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Wang Wei (; 699–759) was a Chinese poet, musician, painter, and politician of the middle
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
. He is regarded as one of the most famous men of arts and letters of his era. Many of his poems survive and 29 of them are included in the 18th-century anthology ''
Three Hundred Tang Poems The ''Three Hundred Tang Poems'' () is an anthology of poems from the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907). It was first compiled around 1763 by Sun Zhu (1722–1778Yu, 64–65), who was a Qing Dynasty scholar and was also known as Hengtang Tuishi ...
''. Wang Wei is especially known as a poet and painter of nature. Some 400 poems survive. These were first collected and originally edited into a corpus by his next-youngest brother, Wang Jin, by imperial command. Of his paintings, no authenticated specimens survive, although there is evidence of his work through influences on later paintings and descriptive accounts of his paintings. His musical talents were regarded very highly, although nothing survives of his music except reports. He furthermore had a successful career as a court official. Eventually, he became a devout
Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and l ...
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
and a
vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...
. Wang Wei spent ten years studying with
Chán Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and S ...
master Daoguang.


Names

His family name is Wang, and his given name is Wei. He chose the courtesy name Mojie, signing his works Wang Weimojie because Wei-mo-Jie () was a reference to
Vimalakirti Vimalakīrti ( sa, विमल ' "stainless, undefiled" + ' "fame, glory, reputation") is the central figure in the ', which presents him as the ideal Mahayana Buddhist upāsaka ("lay practitioner") and a contemporary of Gautama Buddha (6th to ...
, the central figure of the Buddhist
sutra ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an ap ...
by that name. In this holy book of Buddhism, which is partly in the form of a debate with
Mañjuśrī Mañjuśrī (Sanskrit: मञ्जुश्री) is a ''bodhisattva'' associated with '' prajñā'' (wisdom) in Mahāyāna Buddhism. His name means "Gentle Glory" in Sanskrit. Mañjuśrī is also known by the fuller name of Mañjuśrīkumāra ...
(the Bodhisattva of Wisdom), a lay person, Vimalakīrti, expounds the doctrine of
Śūnyatā ''Śūnyatā'' ( sa, शून्यता, śūnyatā; pi, suññatā) pronounced in English as (shoon-ya-ta), translated most often as ''emptiness'', ''vacuity'', and sometimes ''voidness'', is a Buddhist concept which has multiple meani ...
, or emptiness, to an assembly which includes
arhat In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अरहन्त्, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana'' and liberated ...
s and bodhisattvas, and then culminates with the wordless teaching of silence.


Life


Early years

Born into an aristocratic family, of
Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...
ethnicity, originally from Qixian (present-day Qi County in
Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level ...
province), Wang Wei's father moved east of the
Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...
to Puzhou, part of the historic
Hedong Commandery Hedong Commandery () was a historical region in the Qin and Han dynasties of ancient China. Hedong was located to the east of the Yellow River in Shanxi (around present-day Yuncheng). History Hedong Commandery was established by the Qin state ...
(today's
Yongji, Shanxi Yongji () is a county-level city in the prefecture-level city of Yuncheng, in the southwest of Shanxi province, China, bordering Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of North ...
). Known for his youthful precocity, Wang Wei, the eldest of five brothers, set off for the imperial capital at the age of nineteen, in order to study and take the ''jinshi'' civil service entrance examination. In the period while residing in Chang'an, before taking the test, Wang's proficiency at poetry and his musical proficiency with the
pipa The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets rang ...
helped him to achieve popularity at the royal court. He passed the ''jinshi'' examination, in 721, with the first class award (''
Zhuangyuan ''Zhuangyuan'', or ''trạng nguyên'' in Vietnamese, variously translated into English as principal graduate, primus, or optimus, was the title given to the scholar who achieved the highest score on highest level of the Imperial examination, ( ...
''), which started his potentially lucrative civil service career. Wang Wei's career as an official had its ups and downs. His first appointment was as a court musician, or "Deputy Master of Music"; however, he was then demoted to a position of being in charge of a granary in the former province of Jizhou (now the name of a different town Jizhou, in
Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...
). The reason for this demotion, according to tradition, was Wang's breach of etiquette by performing a
lion dance F Lion dance () is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture and other Asian countries in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune. The lion dance is usually performed during the Chinese New ...
. In any case, this was only a minor setback to his career, and it had a compensation in that it did allow him to travel. Then, a series of promotions following this demotion was apparently attributable to a relationship with the prominent governmental minister, poet, and literary scholar
Zhang Jiuling Zhang Jiuling () (678 or 673–740), courtesy name Zishou (), nickname Bowu (), formally Count Wenxian of Shixing (), was a prominent minister, noted poet and scholar of the Tang dynasty, serving as chancellor during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. ...
, at least until Zhang's 727 demotion to a post in
Jingzhou Jingzhou () is a prefecture-level city in southern Hubei province, China, located on the banks of the Yangtze River. Its total residential population was 5,231,180 based on the 2020 census, 1,068,291 of whom resided in the built-up (''or metro' ...
. By 728, Wang Wei was back in Chang'an, where he entertained the poet
Meng Haoran Meng Haoran (; 689/691–740) was a major Tang dynasty poet, and a somewhat older contemporary of Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu. Despite his brief pursuit of an official career, Meng Haoran mainly lived in and wrote about the area in which he was ...
, who was to become a close friend and poetic colleague. At this point, Wang seems to have achieved the rank of Assistant Censor, and then a subsequent governmental promotion, but then later being demoted back to Assistant Censor, with the loss in imperial favor of Zhang Jiuling and the rising political ascendency of
Li Linfu Li Linfu () (died January 3, 753), nickname Genu (), formally the Duke of Jin (), was a Chinese historian, musician, and politician during the Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor for 18 years (734–752), during the reign of Emperor Xuanzon ...
. After his wife's death in 731, he never remarried. It was in his role as a government official that Wang Wei was dispatched to Liangzhou, which was then the northwestern frontier of the Chinese empire, and the scene of constant military conflicts. By invitation of the local commander, Wang served in this location until returning to Chang'an in 738 or early 739.


Middle years

After returning to Chang'an from Liangzhou, and lacking an official posting, Wang Wei took the opportunity to explore the countryside south of the capital, in the Lantian area within the
Zhongnan Mountains The Zhongnan Mountains (), sometimes called the Taiyi Mountains () or Zhounan Mountains (), are a branch of the Qin Mountains located in Shaanxi Province, south of Xi'an, China that extend from Wugong County in the east of the province to Lantia ...
. There, Wang Wei made friends with
Pei Di Pei Di () was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty, approximate year of birth 714, with one work included in the popular '' Three Hundred Tang Poems''. Pei Di was a contemporary of Wang Wei, although younger by fifteen years. Pei Di has twenty pre ...
. In 740–741 Wang resumed his governmental career. This included an inspection tour of
Xiangyang Xiangyang is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hubei province, China and the second largest city in Hubei by population. It was known as Xiangfan from 1950 to 2010. The Han River runs through Xiangyang's centre and divides the city no ...
, Hubei (the home of
Meng Haoran Meng Haoran (; 689/691–740) was a major Tang dynasty poet, and a somewhat older contemporary of Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu. Despite his brief pursuit of an official career, Meng Haoran mainly lived in and wrote about the area in which he was ...
). Afterwards, Wang held various postings in Chang'an. Besides his governmental salary, he made money as an artist, thereby having the means to purchase the sizable Lantian estate, formerly owned by the poet Song Zhiwen, known as Wang Chuan. After his mother's death in 747–748, Wang Wei erected a shrine in her honor at the estate, spending a traditional three-year period in mourning. Wang Wei was so afflicted by grief that he was reduced almost to a skeleton. By 751–752 Wang Wei resumed his official duties. But, at this point, historical records are cloudy, the result of the devastating effects of the An Shi disorders.


War

The
An-Shi rebellion The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general office ...
(755 - 763), profoundly affected Chinese social culture in general and Wang Wei in particular. However, Nicolas Tackett has recently argued that it was not as destructive to the Tang aristocracy as had previously been thought. In 756, Wang Wei was residing in the capital of Chang'an, where he was captured by the rebels when they took the city. Although the emperor Xuanzong and his court and most of the governmental officials had already evacuated to
Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of t ...
, Wang Wei had come down with dysentery and at that time was an invalid and thus unable to travel, especially not on this notoriously mountainous and difficult passage. The rebels then took their prize captive to their capital at
Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...
, where the government of the rebellion sought his collaboration. According to some sources, he attempted to avoid actively serving the insurgents during the capital's occupation by pretending to be
deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
; other sources state that, in an attempt to destroy his voice, he drank medicine that created cankers on his mouth. In any case, at Luoyang, Wang Wei was unable to avoid becoming officially one of the rebels, with an official title. In 757, with the ascendency of Suzong, and the Tang recapture of Luoyang from the rebel forces, Wang Wei was arrested and imprisoned by the Tang government as a suspected traitor. The charges of disloyalty were eventually dropped, partly because of the intervention of his brother, Wang Jin, who held high government rank (as Undersecretary of the Board of Punishments) and whose loyal efforts in the defense of
Taiyuan Taiyuan (; ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; also known as (), ()) is the capital and largest city of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. ...
were well known. Furthermore, the poems he had written during his captivity were produced, and accepted as evidence in favor of his loyalty. Following his pardon, Wang Wei spent much of his time in his Buddhist practice and activities. Then, with the further suppression of the rebellion, he again received a government position, in 758, at first in a lower position than prior to the rebellion, as a ''tàizǐ zhōngchōng'' (), in the court of the crown prince rather than that of the emperor himself. In 759 Wang Wei was not only restored to his former position in the emperor's court, but he was eventually promoted. Over time, he was moved to the secretarial position of ''jǐshìzhōng'' () and his last position, which he held until his death in 761, was ''shàngshū yòuchéng'' (), or deputy prime minister. As these positions were in the city of Chang'an, they were not too far from his private estate to prevent him from visiting and repairing it. During all this time, he continued his artistic endeavors.


Later years

Wang Wei never lived to see the empire return to peace, as the An-Shi disturbances and their aftermath continued beyond his lifetime. However, at least he could enjoy a relative return to stability compared to the initial years of the rebellion, especially when he had the opportunity to spend time in the relative seclusion of his Lantian estate, which allowed him both a poetic and a Buddhist retreat, as well as a place to spend time with his friends and with nature, painting and writing. But, finally, his writing came to an end, and in the seventh month of 759, or in 761, Wang Wei requested writing implements, wrote several letters to his brother and to his friends, and then died. He was then buried at his Lantian estate.


Works

Wang Wei was famous for both his poetry and his paintings, about which
Su Shi Su Shi (; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (), art name Dongpo (), was a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, gastronomer, pharmacologist, poet, politician, and travel writer during the Song dynasty. A major personality of t ...
coined a phrase: "The quality of Wang Wei’s poems can be summed up as, 'a painting within a poem.' Observing his paintings you see, 'within the painting there is poetry.'" He is especially known for his compositions in the Mountains and Streams (Shanshui) poetry genre, the landscape school of poetry, along with
Meng Haoran Meng Haoran (; 689/691–740) was a major Tang dynasty poet, and a somewhat older contemporary of Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu. Despite his brief pursuit of an official career, Meng Haoran mainly lived in and wrote about the area in which he was ...
; their family names were combined in a form of mutual reference and they are commonly referred to as "Wang Meng" due to their excellence in poetic composition, as contemporaries. In his later years, Wang Wei lost interest in being a statesman and became more involved in Buddhism and his poems reflected his focus on Chan practice, therefore he was posthumously referred to as the "Poet Buddha". His works are collected in ''Secretary General Wang's Anthology'', which includes 400 poems. He excelled in painting images of people, bamboo forests and scenery of mountains and rivers. It is recorded that his landscape paintings have two different genres, one of the Father and Son of the Li Family () and the other being of strong brush strokes. His work of ''Picture of Wang River'' is of the latter, but unfortunately the original no longer exists. His works of ''Scenery of Snow and Creek'' and ''Jinan’s Fusheng Portrait'' are both realistic in their representation of the subjects. At present 420 poems are attributed to Wang Wei, of which 370 are thought to be genuine. Wang Wei was a "very great master" of the
jueju ''Jueju'' (), or Chinese quatrain, is a type of '' jintishi'' ("modern form poetry") that grew popular among Chinese poets in the Tang Dynasty (618–907), although traceable to earlier origins. ''Jueju'' poems are always quatrains; or, more sp ...
: many of his
quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Gre ...
s depict quiet scenes of water and mist, with few details and little human presence. The ''Indiana Companion'' comments that he affirms the world's beauty, while questioning its ultimate reality. It also draws a comparison between the deceptive simplicity of his works and the Chan path to enlightenment, which is built on careful preparation but is achieved without conscious effort. One of Wang Wei's famous poems is "One-hearted" (''Xiang Si'' ):


''Wang River'' Collection

Some of Wang Wei's most famous poetry was done as a series of 20 quatrains written by him to which his friend
Pei Di Pei Di () was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty, approximate year of birth 714, with one work included in the popular '' Three Hundred Tang Poems''. Pei Di was a contemporary of Wang Wei, although younger by fifteen years. Pei Di has twenty pre ...
wrote replies. Together, these form a group titled the ''Wang River Collection''. Note that "Wang" as in the river is a different character that the "Wang" of Wang Wei's name. It literally refers to the outside part of a wheel; and also that these are sometimes referred to as the "Lantian poems", after the real name of Wang's estate's location, in what is now
Lantian County Lantian County () is a county under the administration of Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province, China. It is the easternmost and second-most spacious (after Zhouzhi County) of the 13 county-level divisions of Xi'an. The county borders the pre ...
. Inspired in part by Wang's Lantian home and features of its neighborhood and by their correspondences with other places and features, the collection includes such pieces as the poem often translated "Deer Park" (literally, "Deer Fence"). However, the poems tend to have a deceptive simplicity to them, while they actually have great depth and complexity upon closer examination. Below is a selection of several of Wang's 20 "Wang River Collection" quatrains, with English translations by the American sinologist Stephen Owen.


Painting

Wang Wei has historically been regarded as the founder of the
Southern School The Southern School () of Chinese painting, often called " literati painting" (), is a term used to denote art and artists which stand in opposition to the formal Northern School () of painting. The distinction is not geographic, but relates to ...
of Chinese landscape art, a school which was characterised by strong brushstrokes contrasted with light ink washes.


Cultural references


Influence in the East

Wang Wei was of extensive influence in China and its area of cultural influence, particularly in terms of monochrome ink painting and in terms of his deceptively simple and insightful Buddhist-influenced poetry.
Wang Shimin Wáng Shímǐn (; c. 1592–1680) was a Chinese landscape painter during the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). Born in the Jiangsu province, Wang grew up in an artistic, scholarly environment. His grandfather was a ...
and
Wang Yuanqi Wang Yuanqi (; pinyin: Wáng Yuánqí; 1642–1715) was a Chinese painter of the Qing dynasty. Wang was born in Taicang in the Jiangsu province and tutored in painting by his grandfather Wang Shimin (1592–1680). His style name was 'Mao-chin ...
of the
Six Masters of the early Qing period The Six Masters of the early Qing period () were a group of major Chinese artists who worked in the 17th and early 18th centuries during the Qing dynasty. Also known as orthodox masters, they continued the tradition of the scholar-painter, followi ...
painted works in the style of Wang Wei, as well as copying his paintings as "copying former masters was seen as the cornerstone of artistic training." In the
Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...
,
Dong Qichang Dong Qichang (; courtesy name Xuanzai (玄宰); 1555–1636), was a Chinese painter, calligrapher, politician, and art theorist of the later period of the Ming dynasty. Life as a scholar and calligrapher Dong Qichang was a native of Hua Ting (l ...
included Wang Wei's style in his paintings after the old masters. One of Wang Wei's poems, called ''Weicheng Qu'' or "Song of the City of Wei" has been adapted to the famous music melody, ''Yangguan Sandie'' or "Three Refrains on the Yang Pass". The most famous version of this melody is based on a tune for
guqin The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted b ...
first published in 1864 but may be traced back to a version from 1530. Wang Wei's lasting influence is seen in the
death poem The death poem is a genre of poetry that developed in the literary traditions of East Asian cultures—most prominently in Japan as well as certain periods of Chinese history and Joseon Korea. They tend to offer a reflection on death—both in g ...
of the Japanese
haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a '' kigo'', or s ...
master
Yosa Buson was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing haiga as a style of art, working with haibun prose ...
:


Influence in the West

* Wang Wei's poetry, in translation, formed the inspiration for the final ''Der Abschied'' movement of the Austrian composer
Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...
's penultimate completed work, ''
Das Lied von der Erde ''Das Lied von der Erde'' ("The Song of the Earth") is an orchestral song cycle for two voices and orchestra written by Gustav Mahler between 1908 and 1909. Described as a symphony when published, it comprises six songs for two singers who alte ...
''.Mitchell, Donald (1985), ''Gustav Mahler: Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death''. London: Faber and Faber. '' Der Abschied'' is set to a loose German translation of Wang Wei's ''Farewell'' (), a work addressed to fellow poet
Meng Haoran Meng Haoran (; 689/691–740) was a major Tang dynasty poet, and a somewhat older contemporary of Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu. Despite his brief pursuit of an official career, Meng Haoran mainly lived in and wrote about the area in which he was ...
on the occasion of his retirement (after a brief civil service career) to become a scholar-recluse (''yinshi'', ). * Wang Wei's poetry, found in the works of
Ernest Fenollosa Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (February 18, 1853 – September 21, 1908) was an American art historian of Japanese art, professor of philosophy and political economy at Tokyo Imperial University. An important educator during the modernization of Japa ...
, also provided inspiration for the American poet
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
in the creation of
Pound's Ideogrammic Method The ideogrammic method was a technique expounded by Ezra Pound which allowed poetry to deal with abstract content through concrete images. The idea was based on Pound's reading of the work of Ernest Fenollosa, especially ''The Chinese Written Char ...
. * His art inspired
Innisfree Garden Innisfree Garden is an American nonprofit public garden influenced by Chinese style in Millbrook, New York. The garden was established between 1930 and 1960 as the private garden of Walter and Marion Beck, inspired by scroll paintings of th ...
in
Millbrook, New York Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, on the east side of the Hudson River, north of New York City. Millbrook is near the center of the town of Washington, of which it is a ...
. * The Wang River Sequence has been set for choir by UK composer
Peter McGarr Peter McGarr (born 28 May 1953) is an English classical composer and teacher, working in the English experimental tradition and inspired by Northern English landscape and culture. Biography McGarr was born in Openshaw, Manchester, and attended ...
in his piece 'Beautiful Days'.


See also


References


Citations


Sources

* Bynner, Witter (1929), trans. (from the texts of Kiang Kang-hu). ''The Jade Mountain, a Chinese Anthology: Being Three Hundred Poems of the T'ang Dynasty''. New York: Knopf. * Chang, H.C. (1977), ''Chinese Literature 2: Nature Poetry''. New York: Columbia University Press. . * Chang, Yin-nan, and Lewis C. Walmsley (1958), trans. ''Poems by Wang Wei''. Rutland, VT: Tuttle. * Ch'en, Jerome and Michael Bullock (1960), ''Poems of Solitude''. London: Abelard-Schuman. . * Cheng, Francois (1977), ''L'Ecriture poétique chinoise''. Paris: Editions du Seuil. Trans. by Donald A. Riggs and Jerome P. Seaton as ''Chinese Poetic Writing: With an Anthology of T'ang Poetry'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. * Davis, A.R. (Albert Richard), Editor and Introduction (1970), ''The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse''. Baltimore: Penguin Books. * Ferguson, John C. (1927), ''Chinese Painting''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. * Fletcher, W.J.B. (1919), trans. ''Gems of Chinese Verse, Translated into English Verse''. Shanghai: Commercial Press. * Giles, Herbert (1884), ed. and trans. ''Chinese Poetry in English Verse''. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh. * Hinton, David (2008), ''Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology''. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. . * Kenner, Hugh (1971), ''The Pound Era''. Berkeley: University of California Press. * Mitchell, Donald (1985), ''Gustav Mahler: Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death''. London: Faber and Faber. * * Robinson, G.W. (1974), ''Wang Wei Poems'' Penguin Classics, * Stimson, Hugh M. (1976), ''Fifty-five T'ang Poems''. Far Eastern Publications: Yale University, New Haven, CN. * Wagner, Marsha (1982), ''Wang Wei''. Boston: Twayne. * Watson, Burton (1971), ''Chinese Lyricism: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century''. New York: Columbia University Press. . * Weinberger, Eliot, and Octavio Paz (1987), ''Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: How a Chinese Poem Is Translated''. Wakefield, RI: Moyer Bell. * Wu, John C.H. (1972), ''The Four Seasons of Tang Poetry''. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle. . * Yip, Wai-lim (1972), trans. ''Hiding the Universe: Poems by Wang Wei''. New York: Munshinsha/Grossman. * Yip, Wai-lim (1993), ''Diffusion of Distances: Dialogues between Chinese and Western Poetics''. Berkeley: University of California Press. * Yu, Pauline (1980), ''The Poetry of Wang Wei: New Translations and Commentary''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.


Critical editions

* ''Wang Youcheng Ji Jianzhu'' 《王右丞集箋注》 (''An Annotated Edition of the Collected Works of Wang eithe Right Assistant Secretary of State Affairs''). Edited by Zhao Diancheng (趙殿成) (1683–1756). Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1961.


Further reading

* Link, Perry, "A Magician of Chinese Poetry" (review of
Eliot Weinberger Eliot Weinberger (born 6 February 1949 in New York City) is a contemporary American writer, essayist, editor, and translator. He is primarily known for his literary writings (essays) and political articles, the former characterized by their wide-r ...
, with an afterword by
Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
), ''19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei (with More Ways)'', New Directions, 88 pp. and
Eliot Weinberger Eliot Weinberger (born 6 February 1949 in New York City) is a contemporary American writer, essayist, editor, and translator. He is primarily known for his literary writings (essays) and political articles, the former characterized by their wide-r ...
, ''The Ghosts of Birds'', New Directions, 211 pp. ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', vol. LXIII, no. 18 (November 24, 2016), pp. 49–50. * Rouzer, Paul (2020)
The Poetry and Prose of Wang
. ''De Gruyter Mouton''.


External links


Complete translation of Wang Wei's poems, as well as selected prose works, by Paul Rouzer

Wang Wei in English
at ''Poems Found in Translation'' *

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100611171909/http://www.chinapage.com/poem/wangwei/wangwei-trs.html Translations by sixteen poets of "Deer Park"
Landscapes Clear and Radiant: The Art of Wang Hui (1632–1717)
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Wang Wei (see index)

* *Books of the ''
Quan Tangshi (''Complete Tang Poems'') is the largest collection of Tang poetry, containing some 49,000 lyric poems by more than twenty-two hundred poets. In 1705, it was commissioned at the direction of the Qing dynasty Kangxi Emperor and published under ...
'' that include collected poems of Wang Wei at the Chinese Text Project:
Book 125

Book 126

Book 127

Book 128
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Wei 699 births 759 deaths 8th-century Chinese poets 8th-century Chinese painters Chinese portrait painters Musicians from Shanxi Painters from Shanxi Politicians from Yuncheng Poets from Shanxi Tang dynasty politicians from Shanxi Tang dynasty musicians Tang dynasty painters Three Hundred Tang Poems poets Buddhist artists Tang dynasty poets 8th-century Chinese musicians