Meng Haoran (689 or 691 – 740) was a Chinese poet during the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

. Unsuccessful in his official career, he mainly lived in and wrote about his birthplace.

The eldest of the major High Tang poets, he was born in Xiangyang, Hubei

Hubei

' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...

, and was strongly attached to the area. He lived there almost all his life, and its landscape

Landscape

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

, history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 and legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...

s are the subjects of many of his poems. Particularly prominent are Nanshan (or South Mountain, his family seat) and Lumen Shan, where he briefly lived in retreat.

He had an unsuccessful civil service career, passing the Jinshi exam late, at the age of 39. He received his first and last position three years before his death, but resigned after less than a year.

He is often bracketed with Wang Wei, due to the friendship they shared and their prominence as landscape poets. In fact, Haoran composed several poems about Wei and their separation. While Wei focused on the natural world, in particular the solitude and reprieve it granted from human life along with the scale of the natural world, Meng Haoran focuses more on foreground details and human life.

His works are generally considered less consistently successful than Wang's.

External links

• Meng Haoran's poems included in 300 Selected Tang Poems, translated by Witter Bynner
  Witter Bynner
  Harold Witter Bynner was an American poet, writer and scholar, known for his long residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at what is now the Inn of the Turquoise Bear.-Early life:...
  
  
• Five-character regulated verses of Meng Haoran, with English translation, pinyin transliteration, and tonal patterns.