白居易

Bái Jūyì
proper noun

Meanings

  1. 1 Bai Juyi (772-846), Tang dynasty poet celebrated for accessible, socially engaged verse

Examples

HSK 4
Tā de shī lián lǎotàitai dōu néng tīngdǒng.
His poems are simple enough even old women can understand them.
HSK 7-9
Bái Jūyì de 《 Chánghèngē 》 jiǎng de shì Táng Xuánzōng hé Yángguìfēi de àiqíng.
Bai Juyi's 'Song of Everlasting Regret' tells of the love between Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei.

Tips

culture
白居易 deliberately wrote in plain language. Legend says he tested each new poem by reading it to an illiterate old woman (老妪能解) and revising anything she couldn't understand. Along with 长恨歌, his 琵琶行 is required reading in every Chinese high school.
history
He was also a reformist official who used his poetry (新乐府运动, the New Yuefu Movement) to criticize government corruption and the suffering of ordinary people, a radical use of verse for his era.

Stroke Order

bái