Study Of Dancing Culture From Music And Dance Poems By Bai Juyi

Music and dance poems refer to the poetical works that depictions of the part scenario about music and dance, costumes of dancers and musical instruments, imageries of tunes etc. are taken as the main content at that time. This kind of subject shares a relatively small proportion in the Tang Dynasty poems. Some of this kind are titled directly in the name of music and dance or song, and then are described in the paper directly, and also some with a few descriptions of music and dance mixed in the poem express thoughts and feelings. As a renowned poet in Tang Dynasty, Bai composes poems up to more than two thousand eight hundred in total all his lifetime, of which the number of music and dance poem is also very considerable. It enjoys the rich contents in both the description of costumes, props and relevant instruments and the direct depiction of music and dance works and dancers at that time. Bai pursues the approachable style of poetic composition, even can be understood by the old women, which is paradoxical with the view of connotation and serenity generally emphasized by the scholars in Song Dynasty when putting opinions on poems, so this shallow and popular poetic style of Bai is criticized by descendants. Consequently, the study of his poems is very limited compared with that of other poets’poems in Tang Dynasty, especially the relatively weak analysis of his music and dance poems, and the analysis and study of music and dance poems from the indirect side can offer people some help to better understand the artistic panorama music and dance in Tang Dynasty.