Wang Wei
The poet who painted.
Wang Wei was one of the foremost poets of the Tang and was later seen as the father of scholar landscape painting. Su Shi said there was painting in his poems and poetry in his paintings.
Wang Wei was born in 699, or possibly 701, in Shanxi and died around 759 or 761. He was a brilliant talent: poet, musician, calligrapher and painter. He passed the highest state examination as a young man and had a career as an official at the Tang court.
His life changed during the An Lushan Rebellion of the 750s. The rebels took the capital, and Wang Wei was forced to serve in their government. When imperial rule was restored he faced punishment but was pardoned, partly thanks to his brother and a poem he had written about his loyalty. He was a devout Buddhist and was later called “the Poet Buddha”.
Wang Wei owned a country estate at Wangchuan near Lantian, south of Chang'an. There, together with his friend Pei Di, he wrote a series of short poems about places on the estate, among them the famous Deer Park. He is also said to have painted the estate on a long scroll. The original is lost, and the image is known only through later copies and stone engravings. No securely attributed painting by him survives.
His poems are short, still and full of nature: empty mountains, light falling through moss, sounds heard from far away. In the 11th century Su Shi wrote that there was painting in his poems and poetry in his paintings, and the phrase has become classic. Wang Wei is also said to have developed landscape painting in monochrome ink, though how far this is true is disputed.
His reputation as a painter was shaped mainly by scholars of later periods. In the 17th century Dong Qichang named him the founder of the “Southern School”, the tradition of scholar-amateur painters. As a poet he ranks among the very greatest of the Tang dynasty, and he remains one of the most widely read Chinese poets.