time, he enjoyed himself and refined his mind in poetry and music. Therefore, his thoughts of poetry and music represented a structure of "dual combination". This thesis first examined and clarified the concrete meaning of BaiJuyi's "dual combination" thought of poetry and music, then analyzed and summarized the reasons for the formation of "dual combination" thought so as to achieve the goal of grasping and understanding BaiJuyi's aesthetic thought comprehensively and thoroughly.This thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter set forth the content of BaiJuyi's "extroversive" thought about poetry and music. It first examined BaiJuyi's efforts in establishing and strengthening the lofty position of poetry and music in establishing cosmic and country order from the perspective of philosophy ontology. Second, it discussed that BaiJuyi put forward "Elegance"(Ya) and "Orthodoxy"(Zheng) as the criteria in poetry writing and music appreciation after establishing the philosophy ontology position of poetry and music,. Third, this chapter also stated BaiJuyi's opinion on the political function of poetry and music.The second chapter investigated BaiJuyi's "inner world-oriented" thought of poetry and music. First, BaiJuyi held leisured and comfortable aesthetic psychology in appreciating music and writing poetry. Second, BaiJuyi expressed the fond of the new and the vulgar in music, both in the content and form of poetry. Third, in writing poetry and enjoying music, BaiJuyi achieved the goal of expressing his feelings.The third chapter analyzed the reasons in forming BaiJuyi's "dual combination" aesthetic thought of poetry and music. This chapter took traditional thought, the background of times and the factor of BaiJuyi himself into consideration. The chapter first elaborated on the function and influence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism thought on the transformation of BaiJuyi's aesthetic viewpoint from three aspects, i.e., morality, feelings and character. Secondly, from tradition, times and individual factor, it analyzed the reasons why BaiJuyi honored "Elegance" (Ya) and discarded vulgarity on the one hand, but had an inclination for creating new and vulgar works in poetry and music on the other. Finally, this chapter also explained why BaiJuyi transformed from emphasizing the political function of poetry and music enthusiastically to focusing on the aesthetic thought of "art for art".