On the morning of May 25, 2019, the 7th session of IIAS Chinese Studies was held at Conference Room 205 of the Central Main Building of Tsinghua University. Liu Ning, Researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, presented the lecture on the topic “The Landscape World in Wang Wei’s Poems”.

At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Liu Ning introduced Wang Wei’s life journey, which led to the artistic characteristics of his poems. First of all, Prof. Liu quoted a few poems to elaborate the artistic conception characteristics embodied in his poems.

Then, he introduced the core spirit of Chinese landscape art, namely quiet, distant and empty features, as well as the artistic conception of the landscape world expressed in Wang Wei’s poems. He showcased a number of ancient paintings and vividly described the characteristics of traditional Chinese landscape painting and the ideological realm of landscape poets.

Finally, Prof. Liu quoted Wang Wei’s poems to show the core spirit of Chinese landscape art embodied in his poems. The lecture also extended to the landscape world depicted in the works of other ancient Chinese poets, including Tao Yuanming’s “Drinking Wine”, Liu Zongyuan’s “Stone Stream”, Su Shi’s “Night Tour of Chengtian Temple”, Liu Zongyuan’s “Little Stone Lake”, Xie Lingyun’s “Climbing a Lonely Island in the River” and Du Fu’s “Looking at Mount Tai”.