晩年の王維(上)

Abstract

The rebellion of An Lu-shan in 755 put an end to the happiness of Wang Wei 王維 and the dynasty he served. Ch'ang-an fell in June of the following year, and Wang Wei was taken prisoner by the rebel army. He has been accused in later times of having become one of the officials of An Lu-shan on that occasion, but the fact is that he suffered severe mental anguish as a prisoner. When the T'ang army regained Loyang in 757, he was set free. Because many persons at the T'ang court, including the emperor himself, were sympathetic towards him, and because his younger brother Wang Chin 王縉, who had distinguished himself in the civil war, worked on his behalf, the question of Wang Wei's possible guilt in having allowed himself to be taken prisoner was never seriously raised. But Wang Wei severely blamed himself for what had happened, and wrote a composition expressing his feelings of guilt. Such an attitude is rarely seen in the history of Chinese literature except in the cases of Ts'ao Chih 曹植 and Hsi K'ang 嵆康.