Wang Wei And Meg Haoran's Landscape Poetry

Wang Wei and Meng Haoran were both skilled at depicting natural scenery in five-character lines. The extant works of  Wang Wei (AD 701 -761) include more than 400 poems. His landscape and pastoral poemsmainly describe his reclusive life and the beautiful scenery in Zhongnanand Wangchuan. Wang Wei was keenly perceptive of nature and alwayspatterned his poems with a painter's craft. Commenting on Wang Wei'sworks, people often say "there is poetry in his Painting and painting inhis poetry." Wangchuan Ji - A Collection of Wang Wei's Poetry showsoff the best of Wang Wei's poetics. The language in Wang Wei's poetryis fresh and refined.

Meng Haoran (AD 689-74o) was the first poet to write a large numberof landscape and pastoral poems. The existing works of Meng Haoraninclude more than 260 poems, mostly in five-character lines. MengHaoran's enthusiasm for describing the beautiful landscape of hishometown-Xiangyang-is infectious in poems like To Zhang ,The FifthAmong his Brothers, When Mounting Orchid Mountain on an AutumnDay and A Song of Returning to Deer- Gate Mountain at Night-wherethe mountains, trees, crescent moon and boats appear so familiar andsweet under his pen. In poems full of vitality as Visiting an Old Friend onHis Farm, the simple life of a peasant family, deep feelings between oldfriends and the tranquil and harmonious atmosphere in rural areas, allleave an unforgettable impression in a reader's mind. Some of his shortpoems such as spring Dawn, are also fresh and explicit with a lingeringappeal. Although Meng Haoran's poetry does not possess a richideological point-of-view as does Wang Wei's poetry, from an aestheticpoint of view, Meng may be classed with Wang.