Bai Juyi's Zhongyin thought has always been an important topic in the study of literary history. There are different opinions on the formation of Bai Juyi's Zhongyin thought, but they have ignored that Bai Juyi's premature aging and illness was also an important factor. In recent years, “body” has gradually become a popular perspective in literary research, and literary research related to “body writing” has emerged endlessly. Under this background, this article, from the perspective of the body, explores the body writing in Bai Juyi's poems, and explores the connection between weakness and the formation of Bai Juyi's Zhongyin thought.
This article is based on Zhu Jincheng's Collected Notes of Bai Juyi (1988 edition of Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House), uses the method of close text reading to sort out Bai Juyi's poems, and arranges related poems chronologically. Additionally, it uses the method of combining literature and history to analyze Bai Juyi's poems. Because of his frailty, he paid attention to himself, worried about his short life, and adopted a lazy attitude towards life. This is an important clue to the formation of Bai Juyi's Zhongyin thought. Bai Juyi's attention to the body is very prominent among his predecessors, and there are a lot of writings about the body in his poems. The writing of “languor” is an important part of Bai Juyi's body writing. There are about 120 poems including chants of “languor” and “lazy”, mainly concentrated in the Luoyang period in his later years. Under the influence of the Zhongyin thought, Bai Juyi's body concept has undergone significant changes. He no longer worried about birth, old age, illness and death, but smiled at life with an optimistic attitude. This is another feedback from the Zhongyin thought to the body.
Compared with previous research, this article mainly has two innovations. First, it explores the connection between Bai Juyi's premature aging and sickly physical condition and the formation of Zhongyin thought. Bai Juyi's own physical condition was taken into consideration, and it was demonstrated that physical illnesses and weakness were the direct causes of Bai Juyi's Zhongyin thought. Secondly, this article conducts research on Bai Juyi's body writing. By analyzing the understanding of the relationship between body and mind in Bai Juyi's poems and the body writing of “old” and “sick”, “languor” and “lazy”, it then reveals the close interactive relationship between body and mind presented by Bai Juyi's Zhongyin thought.
This article, from the perspective of the body, explores the reasons for the formation of Bai Juyi's Zhongyin thought. It explains to a certain extent the impact of the interactive relationship between body and mind on Bai Juyi's Zhongyin thought, which is helpful for a reasonable and comprehensive understanding of Bai Juyi's Zhongyin thought, deepening the study of Bai Juyi.