Wang Po

WANG PO, Tzuan. Born 649; died 676. Chinese poet.

Together with Yang Chiung, Lo Pin-wang, and Lu Chaolin, Wang Po made up the group known as The Four Geniuses of the Beginning of the T’ang Period. Of the poetic heritage of Wang Po, 30 poems have been preserved, primarily tetrameters, and a model of rhythmical prose—the foreword to the poems entitled In the Palace of the T’eng Prince. In Wang Po’s poems there is a predominance of landscape descriptions (“In the Mountains”) and the theme of parting (“On a Cold Night I Remember My Friend”), in addition to thoughts on the hardships of war. To a considerable degree, Wang Po rejected the conventional forms of poetry and developed a melodiousness of verse.