Background
Po Chü-i was born in 772 in Taiyüan, Shanxi, China. His family was poor but scholarly, his father being an Assistant Department Magistrate of the second-class.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
book
The Selected Poems of Po Chü-i
(The quintessential Chinese poet, translated by David Hint...)
The quintessential Chinese poet, translated by David Hinton, recipient of the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award. Generally acclaimed as one of China's greatest poets, Po Chü-i practiced a poetry of everyday human concerns and clear plain-spoken language. In spite of his preeminent stature, this is the first edition of Po Chü?-i's poetry to appear in the West. It encompasses the full range of his work, from the early poems of social protest to the later recluse poems, whose spiritual depths reflect both his life-long devotion to Taoist and Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist practice. David Hinton's translations of ancient Chinese poetry have earned wide acclaim for creating compelling English texts that have altered our conception of Chinese poetry.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811214125/?tag=2022091-20
1999
Po Chü-i: Selected Poems
(The T'ang dynasty was the great age of Chinese poetry, an...)
The T'ang dynasty was the great age of Chinese poetry, and Po Chü-i was one of that era's most prolific major poets. His appealing style, marked by deliberate simplicity, won him wide popularity among the Chinese public at large and made him a favorite with readers in Korea and Japan as well. From Po Chü-i's well-preserved corpus - personally compiled and arranged by the poet himself in an edition of seventy-five chapters - the esteemed translator Burton Watson has chosen 128 poems and one short prose piece that exemplify the earthy grace and deceptive simplicity of this master poet.
https://www.amazon.com/Po-Ch%C3%BC-i-Selected-Poems/dp/0231118392/?tag=2022091-20
2000
Po Chü-i
Edit Profile白居易
also known as
Bai Juyi, Bo Juyi, Letian
Education
At the age of ten he was sent away from his family to avoid a war that broke out in the north of China, and went to live with relatives in the area known as Jiangnan, more specifically Xuzhou. Because of his father’s death in 794 and straitened family circumstances, Po Chü-i did not take the official examinations for the bureaucracy until the late age of 28. He passed them and also did extremely well at another examination he took two years later. As a result, he was given a minor post at the palace library.
Career
In 807 Po Chü-i became a member of the prestigious Hanlin Academy in Chang’an, the capital, and he rose steadily in official life, except for his banishment in 814 to a minor post at Jiujiang, which arose from the slander of rival courtiers. He assumed the important posts of governor of Zhongzhou, Hangzhou , and, later, Suzhou. In 829 he became mayor of Luoyang, the eastern capital, but he retired from that post in 842 because of illness.
Po Chü-i was the informal leader of a group of poets who rejected the courtly style of the time and emphasized the didactic function of literature, believing that every literary work should contain a fitting moral and a well-defined social purpose. He considered his most important contributions to be his satirical and allegorical ballads and his "new yuefu," which usually took the form of free verse based on old folk ballads.
Po Chü-i was deeply concerned with the social problems of the time; he deplored the dissolute and decadent lifestyles of corrupt officials and sympathized with the sufferings of the poor. Many of his poems are quoted in the Japanese classic The Tale of Genji.
Achievements
Works
book
-
The Selected Poems of Po Chü-i
(The quintessential Chinese poet, translated by David Hint...)
1999 -
Po Chü-i: Selected Poems
(The T'ang dynasty was the great age of Chinese poetry, an...)
2000
-
The Selected Poems of Po Chü-i
Connections
- Son:
- Bai Acu
- Grandfather:
- Bai Huang
- Brother:
- Bai Xingjian
References
- The Life and Times of Po Chü-i First published in 1949. This book gives the biographical background to the many poems of Po Chü-i and traces the connection between his literary career and the disturbed political life of the time. The volume also provides new translations in whole or in part of about a hundred poems by Po Chü-i.
Career
-
818
-
822
-
829 - 842