Wáng Wéi 王維 (700–761)
Zì Mó-jié 摩詰. The compound Wéi-Mó-jié 維摩詰 is the standard transcription of Vimalakīrti, the lay-Buddhist hermit-protagonist of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra — Wilkinson (§44.4) cites Wáng’s name as one of the standard Buddhist-named Tang figures alongside Bái Jū-yì 白居易 (Lè-tiān 樂天). Often called Wáng Yòu-chéng 王右丞 (after his last office, yòu chéng-xiàng 右丞相, Vice-Director of the Department of State Affairs).
Native of Tàiyuán 太原 Qíxiàn 祁縣 (modern Shānxī) by family origin; born and raised in Pǔzhōu 蒲州 (modern Yǒngjì 永濟, southwest Shānxī). Jìnshì of Kāiyuán 9 (721) — the jìnshì zhuàngyuán of his year, an unusually high distinction. The principal phases of his career: early service in the Tàiyuèshǔ 太樂署 (Imperial Music Bureau) ending in demotion to Jìzhōu 濟州 cānjūn over a yángyuán wǔ huángshī 揚轅舞黃師 incident in 726; subsequent slow rise through Yòu shíyí 右拾遺, Jiānchá yùshǐ 監察御史, Lóngbiāo wèi 隆標尉, Héxī jiédùshǐ pànguān 河西節度使判官 (in modern Liángzhōu, north-west Gānsù — the basis of his frontier verse) in the late Kāiyuán; Chángān offices in the early Tiānbǎo. Captured by the An Lùshān rebels in Chángān in 756 and forced to take office in the rebel court at Luòyáng; pardoned in 757–758 (his brother Wáng Jìn 王縉 having interceded for him by submitting Wáng Wéi’s Níngbìchí huáigǔ shī 凝碧池懷古詩 — composed at the rebel-occupied Níngbì pond and considered evidence of loyalist sentiment — to Sùzōng) and gradually restored to office; final office yòu chéngxiàng 右丞相 (= Yòu chéng of Shàngshūshěng 尚書省). Died at Chángān in Shàngyuán 2 (761), aged 61 suì.
A devout Chán Buddhist (his name 維 = vimala + 摩詰 = kīrti makes the Vimalakīrti reading inescapable) and follower of the Heze 荷澤 lineage (his Liùzǔ Néng chánshī bēimíng 六祖能禪師碑銘 is one of the principal early biographical sources for Huìnéng 慧能). His Wǎngchuān 輞川 estate at the foot of the Lántián 藍田 mountains — the basis of the famous Wǎngchuān jí 輞川集 of twenty quatrains exchanged with Péi Dí 裴迪 — became one of the canonical sites of shānshuǐ contemplative poetry. He was also one of the great High-Táng painters (Sū Shì 蘇軾’s “shī zhōng yǒu huà, huà zhōng yǒu shī 詩中有畫畫中有詩” — “in his poetry there is painting; in his painting there is poetry” — is the foundational evaluation), conventionally credited with founding the nánzōng wénrén huà 南宗文人畫 (Southern-School literati painting) tradition.
His extant collection survives in two principal recensions: the late-Sòng / early-Yuán Xūxī xiānshēng jiàoběn Táng Wáng Yòuchéng jí KR4c0021 in 6 juǎn (collated by Liú Chénwēng 劉辰翁) and the Qīng Wáng Yòuchéng jí jiānzhù KR4c0022 in 28 juǎn (annotated by Zhào Diànchéng 趙殿成).
CBDB confirms 700–761 (cbdbId 32174). The catalog meta’s 669–759 is grossly incorrect (a 30-year displacement) and not followed here. With Lǐ Bái 李白 and Dù Fǔ 杜甫, one of the three towers of High-Táng poetry; conventionally the founder of the shānshuǐtiányuán 山水田園 (landscape-and-farmstead) tradition that Mèng Hàorán 孟浩然 and Wéi Yìngwù 韋應物 continued.