A Comparison between Wang Wei and Ruan Ji

In the research of Wang Wei,people used to describe him as a Buddhist, a hermit, or a pastoral poet, and used to make an analysis of his ideas about Zen interest andZen intentionand of his inheritance with Tao Yuanming and Xie lingyun who were also hermits and pastoral poets. Such a research has its reasonableness,but it uses the part to cover the full. According to statistics,Wang's extant poems amount to over 400;however,his pastoral poems are only one-third of them.The contents of these poems are very rich and the emotion implied in them is quite complicated. As a result the terms such as Buddhist,hermit and pastoral poet cannot generalize Wang's whole life and emotion.Through a discussion on his relations to Ruan Ji, we may unlock many perplexities in the study of Wang Wei and understand his contradicting attitudes about himself and his poems so as to reveal his real life.