The Differentiation and Analysis of the Style Resembling That of Bai Juyi in the Poetic Circle of the Early Song Dynasty

Opinions about the existence of the style resembling that of Bai Juyi in the poetic circle in the early Song Dynasty differ greatly among the experts of history of Chinese literature, yet they were obscure when dealing with many key issues. Nobody has looked into them seriously since the Northern Song Dy- nasty. The present paper differentiates and analyzes some issues about the style of Bai Juyi popular in the early Song Dynasty, such as how the idea originated, what it means, how many poets wrote poems in this style, when and why such poems were popular, etc.