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Wang Wei (701–761) was from Taiyuan, the capital of Shansi province, and moved to Ch’ang-an as a young man. After passing the civil service exam he rose through the ranks and, despite the occasional banishment, eventually reached the post of vice prime minister. However, his interest in Buddhism blunted any political ambitions, and whenever he had time he preferred to wander in the Chungnan Mountains south of the capital. Wang was not only one of the greatest poets of the T’ang, he was also a skilled musician and one of the dynasty’s greatest landscape artists. This was one of twenty poems he wrote toward the end of his life at his Wang (a different Wang) River estate, which was located in a hidden valley some sixty kilometers southeast of Ch’ang-an. Bamboo Retreat was the name he gave to one of several structures he built there. The first line is from Ch’u Yuan’s “Shankuei” (“Mountain Spirit”): “Sitting alone amid dense bamboo / I can’t see the sky”; and which ends, “the wind whistles / trees sigh / thinking of you / how useless such grief.” The last line of Wang Wei’s poem also recalls the first of three poems titled “Drinking Alone beneath the Moon,” written by Li Pai the night before he left the capital for good in 744. The Chinese are fond of saying the same moon shines on those who are apart, thus joining them together.

Bamboo Retreat

WANG WEI

Sitting alone amid dense bamboo

strumming my lute and whistling

deep in the forest no one else knows

until the bright moon looks down