Mountain Home

The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China

Li Po, Tu Fu, Wang Wei

China's tradition of rivers-and-mountains poetry is the earliest and most extensive literary engagement with the idea of wilderness. David Hinton traces the tradition in his concise introductions to the nineteen poets featured here, who included virtually all of ancient China's greatest poets, from the 5th century AD to the Sung Dynasty (13th century AD). His selection treats a remarkable range of topics: comic domestic scenes, social protest, travelogue, reclusive sages, and mountain landscapes shaped into forms of enlightenment. Throughout, these poems articulate the experience of living as an organic part of the natural world and its processes; they feel truly contemporary.

About the Author

Li Po (701-762) wrote over 1,000 poems. He left home at 19 to live with a Taoist hermit. After some wanderings, a marriage and a brief spell as a T'ang court poet, he returned to a life of Taoist study and poetry. He was later imprisoned when a prince, in whose service he was, rebelled. This led to his banishment. According to legend, Li Po drowned while drunkenly leaning from a boat to embrace the moon's reflection.

Wang Wei (699-759) took first place in the civil service examinations in 721. His many gifts included calligraphy, music and painting: some of his paintings have survived in copies. His wife died when he was 30 and he divided his time between his Ch'ang-an estate and government service. After his mother's death in 750, he retired to Ch'ang-an to write and paint.

Reviews

Awards won by Wang Wei
Winner, 2007 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation (The Selected Poems of Wang Wei)

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