Bái Jūyì 白居易 (772–846, zì Lètiān 樂天, late life Xiāngshān jūshì 香山居士, also Zuìyín xiānshēng 醉吟先生), of Tàiyuán 太原 by ancestral seat (born in Xīnzhèng in Hénán), was jìnshì of Zhēnyuán 16 (800), Bóxué hóngcí of Zhēnyuán 19 (803, the same examination as Yuán Zhěn 元稹). His career — punctuated by the formative Jiāngzhōu sīmǎ demotion (815, after his memorial protesting Wǔ Yuánhéng’s assassination), and the late-life Hénán yǐn (Governor of Henan) and Tàizǐ shàofù tenures — moved through Sūzhōu and Hángzhōu prefectships and ended in honored retirement at Luòyáng with the Xiāngshān set of literary friends (the Jiǔ lǎo huì 九老會). CBDB id 32227 confirms 772–846.
Bái is the second-most-prolific (after Lù Yóu) major Chinese poet, the most widely read Táng poet during his own lifetime, and the canonical voice of the late-mid-Táng. Major works:
- The Chánghèn gē 長恨歌 (“Song of Lasting Sorrow,” 806) on Xuánzōng and Yáng Guìfēi.
- The Pípá xíng 琵琶行 (816, on the boat at Xúnyáng).
- The 50 Xīn yuèfǔ 新樂府 (809–810) — with formal preface program-statement, the foundational document of the social-realist yuèfǔ movement; paired with Yuán Zhěn’s 12 xīntí yuèfǔ.
- The 10 Qínzhōng yín 秦中吟 (early Yuánhé).
- 30+ Dàowáng poems (paralleling Yuán Zhěn’s).
- The substantial late-life xiánshì shī (idle-leisure verse) — a separate aesthetic counter-current to his earlier socially-committed work.
- The Liùtiē 六帖 — a categorial encyclopedia of stock literary phrases (separately catalogued in KR3).
Bái deliberately deposited multiple manuscript copies of his collection at major Buddhist temples (Dōnglín sì, Shèngshàn sì, Sūzhōu Nánchán yuàn, Xiāngshān sì) — the most aggressive author-curated transmission strategy known from pre-Sòng China; the Sūzhōu Nánchán yuàn deposit is the source of the Japanese Hakushi monjū tradition that became canonical at the Heian court.
Principal works in the corpus: Báishì Chángqìng jí KR4c0069 (full prose+verse, 71 juǎn); Bái Xiāngshān shī jí KR4c0070 (Wāng Lìmíng’s 汪立名 Qīng verse-only critical edition, 40 + 2 juǎn).