Wéi Yìngwù 韋應物 (737–ca. 791)
The principal post-Wáng-Wéi 王維 inheritor of the High-Tang shānshuǐ tiányuán contemplative-landscape tradition; conventionally paired with Táo Qián 陶潛 in Sū Shì 蘇軾’s TáoWéi 陶韋 couplet. Native of Chángān 京兆 (modern Xīān, Shǎnxī), of the powerful Wéi clan.
A dissolute young aristocrat in his teens (he served in Xuánzōng’s Sānwèi 三衛 imperial guard, a sinecure for the high nobility), Wéi self-described in the long autobiographical Yǔ Lú Fǔyī èrshí èr yùn 與盧弗一二十二韻 as having gambled, drunk, hunted, and beaten servants in his youth. The An Lùshān rebellion (755–763) forced him out of court service; in its aftermath he turned to study and entered the examinations. Successive provincial cìshǐ posts: Chúzhōu cìshǐ 滁州刺史 (ca. 781), Jiāngzhōu cìshǐ 江州刺史 (783), and finally Sūzhōu cìshǐ 蘇州刺史 (788–791) — whence Wéi Sūzhōu. Died in office at Sūzhōu or shortly after retirement ca. 791, aged 55.
His extant collection is the Wéi Sūzhōu jí KR4c0033 in 10 juǎn. His best-known poems — the Chúzhōu xī jiàn 滁州西澗 and the Qiū yè jì Qiū yuánwài 秋夜寄丘員外 — embody the post-rebellion contemplative-landscape mode. His friendship with the Wúxìng monk-poet Jiǎorán 釋皎然 during his Sūzhōu governorship is the principal documented mid-Tang lay-monastic literary connection.
CBDB confirms 737–? (cbdbId 32822); standard reference works place death ca. 791. The catalog meta’s “b. 737” is consistent.