Wang Wei Visits Cigeng Zhang Comments

I haven’t read Wang Wei that I recall....my own stubborn disregard for anything that does not promote the happiness of life. -I am attracted to this and relate. I want to explore Wang Wei. -Glen

How sweet the tea with peach flavor! Even though winter comes, a fantastic tea time has been arranged for me, so warm and graceful. Such an amazing poem touched me a lot. Words fail me to say how I appreciate this work. Thank you Daniel. I think it's also a tribute from a western modern poet to the Tang poet Wang Wei (701 – 761) . If saying Li Bai (701 - 762) was the great romantic poet, Wang Wei, was the pastoral poet. He was also a painter and hermit. His poems were picturesque and his paintings were poetic. Wang Wei’s poems are full of artistic conception of Zen. He is really one of my most favorite Tang poets. Yes, day to day we keep learning from the Chinese classics in Tang Dynasty that has been regarded as the golden period of Chinese poetry. I feel honored to have the poem Wang Wei Visits Cigeng Zhang. I also appreciate the comments made by Bharati and Denis.Herein I’d like to share a poem by Wang Wei. Hope you like it. In the Hills White pebbles feel a blue stream glide; Red leaves are strewn on cold hillside. Along the path on rain is seen, My gown is moist with drizzling green. (tr. Prof. Xu Yuan Chong)

I want this meeting to be your Peach Blossom Spring that will never be lost or abandoned, never decline into winter, never dissolve into unreality. I want it to flourish in your deepest self. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - His love for us is the Wheel-Rim River that flows through our lives and forever refreshes us with its goodness and longevity. How could it be otherwise! '

You apply a Tang poet's worldview to your dialogue with a faraway fellow poet. At the same time, you bring this down to the humble act of sharing tea. It is beautiful to say that two poets SEPARATED BY THE MOUNTAINS OF TIME can FIND THEMSELVES IN THE VALLEY OF MUTUAL PRESENCE. The Tang poets and especially Wang Wei loved this theme. It rings true for me because the Tang poets, like us, were concerned with bridging gulfs (eternity/evanescence, near/far, past/present) . In their encounters with nature they found a language to describe the relation of finite and infinite. From the hint of peach flavor in tea (suggestive of a haven beyond worldly disorder) to the Wheel-Rim River of ongoing life, you aptly open this poem to a Taoist view of time and life. With respect to Wang Wei you write HIS LOVE FOR US IS THE WHEEL-RIM RIVER THAT FLOWS THROUGH OUR LIVES. Wang Wei humbly loved nature and sought moments of shared understanding. I think he would be surprised and pleased that you, a poet of the future, finds his work sustaining.