Wang Wei (698 - 759)

Wang Wei (王維) (698 - 759), sometimes titled the Poet Buddha, was a Tang Dynasty Chinese poet, musician, painter and statesman.

From a high family, he passed the civil service entrance examination in 721 and had a successful civil service career, rising to become Right Assistant Director of State Affairs in 759. During the An Lushan Rebellion he avoided actively serving the insurgents during the capital's occupation by pretending to be deaf.

He spent ten years studying with the Chan master Daoguang. After his wife's death in 730, he did not remarry and established a monastery on part of his estate.

He is best known for his quatrains depicting 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.

None of his original paintings survive, but copies of works attributed to him are also landscapes with similar qualities. He influenced what became known as the Southern school of Chinese landscape art, which was characterised by strong brushstrokes contrasted with light ink washes.

The poems are by default sorted according to volume, but you can also choose to sort them alphabetically or by page views.

	Poem	Comments
	A Farmhouse on the Wei River	1 Comment
	Lament For Meng Hao-Jan	1 Comment
	Sometimes I'd walk	1 Comment
	A Green Stream.
	A Message from my Lodge at Wangchuan to Pei Di
	A Message to Commissioner Li At Zizhou
	A Song at Weicheng.
	A Song of a Girl from Loyang
	A Song of an Autumn Night.
	A Song of Peach-Blossom River
	A Study
	A View of the Han River
	An Early Audience at the Palace of Light. (Harmonizing a poem for Secretary Jia Zhi.)
	An Evening in the Mountains
	Answering Vice-Prefect Zhang
	At the Lake Pavilion
	Bamboo Adobe
	Birds Calling in the Ravine
	Bound Home to Mount Song
	Deer Enclosure
	Duckweed Pond
	Farewell
	Farewell (II)
	Farewell to Hsin Chien at Hibiscus Pavilion
	Fields and Gardens by the River Qi
	Fine Apricot Lodge
	Harmonizing a Poem, (beside Palace Attendant Guo.)
	Huazi Ridge
	Hut Among the Bamboos
	In My Lodge at Wang Chuan,(After a Long Rain.)
	In The Hills
	Jinzhu Ridge
	Lily Magnolia Enclosure
	Looking Down in a Spring-rain
	Mengcheng Col
	Mount Zhongnan
	My Retreat at Mount Zhongnan
	Peach Blossom Journey
	Random Poem
	Remembrance
	Replying to Subprefect Zhang
	Returning to Songshan Mountain
	Seeing Off Yuan the Second on a Mission to Anxi
	Song of an Old General
	South Hill
	Stopping at Incense Storing Temple
	Temple Tree Path
	The Beautiful Xi Shi
	The Cornel Grove
	Thinking of My Brothers in Shantung on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month
	To Qiwu Qian Bound Home After Failing an Examination.
	Toward the Temple of Heaped Fragrance
	Wei City Song