Abstract: Bai Juyi was a monumental poet and a special cultural icon in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, which was also called "the centre of all dynasties" by Ye Xie. Bai Juyi initiated a turning point in literary writing and influenced the spiritual world and outlook on existence of the scholar-officials, and became "the third pole" of the Tang-Dynasty poetry and culture, along with the other two poles of Li Bai and Du Fu. If Li Bai presented an ethereal poetic prototype and a wayward personal image, while Du Fu composed formally subtle poems with a grave spirit of saving the world, then Bai Juyi had cultivated a simple and plain idea of poetry that had freed himself from grandiloquent officialese so that he could pursue material and spiritual comforts to the fullest without having any moral risks. He exerted an enormous influence upon the scholar-bureaucrat group of later dynasties both in literature and wisdom about life.

Key words: Bai Juyi, the centre of all dynasties, wisdom about life, "the Third Pole"