SOURCE: "The Point of View—The Narrative Quality in Wang Wei's Poems," in Tamkang Review, Vol. 24, No. 2, Winter, 1993, pp. 2-18.

In the following essay, the critic explores how Wang Wei's "'painter's eye' influenced his poetic narration."

There are paintings in the poems of Wang Wei, and there are poems in his paintings.

—Su Shih
(Ch'üan T'ang shih 125. 1234)

Wang Wei occupies a special position among the most famous T'ang poets for many reasons. One of the reasons for this, I think, is the narrative quality in his poems, especially his way of handling point of view. Wang Wei was mainly a poet, but also a painter and musician. Naturally, when he writes poems with the brush-pen, Wang Wei may consciously or unconsciously write with a painter's eye and musician's ears which would enable him to add and cultivate some unique dimensions to his poetry. In the following discussion...