In classical Chinese literature, there are two sources of leisure imagery in classical poetry: Tao Yuanming, with the nature of countryside as the main aesthetic object, and Xie Lingyun, with the nature of the mountains and rivers as the main aesthetic object. This paper is based on the leisure imagery of Bai Juyi's poems, to study the aesthetic imagery, focusing on the content of the objects in Bai Juyi's poetry and the connotation of the leisure imagery of the poetry over time, which derives from the pursuit of the ideal and the quality of leisure life.
There are more than 216 Bai Juyi's "leisure poetry" pieces, and this paper proposes three explanations: First, the poetry uses "meaning" as Bai's emotional experience, and the poetry shows his open-mindedness as well as his disregard for fame and fortune, which is a manifestation of Bai's love of life. This shows that the standards for editing "leisure" works differed from those of the time. Second, the poetry uses "meaning" as Bai's personal experience and permeates it into his composed poems. The entire poetry shows the meaning and image, the meaning and situation, and the scope of leisure imagery is expanded. Third, Bai's poetry is based on the concept of leisure imagery. The "pairing arrangement", "imagery", and "metaphorical initiation" are used to illustrate the diversity of the creative content of Bai's poetry.
This paper presents the richness of Bai Juyi's poetry through the genres of narrative, sentimentality, and leisure, and discusses the characteristics of his poetry, with leisurely imagery as the main theme. Bai's poems included "Su Zhou and Peng Ze are at different times from mine" and "Master Xie's talent was so broad, but his ideals were at odds with those of his time"; Bai considered Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun, and Wei Yingwu as his idols in terms of literature and culture, and described them as the sources of leisure imagery in his own poetry. This paper classifies the themes of Bai Juyi's leisure imagery and the contents of his poetic works into separate chapters, which are discussed in Chapters 1 to 6, and concludes in Chapter 7 with the results, findings, and future prospects of this thesis.
Chapter 1: Introduction. This chapter explains the motivation and purpose of this paper, and outlines the relevant works and papers that have been published by scholars.
The second chapter discusses Bai Juyi's poetry and leisure culture. This paper focuses on Bai Juyi's leisure culture in poetry for two reasons: first, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism deeply influenced Bai Juyi's life, and his poetry was integrated with the rich culture of the Tang Dynasty. The second is the linguistic characteristics of Bai's poetry, and how the "sentimental metaphors" are used to explore the culture of the poems, covering Bai's life attitudes, values, beliefs, art, and perception patterns and other thinking processes.
The third chapter discusses the origin of Bai Juyi's leisure poetry creation. Bai Juyi's idea of leisure poetry refers to the purpose of writing the idea of the article. Before constructing a piece, the writer needs to cultivate the momentum so that the words can have strength and the content can be enriched so that the work can have a new insight. This chapter discusses Bai's view of Tao Yuanming and Wei Yingwu as his idols in terms of literature and culture, as well as how Bai's poetry, through its narrative poetic connotations, interprets the leisure imagery and the origins to form a unique cultural meaning.
Chapter 4 discusses the relationship of Bai Juyi's leisure poetry creation. Bai Juyi always liked to read Laozi and Zhuangzi, and the idea of Laozi enabled him to leave mundane matters behind. Bai often discusses with Taoist scholars, whose moral spirit made him think of leaving the world behind. Bai often discussed poetry with Wang Qifu and Yuan Zhen, and they were very close to each other. When Bai Juyi began his career in the first year of Yongzhen (805) at the age of about thirty-four, he felt that life was too short and that the coming of wealth cannot be forced; he looked positively at the poverty of his life, and his leisure poetry showed the idea of forgetfulness, self-sufficiency, and no interest in wealth and fame.
Chapter 5 discusses Bai Juyi's thoughts on leisure imagery in poetry. The theoretical basis for Bai's interpretation of leisure poetry was presented in the tenth year of Yuanhe (815), and is basically related to his position as an official, showing the pleasure of leisure in his official position. The scope of Bai Juyi's "leisure poetry" is divided into "official" and "leisure" categories, and the creation of leisure poetry is not exclusively found at the time of his official position; there are also many leisure works written when he is discharged from his official position.
Chapter 6 discusses the evolution of Bai Juyi's leisure poetry. After Bai Juyi returned to Luoyang and his old home in Cudao Li, he clearly felt that his life had a brand new beginning. Bai's concerns towards the country and the people in his early years had resulted in his demotion, and he managed to isolate himself. Although he did not serve in an important official position, he was able to avoid the hunger and cold of being in the wilderness, and had a respectable social status and a free life, at the cost of giving up his real power.
Chapter 7 is the conclusion. This chapter presents the results, findings, and future prospects of this paper. The purpose is to show that Bai Juyi's leisure imagery in poetry originated from Bai's life experience, and this experience developed into poetry, which led to the development of leisure imagery in poetry. Whether in theory or in practice, the former scholars had accumulated many cultural assets in the study of Bai's poetry, but of course, the transformation from Bai's inner life to external poetic works still requires a gradual evolutionary process. The evolutionary trajectory of Bai's poetry and its empirical achievements, the creation of his leisure poetry in response to the trend of the times, and the functions and diverse leisure imagery of his poetry through Bai's philosophy of life and life practice, offer more specific views and insights.