Wang Bo

Wang Bo (; 650–676), courtesy name Zi'an (子安), was a Chinese poet during the Tang dynasty, traditionally grouped together with Luo Binwang, Lu Zhaolin, and Yang Jiong as the Four Paragons of the Early Tang. He died at the age of 26, possibly from drowning, while going back from the Tang-ruled Jiaozhi after meeting his father.

He opposed the spread of the Gong Ti Style (宫体诗风) of the Sui dynasty, and advocated a style rich in emotions. He was most well-known for his parallel prose work Tengwang Ge Xu, which is included in the Chinese middle school curriculum.

Life Wang Bo was born in A.D 650 into a family with high literary status. His grandfather was the Sui dynasty Confucian philosopher Wang Tong. His father was named Wang Fuzhi (王福畤). According to the Old Book of Tang, Wang Bo could write poems when he was six years old; he finished reading the Classics when he was ten. Beginning his career under Prince Pei (Prince Zhanghuai), he wrote a call-to-arms (檄) in jest which was criticized by the emperor (Emperor Gaozong of Tang). After that, he killed a servant, ending his political career. This incident also implicated his father, who was banished to Jiaozhi. One account of Wang's death was that at age 26, he drowned on an ocean journey in search of his father.

As the ideal he possessed that "poetry expresses one's mind" (诗言志) was gradually established in early Tang literary world, Wang Bo's other two prefaces, "Preface for a Banquet Held at a Pavilion in the North of Mianzhou, Attended by a Host of Gentlemen" (Mianzhou beiting qungong yan xu [绵州北亭羣公宴序]) and "Preface for Collected Poems Composed When Several Gentlemen Visited Me on a Summer Day" (Xiari zhugong jian xunfang shixu [夏日诸公见寻访诗序]), as well as one of his most famous works, "Tengwangge Xu", express his disappointment in political matters, but still bear his strong passion to show fealty to his country.

Duan Chengshi(段成式) also record Wang Bo's amazing talent in writing. He outlined a short story by Wang Bo, which, when he was writing the article, never interrupted.

- Every time Wang Bo composed a stele inscription or panegyric, he first ground several liters of ink and laid him down with a blanket covering him up to his face. All of a sudden, he got up and wrote it in a single stroke, without correcting and blotting it. People of his time called it "belly draft." Wang Bo's biograph, comments was outlined as "bombastic, impetuous, shallow, and flaunting" (浮躁浅露). Wen Yiduo (闻一多), a Chinese famous scholar had explained the "frivolous and shallow" of Wang Bo and Four paragons of Early Tang like that: "Because their behavior and conduct were romantic, they suffered from all the mockery and denunciation of others."

Translations Wang Bo's most famous poem, "Farewell to Prefect Du" (Song DuShaofu Zhi Ren Shuzhou送杜少府之任蜀州) was selected in "300 Tang Poems" for Chinese Children's enlightenment. Now, "300 Tang Poems" has been translated into English by several translators, making those poems known throughout the world.