Meng Haoran

Meng Haoran (孟浩然) (689 or 691 - 740) was a Chinese poet during the Tang dynasty. He is one of the few Tang poets who refused an official career. His poetry describes mostly natural themes.

He was born in Siangyang, Hubei province, and was a friend of Li Bai and Wang Wei. After forty years of difficult studies, he missed the imperial examination and decided to go back to those silent hills (Nan Shan) where he spent his youth. Some of his verses became popular and political events inspired in him some satirical ones, incurring the Emperor's anger. His friend Wang Wei managed to divert the dragon's storm and even got him a minor mandarinate, which Meng declined.

Sample poem from Meng Haoran:

ON CLIMBING YAN MOUNTAIN WITH FRIENDS

While worldly matters take their turn,

Ancient, modern, to and from,

Rivers and mountains are changeless in their glory

And still to be witnessed from this trail.

Where a fisher-boat dips by a waterfall,

Where the air grows colder, deep in the valley,

The monument of Yang remains;

And we have wept, reading the words.

Tr. Witter Bynner, cf. [1]