老妪能解 — “Easy to understand”

Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, organized his poetic works many times during his lifetime. In the 'Postscript to the Collection of Bai Juyi's Works,' he stated that his literary works consisted of 75 volumes, with a total of 3,840 poems, a quantity that placed him among the most prolific Tang Dynasty poets.

Bai Juyi, whose courtesy name was Letian, came from a humble background in his youth, which gave him extensive exposure to social life and the suffering of the common people. He passed the imperial examination at the age of twenty-eight and, after another test, became a minor official. Later, he rose to higher positions, but due to offending powerful figures, he was demoted to Sima of Jiangzhou. Eventually, he became the Minister of Justice.

Bai Juyi believed that poetry must be easy for people to understand and remember. Therefore, he always made his works simple and accessible in style and language, ensuring they were well-received by the public. It is said that he would read his new poems to an old woman; only if she understood them would he finalize and transcribe them. If she did not understand, he would revise them until she confirmed her comprehension.

One time, his old nanny recounted an incident she had witnessed: One day, while she was out in the street, she heard someone weeping miserably and rushed over. She saw a plainly dressed woman holding two children, and beside a carriage, a man who looked like a general frowned deeply. After the general whispered a few words to his retainers, they forcefully took the children from the woman's arms. The two children cried out for their mother, and the woman, heartbroken, screamed their names. With a crack of the whip, the carriage carried the crying children away. The woman chased after them, shouting, until she collapsed in tears amidst the dust raised by the wheels. The old nanny and several passersby quickly helped the woman up. Upon inquiring, they learned that the man in the carriage was her husband, a great general who had recently been rewarded two million coins by the court for his military achievements. He had then married a young singing girl in Luoyang, abandoning his original wife; he had just taken away her two children.

Based on this vivid incident, Bai Juyi wrote the famous poem 'Mother Bids Farewell to Son.' After finishing it, Bai Juyi told the old nanny, 'If people in the marketplace cannot understand the meaning of this kind of poem, then there is no point in writing it. Let me read it to you.' With that, he slowly recited the poem. The old nanny listened and nodded, having understood it completely, only then did Bai Juyi finalize the poem.