Writers › Writer / Poet

Bai Pu

Yuan playwright and lyricist raised by Yuan Haowen after the fall of the Jin capital, author of the dramas Rain on the Paulownia Tree and Over the Wall

Also known as Zi Renfu · Hao Langu · Zi Taisu

Roles: Writer / Poet

Bai Pu, first named Heng, courtesy names Renfu and later Taisu, styled Langu, came from Yuzhou (modern Hequ, Shanxi) and was the son of Bai Hua, an assistant commissioner in the Jin Bureau of Military Affairs; the family later settled in Zhending. When the Mongols took the Jin capital at Kaifeng, the boy was separated from his father and was taken in and taught by his father's friend Yuan Haowen. In the early Yuan the minister Shi Tianze recommended him for office, but he declined and travelled south, living for many years at Jiankang. Of more than ten plays he wrote, three survive, including *Rain on the Paulownia Tree* (*Wutong yu*) about Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei, and *Over the Wall* (*Qiangtou mashang*); his lyrics were collected as *Heavenly Pipes* (*Tianlai ji*). Zhou Deqing's preface to the *Rhymes of the Central Plain* (*Zhongyuan yinyun*) names Guan, Zheng, Bai and Ma together, the source of the later grouping of the four masters of Yuan drama.

Life and times

1226 CEBornSong Yuan
1260Flourishing of Yuan Drama (Zaju)Took partYuan qu was the period's flourishing dramatic art, encompassing sanqu songs and zaju drama and later distinguished as a northern tradition from southern forms.
c. 1306 CEDied

Works

Literature · Drama16
1. AutumnYuanBai Pu's landscape sanqu, from a bleak village at dusk to an autumn hillside in full colour
2. SpringYuanFirst of Bai Pu's four-season sanqu: orioles, swallows and a garden swing in spring
3. FishermanYuanBai Pu's sanqu of an unlettered fisherman on the autumn river who looks down on lords
4. Rain on the Paulownia TreeYuanBai Pu's Yuan zaju of Emperor Xuanzong mourning Yang Guifei as autumn rain beats on the leaves
5. On the Wall and on HorsebackYuanBai Pu's Yuan zaju of Li Qianjin, who elopes after one glance and fights for her marriage
6. +11 more
Literature · Lyrics4
1. Sounds of Heaven CollectionYuanBai Pu's ci collection, poems of a lost Jin homeland and a life spent refusing office
2. Sounds of Heaven Collection: Upper JuanYuan
3. Sounds of Heaven Collection: Lower JuanYuan
4. Sounds of Heaven Collection: Lower Juan: Qinyuan Chun, Gazing from Phoenix Terrace at JinlingYuan
Literature · Sayings2
1. Red Leaves and Yellow Flowers in Bai Pu's Autumn SceneYuanAphorism from Bai Pu's Tian Jing Sha, Autumn: bright red leaves and yellow flowers
2. Orioles Sing and Swallows Dance in SpringYuanIdiom echoing the crying orioles and dancing swallows of Bai Pu's Spring: a thriving scene
Stage · Plays2
1. Rain on the Paulownia TreeYuan dynasty (by Bai Pu)Bai Pu's Yuan zaju in a prologue and four acts, ending with Emperor Xuanzong woken by rain on the paulownia
2. On the Wall and on HorsebackYuan dynasty (by Bai Pu)Bai Pu's Yuan zaju, sung throughout by Li Qianjin, on a meeting over a wall and seven years of hidden marriage

Bai Pu

Life and times

Works

Connections