PureInsight | January 23, 2003
[PureInsight.org] Wang Wei (700-761 AD) was one of the greatest poets, a prominent painter, and a musician during the height of Tang Dynasty. His poems are delicate, intricate, fresh, and pure, describing objects in a very vivid and lifelike manner. He wrote poems in a variety of poetic genres and on a variety of subjects.
Wang Wei, together with Li Xin, Gao Shi, Chen Sen, and Wang Changling were the four poets considered representatives of frontier poetry in ancient China and were collectively known as Wang-Li-Gao-Chen. Wang Wei was also representative of pastoral poetry, along with Meng Haoran, and the two were referred to as Wang-Meng. In addition, the Buddhist poems that Wang Wei wrote are so outstanding that he was also called the "Buddha Poet."
Among the masterpieces of ancient frontier poems, many are of a form having seven characters to a line, and the best pastoral poems have eight lines with five words in each line. Most of Wang Wei's popular poems, however, are quatrains with five words in each line. With only twenty words in each poem, Wang Wei illustrated the feelings, thinking, and philosophy that people have been talking about for hundreds of years. Among his most famous pieces are: "The Deer Forest Hermitage," "The Pavilion Amidst the Bamboos," "In the Mountains," "Yearning Between Lovers," and "Random Poem (II)". Here's an English translation of one of his poems:
The Deer Forest Hermitage
No glimpse of man on this lonely mountain,
Yet faint voices drift on the air.
Through the deep wood, the slanting sunlight
Illuminates again the jade-green moss.
Wang Wei was a great painter as well. He was especially good at painting landscapes, pines, and rocks, using a splash-ink technique. He also excelled at painting portraits and bamboos. His strokes are firm and powerful, and he was the first to use light ink strokes and watercolor washes. He was particularly good at painting a distant view. Wang is regarded as the originator of the Southern Style in Chinese painting, and is considered the best painter among all the poets and scholars of ancient China. He painted one particular work named "Wangchuan Mountain" in which the mountains are alive with greenery, clouds seem to be floating, and water seems to be running. Su Shi, a great poet in Song Dynasty, commented that in Wang Wei's works, there were pictures in his poems, and poems in his pictures.
Wang Wei lost his father when he was young. His mother was a devout lay Buddhist. Both of these facts had a great impact on Wang. The difficulties and frustrations in his life tempered his indifference to life's ups and downs, and he became determined to cultivate Buddhism. At the age of 21, Wang Wei scored high on a nationwide exam and became a Jinshi. He was promoted to be the court official in charge of music. But he was demoted to the position of treasurer in Jizhou after some dancers under his charge performed a yellow lion dance at a private party (the yellow lion dance was only supposed to be performed for the emperor). In the An-Shi revolt, Wang Wei was put into prison by An Lushan and forced to take a post in his dynasty. After the revolt was put down, Wang Wei was sent to prison again for accepting the post from An. One year later, the emperor Suzong released him and dropped the charges. After that, he was promoted to Deputy Prime Minster. By that time, Wang Wei was old and worldly affairs then meant little to him.
Wang Wei was a hermit for most of his lifetime, and had gone off to live in seclusion before the age of 18. In 729 A.D., he resigned from his post and lived in seclusion at Qishang. From there he moved to Songshan Mountain and lived there until 734 A.D. From 741 to 745 A.D., Wang Wei lived on Zhongnan Mountain. In 748 A.D., he bought the Wangchuan Villa in Lantian County from Song Zhiwen and lived there, as a hermit and an low-profile official, until he was captured by An Lushan in 756 A.D. According to his poems1, Wang Wei wanted to cultivate the Tao when he was about forty years old2. And during his old age, he stayed in the city while having more than a dozen monks at his houseguests. They shared their understandings about Buddhist cultivation. Every day when Wang Wei came back from the imperial court, he would
light incense and sit by himself, devoted to Buddhist practice.
While living as a hermit, Wang Wei often climbed mountains and visited temples to seek the Tao or learn more about Buddhist teachings. He longed for life in a country retreat. Sometimes he climbed up narrow paths, seeing the mountain peaks pointing skyward and strange-looking rocks swaying in the mountains. The waterfalls roared like thunder. Sometimes Wang Wei went to visit a Buddhist master in the mountains, and they met with monkeys picking chestnuts. On his way home, he often encountered cranes nesting in the pines. The bridges he walked over were actually fallen trees. When he got home from his wanderings, he would close the stone door and sit in meditation. When he finished and opened the door again, so much time had passed that the grass outside had grown so tall!3 Sometimes Wang Wei climbed up a particularly high mountain and would find a stone cave hidden behind the bamboos. At night when it was really quiet, he heard the mountain springs flowing way off in the distance. Seen from below, his hideaway was as high as the clouds. He slept well there and was not satisfied by just a temporary visit. He really wanted to stay there forever. 4 Sometimes when Wang Wei went to visit temples in the mountains, he found tigers living there that were friendly toward people. Monkeys could imitate people meditating. Upon seeing these sights, the poet felt that the Buddhist kingdom was right there; the human world seemed to be far away and unreal. Wang Wei felt ashamed of his official life and wished to stay there to study Buddhist principles all his life.5
Not only did his personal experiences and the loss of his father encourage Wang Wei to pursue Buddhist cultivation, but the torture and agony of aging, disease, and death in this life also played a role. Sometimes when the poet sat alone, he thought about how when black hair turned white, it could not be reversed for any price, and that upset him greatly. Finally, Wang Wei came to realize that hope lay only in cultivating the Dao and breaking free from the cycle of reincarnation.6 Sometimes as Wang Wei recalled the past, it seemed that not long ago he was a vigorous young man, but now he was a weak old man with white hair. Moreover, all his previous bad experiences would often come to mind. How could one get rid of such physical and mental torture unless he cultivated in Buddhism?7
With a steadfast heart and after diligent cultivation, the poet's outlook on life changed when he looked at the human world again. In his poems, Wang Wei discussed some of his thoughts toward life. He expressed that diseases arose out of the emotions of love and hatred. Complaints about poverty actually resulted from greedy desires. Human beings were living in a maze. They were even reluctant to leave this world, which was full of poverty and disease, and were not tired of endless reincarnation. They did not know that they came to the world because they developed worldly attachments.8 People were confined by their improper thoughts and could only be relieved through cultivating and meditating.9 Cultivators would be satisfied with poverty and would enjoy cultivating the Dao after learning about these principles.10 By upgrading their Xinxing (mind nature), they developed different attitudes toward hardship and joy. They often felt joyful when they got enlightened about something, and gradually came to be quite different from everyday people.11
In his poems, Wang Wei mentioned some specific details about his cultivation. For example, he enjoyed reading biographical stories about famous monks who had achieved the Dao. Sometimes he read about the methods of Bigu (fasting). Wang Wei carved a dove on the handle of his walking stick and put a turtle shell under his bed. When he was free after work, he would light incense and meditate near the window facing north.12 When he stayed in the mountains, he sometimes read Buddhist scriptures with a lot of people, which was a different experience for him, as he usually sat alone and meditated.13 After he retired to Songshan Mountain, he did "closed-door" cultivation.14
To Wang Wei, doing wrong deeds was just like a grinding stone; one could not tell how much was lost in the grinding, but every day a bit was lost. Cultivating compassion was just like grass in the spring garden; one could not tell the grass was growing, but it grew every day. Cultivating day by day, Wang Wei reached an extremely high status: "his eyes cannot be polluted. His heart is empty and will not get lost."15 Naturally, some supernormal capabilities developed in him as he cultivated to a high status, but he did not bring attention to it.
As to his great achievement in poetry and painting, Wang commented that for many lives he was a scholar of poems and essays. In the previous life he was a painter. His old habits still remained in his current life so they were discovered by society again.16
After cultivating for ten to twenty years, it was no surprise that he developed the supernormal ability of precognition and retrocognition. Wang Wei's explanations were reasonable and are in accord with Western theories and research regarding reincarnation.
References:
1. Xiaoyin Ge, Beijing University, Study of Landscape and Pastoral School of Poetry.
2. Bieye on Zhongnan Mountain, Vol. 3, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
3. Buddhist Master in Yanzikan, Vol. 5, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
4. Lodging in the Temple of Daoyi Monks, Vol.11, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
5. A Visit to Wuzhen Temple, Vol. 12, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
6. Sitting Alone on an Autumn Night, Vol. 9, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
7. Sighs About White Hairs, Vol. 14, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
8. Two Poems When Both Lay Buddhist Hu and I Were Ill, Vol. 3, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
9. Passing Xiangji Temple, Vol. 7, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
10. After Visiting Li Ji's House, Vol. 3, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
11, Alms and Food to Monks From Fushan, Vol. 3, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
12. Something on a Spring Day, Vol. 9, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
13. A Poem to Siblings From the Mountain, Vol. 13, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
14. A Poem on the Way Back to Songshan Mountain, Vol. 7, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
15. A Collection of Buddhist Master Tanbi From Qinglong Temple, Vol. 11, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
16. The Sixth of Six Poems Written Incidentally, Vol. 5, Collection of Wang Wei in Basic Series of Chinese Traditional Studies, Yunwu Wang, Ed., Shangwu Publishing House, Taiwan, 1968.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/12/30/19842.html
