688–742
Wang Zhihuan
王之渙
Read Wang Zhihuan through the Stork Tower, a frontier flute, and willow branches that record departures, with the tower poem’s attribution explained.
Wang Zhihuan’s short poems can make a landscape carry an action: climbing farther, listening across distance, or delaying a departing boat. The Wikisource author record gives his dates as 688–742 and courtesy name as Jiling, and links his epitaph. These readings concentrate on the surviving words rather than constructing an occasion for every poem.
Look outward, then move
Begin with On the Stork Tower. The sun and river occupy the first couplet; a desire to see farther changes the second into movement. Read the whole view before extracting the final line as encouragement. The page retains the familiar attribution to Wang Zhihuan, while disclosing that Quan Tang shi, juan 253 also records attribution to Zhu Bin. A familiar author label does not erase that textual evidence.
In the first Liangzhou song, expansive mountains surround an isolated city. A flute then changes the view into something heard. The willow is both a remembered farewell image and a musical association; it need not be a tree visibly growing at the pass.
Read what departure leaves behind
Willows at a Farewell does show actual trees. Their broken branches suggest repeated departures without naming a single traveler. Notice how the final inference makes vegetation a record of human activity.
A Song at the Farewell Feast instead tries to postpone movement. The speaker offers shallow water as a reason the boat cannot leave. Compare that restraint with the tower poem’s invitation to go higher: similar compact forms can encourage motion or resist it.
Continue through farewell or frontier. Each poem page identifies the Chinese transcription used and supplies its own translation and notes.
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