Meng Hao-Jan

Meng Hao-Jan 

Born 689 in Hsiangyang, present-day Hopeh Province; died there 740. Chinese poet.

Meng Hao-jan spent almost his entire life in the countryside; he wandered throughout China and for a time was a hermit. He continued the tradition of the nature lyric of T’ao Yiian-ming and Hsieh Ling-yün. Meng Hao-jan’s best poems are about nature, friendship, and the joys of a hermit’s life; these include “Spring Morning,” “With a Friend in the Village,” “I Spend the Night on the Chien-tieh River,” “I Write on the Wall of the Cell of Master I,” and “Parting From Wang Wei.” They are distinguished by their classical clarity and simplicity. Meng Hao-jan was a master of the five-syllable canonical verse line. His work influenced the poetry of Korea and Japan.

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Antologiia kitaiskoi poezii, vol. 2. Moscow, 1957.

REFERENCES

Rust, A. Meng Hao-Jan: Sein Leben und religiöses Denken nach seinen Gedichten. Zürich, 1960. (Dissertation.)
Frankel, H. H. Biographies of Meng Hao-jan, 2nd ed. Berkeley, Calif., 1966.

V. T. SUKHORUKOV