Author · China
Wang Wei
Died in 761
Wang Wei was born in 701 in Qi district, in Shanxi, and in 721 obtained the doctoral degree, chiefly for his gifts as a musician according to Britannica. A civil servant all his life, demoted then recalled to the capital in 734, he was captured in 756 by the rebels of An Lushan, who occupied Chang'an, and had to serve their administration; he avoided disgrace thanks to a poem of loyalty written in captivity and to the intervention of his brother Wang Jin. A Buddhist, a pupil of a Chan master according to Renditions, a landscape painter in ink wash and a musician, he died in Chang'an in 761.