Bai Juyi
A leading poet in the Tang Dynasty whose poems were favorites in Japan from the Heian period on. He is also known by his courtesy name Bai Letian.
772-846
Bai Juyi, from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, was a leading Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). from Taiyuan (Shanxi Province). Bai was his family name, and Juyi his given name, though he is also widely mainly known by his courtesy name Bai Letian. In Japan he is mainly known as Haku Rakuten, the Japanese reading of his courtesy name. His pen name was Xiangshan JushiKozan Koji. He received an official post in 803 and made a name for himself as a poet in 806 when he wrote Chang hen ge ("Song of Everlasting Regret") about the love between the Tang Emperor Xuanzong (r. 713-756) of Tang and Yang Guifei, his beloved consort. He later joined the central government, becoming secretary to Emperor Han Lin and political adviser to the government. While holding these positions, however, he criticized the contradictions of society, writing social commentary as poetry, such as with his New Yuefu lyricspoems, and developing an entire category of poetry called fengyushi fuyushi(satirical poems). With the deaths of his mother and young daughter, he grew skeptical of Confucian ethics and became more interested in Daoism Taoism and Buddhism. In 815, he was exiled to Sima in Jiangzhou for overstepping his position by writing to the Emperor, and it was during this time of despair that he wrote Pipa xing (Song of the Pipa)Biwako, a poem whose depressing story that sounds like the somber notes of the biwa Chinese lute. He subsequently returned to the central government, settling in his later years in Luoyang and retiring in 842. He died in 846 at the age of 75 and is buried in. His grave is located at Longmen, in Luoyang, Henan Province City.
Although Bai Juyi himself most valued his satirical poems, he did turn in his later years to composing quiet, elegant, comforting poems in his later years. of elegance and comfort. His style, characterized by a simplicity of tone and an avoidance of complexity, and a simplicity of tone, brought him fame in Korea and then Japan. His collected writings are called In addition to the mention of his anthology Bai- shi wen ji. (Hakushi Monjuin Japanese) and Monsenin the "Bunwa" ("Writings") chapter of Sei Shonagon's In Makura no soshi ("The Pillow Book"), in the section titled "Fumi wa" (Chinese Writings), Sei Shonagon mentions Bai Juyi's collected writings together with Wen xuan (Selections of Refined Literature). Other Japanese classics such as Genji monogatari ("The Tales of Genji"), Murasaki Shikibu nikki ("The Diary of Lady Murasaki"), and Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness"The Harvest of Leisure") all contain references to and excerpts from Bai- shi wen ji, which clearly had a profound influence on Japanese classical literature.
Related People, Things and Events
Books
Bai Juyi in Japanese literature
Related Works
Works related to Bai Juyi from the Edo period (1603-1868) onward
板橋貫雄（いたばしつらお）による慶応2年（1866）の模写。板橋は住吉広貫（ひろつら）に絵を学び、同門には山名貫義（つらよし）、遠藤貫周（つらちか）などがいた。彼らは幕末に蜷川式胤（のりたね）と古美術模写を行っていたようで、本作は蜷川が東京国立博物館に寄贈。
模者不詳。
土佐光起（1617－1691）筆。画像は、白楽天の詩句「香炉峰の雪は簾をかかげて看る」を踏まえた中宮の「香炉峰の雪はいかならん」という問いに、清少納言が御簾（みす）を巻き上げて答えたという故事（『枕草子』299段）の場面。
Hatakeyama Gyuan (1625-1693) was one of Kohitsu Ryosa’s (1582-1662) disciples, receiving training in the art of brushwork appreciation directly from Ryosa, and was the son of the first-generation Hatakeyama Gyuan (1589-1656). The grandfather, father and son all used the same name; the writer exhibited here was the second Gyuan, whose real name was Yoshitaka. He ran an appreciators’ business in Hongo, Tokyo, and was considered the utmost authority in the trade, on par with the Kohitsu family.In the authenticity certification, Yoshitaka used a guard-shaped stamp with carved “Gyuan” characters. But in order to differentiate himself from his father, the junior often used a square seal with the name “Den-an” carved on it. One can learn from the note on the back of the shikishi that it was indeed written by the second-generation Gyuan. The quoted Chinese poem is that of Hakkyoi (Ch. Bai Juyi, whose literary pseydonym was Haku Rakuten; Ch. Bai Letian) (772-846) from Wakan Roeishu (Anthology of Japanese Chinese Poems for Recitation；Vol. I, “Winter Nights”). The gold dust (miniscule foils) is scattered all over the shikishi surface, and plants and flowers are drawn in gold mud. Gyuan wrote the aforementioned poem on this elaborately decorated ryoshi and was perhaps asked to write this shikishi to be bound into a book. The brushwork is that of a well-trained writer of the Jodai (classical) School.
武家女性の打掛。江戸時代・18世紀の作品。藤の花房と亀甲文のような幾何学模様とを交互に配した「本辻」（ほんつじ）の打掛で、『和漢朗詠集』(上・藤）に載る白居易の歌「悵望慈恩三月尽（じおんにちょうぼうすさんげつのつくることを） 紫藤花落鳥関関（しとうはなおちてとりかんかん）」をモチーフとする。漢詩の一部がデザインされ、持ち主の教養をうかがわせる。
「寒流帯月澄如鏡」（寒流月を帯びて、澄めること鏡の如し）は、白居易の詩「江楼宴別」（七言律詩）の第五句に当たる。貝原益軒（かいばらえきけん、1630－1714）は、江戸時代前期の儒者・本草家・教育者。名は篤信（あつのぶ）、字は子誠。初め、柔斎（じゅうさい）・損軒（そんけん）と号し、益軒は晩年になってからの号。福岡藩黒田家の右筆役にあった父、寛斎（かんさい）の感化によって儒学に志した。19歳の時から出仕したが、翌年に藩主、黒田忠之の怒りにふれ、7年間の浪人生活に入る。再出仕してのち、江戸勤務中の父の手助けとして上府し、林鵞峰（はやしがほう、1618－1680）について学ぶ機会を得た。また、藩命による京都留学の間、松永尺五（せきご）・山崎闇斎（あんさい）・木下順庵（じゅんあん）らについて学んだ。帰藩してからは、藩主をはじめ家中一同へ儒学の講義を行った。
白居易の詩を記す。筆者の何く火＋卓＞（かしゃく、1661－1722）は鮮州長洲（中国江蘇省）の人。字は開千、のち＜己＋山＞瞻（きせん）と改める。書は欧＜衣＋者＞を学び、姜宸英（きょうしんえい）・汪士鋐（おうしこう）・陳奕禧（ちんばくき）と並び四大書家と称せられた。
中西耕石（1807－1884）筆。
葛飾北斎筆。江戸時代・19世紀の作品。
Ishino Motoaki (1670-1741), the mid-Edo Period noble, was born as the second son of Jimyoin Mototoki (1635-1704), and later established a new family line, adopting the Ishino surname. Motoaki was made Consultant in 1714 and Provisional Middle Counselor in May 1718. However, he retired in December. Born into the head Jimyoin family that originated the Jimyoin School of calligraphy, Motoaki naturally excelled in this art, as well as in music, especially that of kagura (sacred music dedicated at shrines). The exhibited scroll shows a copy of the first half of “Travel with Biwa” (Ch. Pipa xing), the poem written by Haku Rakuten (Ch. Bai Letian) in mixed semi-cursive and cursive scripts. Haku Rakuten composed this poem upon hearing a melody played to the Biwa, a lute-like musical instrument, on a boat when seeing a friend off. He was moved by the lady player’s sad life story being sung, which overlapped with the poet’s desolate life in exile. While employing a traditional writing technique, the brushstrokes are heavy yet gentle, proving Motoaki’s expertise. It is one of the rare authentic renditions made by Motoaki, perhaps written as a decorated exemplar upon commission by a noble. The scroll is signed in hiragana syllables, suggesting that the client was perhaps a woman.
1883年（光緒9）の作品。筆者の任頤（じんい、字伯年）は紹興（中国浙江省）の人で、叔父の任熊（1823－1857）らとともに上海で活躍した「海上派（かいじょうは）」を代表する画家。「九老」とは白居易が香山（こうざん）で雅会を開いた故事。明末の画家、陳洪綬（ちんこうじゅ、1598－1652）に学び、洒脱な人物、明るく心地よい色彩に任頤の特徴がよく表れている。徐悲鴻（じょひこう、1895－1953）の旧蔵品。
月岡耕漁筆。明治31年（1898）の出版。
画題は白楽天。
Search for National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties
Portrayals of Yang Guifei in Chang Hen Ge (“Song of Everlasting Regret”)
Institutions Holding Related Materials
The National Diet Library (NDL), founded in 1948, is the library which belongs to the Diet. The NDL assists the activities of the National Diet. The Library collects and conserves materials and information both from Japan and abroad, serving as a foundation of knowledge and culture and providing library services to administrative and judicial entities and Japanese citizens.
As Japan’s representative museum, Tokyo National Museum collects, preserves, displays, and researches the cultural properties of Asia with a focus on Japan, and also provides educational programs.
Kyoto National Museum collects, preserves, displays, researches and provides educational programs focusing on cultural properties from Heian- through to Edo- period Japan, when the capital was located there.
Kyushu National Museum explores how Japan’s history of cultural exchange with the rest of Asia has impacted the formation of its culture. To that end, we engage in the collection, preservation, exhibition, and research of cultural properties, in addition to providing educational outreach to the local community.
The National Archives is an organization for preserving, as historical materials, public records and archives of importance transferred from state organs, and providing them for public use, with the aim of achieving appropriate preservation and use of such public records and archives that are kept in the National Archives or state organs as historical materials.
The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is founded on November 3, 1983, in Hachioji, a thriving university town in the western suburbs of the Japanese capital. Priding itself as “a museum creating bridges around the world” to facilitate the exchange of different cultures, our museum has forged cordial relations with art museums and cultural institutes in 32 countries and territories to date. We do so by bringing the world’s finest works of art to Japan while reciprocating in kind by introducing the finest Japanese treasures to the world through special exhibitions that showcase their beauty and wonder through a unique new set of prisms and perspectives. Our museum possesses some 30,000 pieces of artworks from various periods and cultures including Japanese, Eastern and Western works, ranging from paintings, prints, photography, sculptures, ceramics and lacquer ware to armor, swords and medallions. Especially noteworthy is its outstanding collection of Western oil paintings that spans a five-hundred-year period from the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Romanticism to Impressionism and contemporary art, as well as its exceptional collection of photographic masterpieces that can give an overview of the history of photography from the birth of the photograph to the present age.
Keio Museum Commons [KeMCo] functions as a "hub" of Keio's cultural assets, which spans a variety of fields including art, archaeology, literature, history, and medicine, and the educational and research activities behind it. At KeMCo, we aim to create a place where various communities can interact and generate new discoveries and ideas based on cultural properties (objects) in an environment where digital and analogue technologies are fused together.
The Art Research Center was established in 1998. Since then, the Center’s mission has been not only to conduct historical and social research and analyses of both tangible and intangible human cultural properties such as visual and performing arts and craftsmanship, but also to record, organize, preserve, and disseminate the research outcomes. To make the vast amount of database of resources on Japanese culture kept at the Art Research Center available to joint researchers in and outside of Japan, while providing the hitherto accumulated digital archiving and database management technologies as the basis for research project activities to promote information archiving and the circulating of joint research on knowledge. Through these undertakings, the Center aims to “become a world class research center” in the field of Digital Humanities.
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art was founded as the successor of the Aichi Prefectural Art Gallery, which originally opened in Sakae, the center of Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, in 1955. The museum opened in 1992 as part of the Aichi Arts Center, an urban cultural complex, and has established a wide-range collection of approximately 8,000 items, centered on works of art of the twentieth century. The Museum has also organized numerous exhibition of a wide-range of themes. The Museum has actively worked to develop and communicate new aspects of art and culture to the public, based on its core mission to serve as the primary art museum of the Chubu region.
東京都世田谷区上野毛に所在。コレクションとして、寛喜3年（1231）から貞永2年（1233）の「白氏文集 金沢文庫本」（重要文化財）を所蔵。HPからも、コレクション＞大東急記念文庫＞漢籍へと進むと、作品を見ることができます。
中国陝西省にある玄宗皇帝と楊貴妃ゆかりの地。『長恨歌』でも詠われている（四川省中国旅行社日本市場の窓口であるサイト 「セイナン・スカイ（Seinansky）」より）。
中華人民共和国河南省洛陽市竜門に所在する墓。竜門石窟風景区にある香山琵琶峰の地で、墓の近くに日本中国文化顕彰会が建立した記念碑があります（「人民中国」インターネット版より）。
External Links
中国語学習サイト「中国語スクリプト」より。白居易の生涯と代表的な漢詩について解説している。
中国語学習サイト「中国語スクリプト」より。白居易の代表的な漢詩『長恨歌』について、原文・書き下し文・現代語訳などを詳しく解説している。
中国語学習サイト「中国語スクリプト」より。漢詩『香炉峰下新卜山居』（香炉峰下［こうろほうか］新たに山居［さんきょ］を卜［ぼく］す）について、原文・書き下し文・現代語訳などを詳しく解説している。。
京都大学図書館機構が運営するサイト「京都大学貴重資料デジタルアーカイブ」の「京都大学所蔵資料でたどる文学史年表」より。
京都大学図書館機構が運営するサイト「京都大学貴重資料デジタルアーカイブ」の「京都大学所蔵資料でたどる文学史年表」より。
愛媛大学公式HPの「最先端研究紹介 infinity」より。
日本芸術文化振興会が運営するサイト「文化デジタルライブラリー」より。キーワード検索で「白楽天」と入力すると、能・狂言「白楽天」の演目情報・資料情報が表示される。
YouTube。日本語の書き下し文を朗読したもので、画面に原文と解説文が表示される。
References
- 「白居易」の項
- 「白居易」の項
- 「白居易」の項
- 川合康三 著,岩波書店
- 白楽天 [著],川合康三 訳注,岩波書店
- 片山哲 著,岩波書店
- 歴史学研究会 編,岩波書店