Wang Wei

Chinese poet

• Born: 701
• Birthplace: District of Qi, Taiyuan Prefecture, Shanxi Province, China
• Died: 761
• Place of death: Changan (now Xian), Jingzhao Prefecture, China

A major Tang poet, Wang Wei left a body of some 370 poems that can be considered authentic; his much-admired nature poetry accounts for his preeminence in Chinese literature. A highly skilled musician and an unusually competent government official, he was credited with founding the Southern school of landscape painting.

Early Life

Not much is known about the early life and education of Wang Wei (wahng way). He was the eldest child of a family of aristocratic, middle-level officials. Wang Wei’s father, Wang Chulian (Wang Ch’u-lien), despite his middle-official rank, belonged to the powerful Taiyuan Wang clan, and Wang Wei’s mother belonged to the prominent Boling Cui clan. Wang and Cui were among the “seven great surnames” (qi xing) and wielded much political power.

Wang Wei was a prodigy and evidently had the typical Confucian literary education, which prepared him for the civil service examinations. He began to compose poetry at the age of nine and also showed talent in painting, calligraphy, and music. At the age of fifteen, he went to the capitals of Luoyang and Chang’an to prepare himself for the examinations and was warmly welcomed at the courts of the imperial princes, especially that of Prince Qi (Ch’i, or Li Fan), the younger brother of the emperor. Known for his court poetry and ability to play pipa (Chinese guitar), Wang Wei was an immediate success at court, where he shrewdly made important social and literary contacts.

Having taken first place in the provincial examination, he became qualified to take the metropolitan examination. In 721, he was among the thirty-eight successful candidates for the jinshi degree out of the several thousand who attempted it. As a result, he was soon appointed one of the court’s associate secretaries of music. His future looked bright.

Life’s Work

Nevertheless, at this time, Wang Wei’s position as a literatus came to overshadow his background as an aristocrat. When the empress Wu Hou usurped the throne in 690, she initiated a conflict between the aristocracy and the literati by rejecting hereditary privilege in favor of the examination system for choosing high officials. Although Emperor Xuanzong (Hsüan-tsung, r. 712-756) had revived the hereditary privilege after ascending the throne in 712, he remained suspicious of political intrigues and kept a watch on the princes. Soon after Wang Wei assumed his official position at the court of Prince Qi, the prince was suspected of conspiring against his brother. In 722, the emperor responded by breaking up the princely entourages. Wang Wei was charged with an indiscretion (allowing the performance of a forbidden dance). In 723, he was dismissed from court, demoted, and banished to the distant district of Jizhou (Chi-chou; now in Shandong Province), thus beginning the early period of his literary development.

Wang Wei served in Jizhou until 727, when he began a period of travel in the eastern provinces. These travels frequently provided inspiration for poems that are unusual in their perspectives. During his travels, Wang Wei made the acquaintance of Daoist and Buddhist masters and frequented their retreats. He also made important political friendships during his exile. His friendship with Pei Yaoqing (P’ei Yao-ch’ing), the prefect of Jizhou, led to his introduction to the outstanding statesman and brilliant poet Zhang Jiuling (Chang Chiu-ling), the powerful imperial minister.

About 730, Wang Wei’s wife died. He never remarried and chose to remain celibate the rest of his life, beginning a serious study of Chan Buddhism with the Chan master Zuoguang (Tso-kuang). At this time, he also discovered his own poetic voice. In 733, he returned to Chang’an. Now his acquaintance with Zhang Jiuling paid off, for this powerful and highly ethical man sponsored his reentry into politics. In 734, Emperor Xuanzong appointed him “reminder on the right” (youshiyi). True to his Confucian ideal, Wang Wei was in public service once again, thus ending his first stage of poetic development.

As reminder on the right, Wang Wei reminded the emperor of overlooked or forgotten matters. Such a position required much tact and subtle diplomacy; apparently Wang Wei was equal to it, for he maintained his position and continued to advance. Nevertheless, he found Xuanzong’s new ministry dangerous. Although the triumvirate included Zhang Jiuling and Pei Yaoqing, the third member was the ambitious Li Linfu. Zhang Jiuling and Pei Yaoqing had both risen to positions of power through the examination system; they were literati. Li Linfu, however, was an aristocrat and a member of the imperial clan that supported hereditary privilege: Conflict was inevitable. When Zhang Jiuling was banished and Pei Yaoqing demoted in 737, Wang Wei also was in danger. Nevertheless, he survived, although he temporarily became investigating censor (jian cha yushi) of Hexi, a post on the northwest frontier in the province of Liangzhou (modern Gansu). Here he assisted the military governor, Cui Xiyi (Ts’ui Hsi-i), from 737 until 738, when Cui’s forces were defeated by the Tibetans and the general was killed. Although not technically an exile, Wang Wei’s frontier assignment gave Li Linfu time to consolidate his power without undue interference. He became a virtual dictator when the elderly emperor, preoccupied with his consort, Yang Guifei (Yang Kuei-fei), began to allow him a free hand in public affairs.

When Wang Wei returned to Chang’an in 738, he was promoted to palace censor (dianzhong shiyu shi). In 740, he was sent to the south to supervise the provincial examinations, returning to the capital and continuing his steady advancement. At about this time, he seems to have acquired his famous Wangchuan estate, which was located in the foothills of the Zhongnan Mountains, some 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Chang’an; the estate was to prove important to his life and to his painting and poetry. About 750, his mother died, and he withdrew from court for the customary period of mourning, a little more than two years. On his return to Chang’an in 752, Wang Wei was appointed secretary of the civil office (lilu langzhong), which obliged him to nominate, examine, and evaluate civil officials. In 754, he became grand secretary of the imperial chancellery (jishizhong), which represented a more prestigious rank. The following year, however, any further advance was abruptly curtailed by the onslaught of the An Lushan rebellion, which dispersed the entire court.

The years from 734 to 755 may be considered Wang Wei’s middle period, his most productive and significant literary period. It includes his poem written to Zhang Jiuling after the latter’s exile to Xingzhou in 739 and the frontier poems inspired by his military experience at Heshi. There are also such outstanding court poems as “Zeng cong di si ku yuan wai Qiu” (“Given to My Paternal Cousin, Military Supply Officer Qiu”), “Feng he sheng zhi zhongyangjie zai chen ji chun chen shang shou ying zhi” (“Written at Imperial Command to Harmonize with His Majesty’s Poem, ’On the Double Ninth Festival the Ministers and Assembled Officials Offer Their Wishes for Longevity’”), and “Datong dian sheng yu zhi Long Chi shang yu qing yun; bai guan gongdu; sheng en bian si yan yue gan shu ji” (“At Datong Hall a Jade Iris Grew, and There Were Auspicious Clouds by Dragon Pond; the Hundred Officials Observed [These Phenomena] Together; Imperial Kindness Bestowed a Banquet with Music, so I Dared to Write on This Occasion”). The first court poem expresses Wang Wei’s desire to withdraw from politics and celebrates the peace and serenity of reclusion. The latter two, however, celebrate imperial power. Finally, this period includes many fine Buddhist and nature poems, the latter often showing Daoist influences.

During the 740’s and early 750’, Wang Wei apparently spent much of his time on his Wangchuan estate. It is evident that he enjoyed this place immensely. His best-known companion was his friend Pei Di (P’ei Ti), a minor poet and official, who shared in the composition of the masterly “Wangchuan ji” (“Wang River Collection”). Together they treated a series of topics whose order was determined simply by the geographical layout of the landscape. Wang Wei’s continuous scroll on which he depicted the same twenty landscapes is no longer extant, but copies of it give a viewer some sense of what he must have done.

When Li Linfu died in 752, he was replaced by Yang Guozhong (Yang Kuo-chung), who, although a man of little merit, was a relative of the emperor’s consort, Yang Guifei. When the frontier general An Lushan rebelled in 755 and attempted to overthrow the emperor, Xuanzong was caught unprepared. Fearing an attack on Chang’an, he and his court fled at night to Sichuan. Some officials, however, remained behind, including Wang Wei.

Having almost immediately occupied Luoyang, the rebels then attacked Chang’an. Wang Wei attempted to join the emperor but was captured by the rebels. Although he pretended physical disability in an effort to escape having to serve the rebel government, he did not succeed and faced execution. Because An Lushan had been previously impressed with his abilities, however, he was imprisoned instead in the Pudi Monastery. Later he was compelled to collaborate with the rebel government.

Meanwhile, when Xuanzong learned that his son had fled to Shaanxi in northwest China, he abdicated. His son proclaimed himself Emperor Suzong (Su-tsung, r. 756-762) and organized Uighur forces to help him overcome the rebels. After An Lushan was killed and Chang’an was recaptured toward the end of 757, the new emperor and his court returned to the capital.

Debate now raged on what to do with the collaborators. Two of the emperor’s ministers urged that they be killed; a third, Li Xian (Li Hsien), argued that the instability of the military and political situation demanded selective clemency. Most of the collaborators were punished by death, flogging, or banishment. Because of his brother’s intercession and of a poem he had written from the monastery during the rebel occupation, however, Wang Wei was pardoned by the emperor. Wang Wei was then reinstated in the official ranks as vice president of the grand secretariat of the crown prince (taizi zhongyun) and later became its president. After again serving briefly as grand secretary of the imperial chancellery (jishizhong), in 759, he was advanced to the highest position he ever attained, that of assistant secretary of state on the right (shuangshu yucheng).

Despite this honor, it appears that toward the end of his life Wang Wei became disheartened and increasingly inactive. He seldom stayed at his Wangchuan estate but lived mostly just outside the capital. He wrote no more nature poems and, on returning home from work, spent his leisure hours reading Buddhist sutras. Lonely, old, weak, and with poor eyesight, he petitioned the emperor to recall his brother, Wang Jin (Wang Chin), to court so the two could be near each other. The emperor did so, and Wang Jin was appointed grand counselor of the emperor on the left (zuosan jichang shi). Wang Wei wrote a memorial thanking the emperor for his kindness; it is dated the fourth day of the fifth month of 761. Wang Wei died in the same year and was buried on his Wangchuan estate.

Wang Jin survived Wang Wei to become a chief minister under the next emperor. The new emperor, who was fond of poetry, asked Wang Jin if enough of Wang Wei’s poems had survived to make a collection for presentation to the throne. The poems that were extant, out of the several thousand written, were gathered together by Wang Jin and presented to the emperor in 763.

The years 756-761 may be considered Wang Wei’s late period. The poems written during this time reflect his loneliness, his struggles with the infirmities of old age, and his growing awareness of death. In 756, as a prisoner of the rebels in the Pudi Monastery, awaiting a doubtful fate, Wang Wei was surprised by a visit from his friend Pei Di, who somehow had managed to slip into the monastery. Pei Di brought news of the outside world, especially about the behavior of the Pear Garden musicians when forced to celebrate the rebel victory. This event inspired Wang Wei to write a poem. Shortly thereafter, he addressed a poem directly to Pei Di. These two poems exemplify the poet’s ability to identify with both the recluse and the government official. At the time he wrote the poem about the Pear Garden musicians, Wang Wei could not have dreamed that it would play an important part in his rehabilitation and restoration, resulting in a pardon from the emperor and in his return to office.

Wang Wei’s gratitude for the emperor’s clemency is shown by his poem “Ji meng youzui xuan fu fei gong fu gan sheng en qie shu bi yi jian xin xu shi jundeng zhugong” (“Having Received Pardon for My Offense and Been Returned to Office, Humbly Moved by Imperial Kindness, I Write My Lowly Thoughts and Present Them to My Superiors”). Written in 758, the poem celebrates a return to the old order of stability and brilliance and predicts an even more glorious reign.

Significance

Wang Wei was the most prominent poet of his time. He knew the rigorous conventions of the court poetry of the Early Tang, but he reacted against them and made his own way, becoming the premier capital poet, one who could hew to the rules and then go beyond them. Nevertheless, for centuries he has been best known as a nature poet. Indeed, he was a master at portraying tranquil landscapes, and he often composed such poems when he was away from court. Commonly admired for their concrete images and visual immediacy, they display at the same time an intuitive sense of the unreality of sensory experience. Such an impression is frequently supported by statements of a philosophical or religious character.

Wang Wei was politically a Confucian who dabbled in Daoism and who loved the Buddhist Way, and he studied for years under a Chan master. When away from court, he burned incense, practiced Chan meditation, and loved to associate with Buddhist and Daoist monks. His commitment to Buddhism inspired many of his poems.

As a poet Wang Wei was independent, daringly experimental, and original. He strove always for simplicity, integrity, and spiritual truth. Although interested in perception, he was concerned not with what the eye saw but with what the mind intuited, with the inner spirit of things. His own emotion was always restrained. His poetry is wide in scope both thematically and stylistically. His contributions to the development of genre by his treatment of the quatrain, which depended on proper closure, and his personal handling of the couplet were of major importance.

Wang Wei’s influence on later Chinese poets began early. It is evident in the work of the later eighth century minor poets Liu Zhangqing (Liu Chang-ch’ing) whose poetry was written late in his life and Wei Yingwu (Wei Ying-wu). The great practitioners of the new shiyu poetry of the Northern Song Dynasty (Sung; 960-1126) Ouyang Xiu (Ou-yang Hsiu), Wang Anshi, and above all Su Dongpo (Su Tung-p’o) looked to Wang Wei as their model. Indeed, it was Su Dongpo who elevated Wang’s reputation as a painter to equal his reputation as a poet. He was also responsible for a remark about one of Wang’s poems that, taken out of context and misinterpreted by others, led to his false reputation as the “painter-poet.” This misunderstanding in turn led to the aesthetic ideal that a good poem was a “painting-poem” (huashi). Two prominent poets of the Qing Dynasty (Ch’ing; 1644-1911) Wang Shizheng (Wang Shih-cheng) and Shen Deqian (Shen Te-ch’ien) who were also critics formulated their poetic theories out of their admiration for Wang Wei’s poetry. Wang Shizheng held that genuine poetry amounted to the immediate embodiment of spiritual inspiration in words. Shen Deqian, a fine teacher of Chinese prosody, held that the technical proficiency of Wang Wei proved him the greatest of all Chinese poets.

Bibliography

Seth, Vikram, trans. Three Chinese Poets: Translations of Poems by Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1992. A collection of poems by Du Fu, Li Bo, and Wang Wei. Commentary provides useful information.

Wagner, Marsha L. Wang Wei. Boston: Twayne, 1982. Part of the Twayne World Authors series, this scholarly, well-written account of Wang Wei’s life provides a balanced, perceptive appraisal of his contributions as poet, painter, and government official. Includes fine translations.

Wang Wei. Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wang Wei. Translated by Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone, and Xu Haixin. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1991. Translations of selected poems of Wang Wei. A critical introduction provides information on the poet and his works. Bibliography and index.

Wang Wei. Poems of Wang Wei. Translated by G. W. Robinson. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973. Fluid translations of 127 poems, with a brief introduction.

Wang Wei. The Poetry of Wang Wei: New Translations and Commentary. Translated by Pauline Yu. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980. This study provides excellent, scholarly translations and notes as well as knowing critical appraisals of Wang Wei’s poems.