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.

First Line	Comments
A cold rain mingled with the river
A fisherman is drifting, enjoying the spring mountains,
A morning-rain has settled the dust in Weicheng;
A red berry grows
After rain the empty mountain
Alone now in a strange country,
As the years go by, give me but peace,
Autumn hill gather surplus shine
Bear fruit red and green
Down horse drink gentleman alcohol
Empty hill not see person
Fine apricot cut for roofbeam
Fishing boat pursue water love hill spring
Fly bird go no limit
From ten thousand valleys the trees touch heaven;
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High beyond the thick wall a tower shines with sunset
Hill at mutual escort stop
I can never see my old friend again—	1 Comment
I dwell apart by the River Qi,
I have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers,
I sit along in the dark bamboo grove,
In a happy reign there should be no hermits;
In the slant of the sun on the country-side,	1 Comment
Its massive height near the City of Heaven
I'm idle, as osmanthus flowers fall,
Light boat south hill go
Light cloud pavilion light rain
My heart in middle age found the Way.
Narrow path sunless temple locust tree
New house Mengcheng entrance
Not know incense store temple
Old age think good quiet
Round a turn of the Qin Fortress winds the Wei River,
Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire,
Sitting alone
Small barge go to meet honoured guest
Sometimes I'd walk,	1 Comment
Spring pond deep and wide
The limpid river, past its bushes
The mountains are cold and blue now
The red-capped Cock-Man has just announced morning;
The woods have stored the rain, and slow comes the smoke
There's a girl from Loyang in the door across the street,
Under the crescent moon a light autumn dew
Wei City morning rain
Weicheng morning rain moisten light dust
When he was a youth of fifteen or twenty,
White rocks jutting from Ching stream
Wingceltis goldenrain shine empty bend
With its three southern branches reaching the Chu border,
You also come from my home town,