An Analysis of Bamboo Sceneries in Bai Juyi's Residences

【Objective】As the representative of literati, Bai Juyi, a literary magnate of a generation, has applied bamboo landscaping in many gardening activities. His way of bamboo landscaping, experience of bamboo appreciation and bamboo culture outlook have a profound impact on later generations. This paper hopes to further enrich and improve the literati's bamboo culture outlook by analyzing Bai Juyi's residence and poetry. 【Method】This paper analyzes Bai Juyi's multiple residences and the associated poems，and investigates his practice of building gardens with bamboo elements. The poet's inclination to appreciate the bamboo sceneries and his views on bamboo culture are hence revealed. 【Result】It seems evident that most of Bai Juyi's residences featured bamboo landscape. Bamboo windows，bamboo waters and bamboo forests were routinely adopted to build gardens. The poet was fond of observing the bamboo sceneries from various positions and angles，and he underscored the interaction with bamboo when visiting the gardens. These bamboo-related anecdotes and the large quantity of bamboo-themed poems are of great significance for promoting the development of bamboo culture. This paper further exhibits his views on bamboo culture. Bai Juyi was a follower of Confucianism，Taoism and Buddhism，while bamboo，publicly cherished by these three religions，reflects the noble character which is in line with the poet's spiritual pursuit. 【Conclusion】Under the influence of the idea of “gentleman's virtue”, bamboo has become the materialized expression of literati's pursuit of spiritual quality, and bamboo has also become the representative plant of literati's gardens.