A Wild Deer amid Soaring Phoenixes: The Opposition Poetics of Wang Ji

by Ding Xiang Warner

Credited in China as a "transitional" figure, Wang Ji (590-644) is known for his revival of eremitic themes from the earlier Wei-Jin period and for anticipating the rise of regulated verse forms in the "golden era" of Tang poetry. Yet throughout the centuries Wang Ji has puzzled readers and sometimes offended their moral sensibilities by his unapologetic celebrations of his life as a round-the-clock drinker. Until now scholars have treated him primarily as a problem of biography and have struggled to find "evidence" in his work for his reclusive and unwieldy character and, once and for all, to tell the story of his life and thought. This in-depth study of the early Tang-dynasty poet, the first to be published in a Western language, surveys the complete range of Wang Ji's enigmatic literary self-representation and proposes new ways of understanding the poetics behind his practice.

230 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it for the translations and historical work, both of which are excellent. The overall argument, about Wang Ji's shifting personas embodying the Daoist philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, is a little less solid.