Bai Juyi's poems are so plain that even old women can understand them.
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culture
When the young poet called on the official 顾况 in 长安, Gu joked on his given name 居易, 'living is easy': with everything so dear, living in the capital was 居大不易, 'not easy at all'. The phrase is still said of costly big-city life.
history
He was also a reformist official who used his poetry (新乐府运动, the New Yuefu Movement) to criticize government corruption and the suffering of ordinary people, a radical use of verse for his era.
