Study of Bai Juyi's Tea Poems

Abstract

Bai Juyi was the first poet of the Tang Dynasty to introduce tea in his poems in large quantities, making tea and wine of equal importance in the poetry world. Tea witnessed the twists and turns of Bai Juyi's life, the ups and downs of his career, and the transformation of his state of mind and played an extremely vital role in Bai Juyi's life. Bai Juyi created more than sixty tea poems, which can be roughly divided into three categories: worrying about the country and the people, lamenting his career, and meeting friends with tea. His tea poems have not only various genres, which synthesized almost all kinds of forms of the Tang Dynasty and brought to higher development and great success but also are rich in the creation of artistic conception and rhythmic beauty. In addition, through Bai Juyi's tea poems, philosophy can also be clearly explored, like Confucianism's 'the middle' and 'harmony' ideas, Buddhism's thought of 'tea and Zen' and 'forgetting the gains and losses', Taoism's 'natural inaction' and 'happy to know life' view about life. Besides, through the study of his poetry, it is noticeable that Bai Juyi specialized in myriads of genres, often created unique moods through the use of special imagery in his tea poems, and focused on the rhyme end of the verse and the standard unity of the format to enhance the sense of poetry rhyme.