Tracing the Mental History of Bai Juyi in his Poems after the Tao Style

Indulged in self-purification with content and peace during his old life,Bai Juyi proposed the doctrine of seclusion while living a worldly life as characterized in the saying being seemingly out of the world but in it as well. His negative view of life revealed a combination of the Confucian concept of resigning to fate with retreat to the self,the Taoist concept of being contented and knowing disgrace,and the Buddhist concept of matter and void.The essential spirit of his poems after the style of Tao Yuanming at later life is anything but a positive imitation of the earlier poet.The non-self meaningful realm of Tao Yuanming and his great personality are what Bai Juyi desired but failed to attain.