Allusions Of Bai Juyi’s Poems Research

The phenomenon of quoting allusion is common in Bai Juyi’s poetry, into which there are notenough in-depth researches by academia. As is shown by statistics, Bai Juyi quoted allusions threethousand times in his poetry and what he quoted consisted of two parts: quoting remarks as well asstories.The remarks Bai Juyi quoted ranged from works of the Pre-Qin Period, Qin and Han, Wei-JinSouthern and Northern Dynasty and his dynasty in a chronological order, and part of the Buddhistsutra as well as history books, reflecting the poet’s reading list.Quoting stories including philosophical, literary as well as historical allusions reflects the poet’sattitude. Philosophical allusions consist of those of Buddhist and Taoist, whilst fairy tales andfables constitute literary allusions. The main bulk is historical allusions since Bai Juyi quotedmost from ancient scholars who became his subject in poems by being either upright or elegant orcourteous or frustrated in career, a sign showing the Confucian spirit of “Poor then conductoneself virtuously, rich then help world” inside Bai Juyi. The poet emphasized more on debonairand reclusive figures in Wei-Jin Dynasty as a sign of demonstrating his worship for such figuresand longing for such life. Historical allusions also include feminine and other ones.Bai Juyi quoted allusions innovatively in his poetry, which could be discussed in a co-existencewith his style of poetry. First, they were in large amount and from wide resources, some of whichwere from his dynasty and thereby expressed the realistic style of his works.Second, thedistribution of allusions varies from dense to scarce in different poems, hence impressing readersas easily approachable. Third, he insists on a plain style of quoting allusions as is shown by theimages of “wine”,“horse” and “sword” that express different ideas. Fourth, his quoting allusionfares naturally. Last, the poet quotes allusions innovatively with finesse that provokesthoughts.The last point was reflected in that, first, Bai Juyi quoted allusions in connection withrhetorical devices deftly, second, he explained more about unfamiliar allusions than familiar ones,third, he incorporated allusions in the situation as he chose allusion according to the name,profession and identity of his subjects properly. Fourthly, he used one allusion several times bychanging ways of articulation as well as explicated one meaning by quoting different allusions indifferent poems.The choices of Bai Juyi’s allusion are not at odds with his plain style of poetry,but rather supplementary to and echo each other.