中年期の王維

Abstract

In considering Wang Wei 王維 in his middle age, we deal with the period from the 28th year of K'ai Yüan 開元 (740 A.D.) to the 14th year of T'ien Pao 天寶 (755 A.D.), using as material all his poetical writings except those which belong or are supposed to belong to his earlier and later periods. During this time, Wang Wei was not treated with much respect, though as an official he was promoted to a higher rank. But among the more important poets of his age, he alone participated in the life of the court, all the others being oppressed because of their political opinions. Thus, the tradition of court-poets which had continued since the Six Dynasties Period came to an end with Wang Wei. However, he also was the first poet to be an officical and thereby started a tendency which was to become universal after the Sung dynasty. The decline of the aristocracy and the growth of the landed gentry into an influential and powerful class during his lifetime is one of the main reasons for the above change. In his middle age, Wang Wei in his poetry is mainly concerned with nature, though we can also find some hints as to his political opinions, which can be summarized as : 1. not to use power against the people and interfere with their lives ; 2. not to make war, and 3. to appoint able politicians and administrators. These three principles, of course, had been the basis of his political creed since his young days. Though the poet's life during this period was somewhat secluded, he was against a complete escape from politics, and insisted that the relief of society and that of the soul must be striven after simultaneously. The former should be accomplished through politics, the latter through the pursuit of inward truth. The reason for this is that he accepted Buddhism as the inward spiritual truth and Confucianism as the external material one. In order to realize his ideal, he built the "Wang-ch'uan Mansion" as a place for meditation and spiritual life in the southern suburbs of Ch'ang-an. There he spent his leisure time, often inviting a few intimate friends to the pursuit of art and Buddhism. The twenty masterly poems in his "Collected Papers of Wangch'uan" 輞川集 are fine examples of his nature-poetry, and they show a visionary rather than a realistic touch.