Two reasons:
First, his belief is Buddhism. You see, his name, Vimalakirti, is taken from the great Bodhisattva Vimalakīrti. This choice is very appropriate. It is said that the layman Vimalakirti is a wealthy businessman with a high status, but this man is very charitable and his whole family is dedicated to saving all sentient beings. Wang Wei is also rich enough and has at least one Wangchuan villa. Wang Wei also had quite a status, and eventually he reached the rank of Shangshu Youcheng. The lives of Wang Wei and Zhou Zhou were very different. Li Bai and others only gained their status in later generations, but Wang Wei was very famous at that time. He was first a filial son, then a child prodigy, a champion, and finally a famous poet. It is recorded in the history books that "the heroes and nobles came to greet them from the left, and the kings Ning and Xue treated them like mentors and friends." Especially after the Anshi Rebellion, Wang Wei was immediately praised to a very high status. I will talk about the details in the third article later.
There are three main reasons for Wang Wei’s belief:
1. It is related to his mother. His mother believes in Buddhism and must have been influenced by him. Furthermore, Wang Wei was a filial son. The Biography of Wang Wei in the Old Book of Tang Dynasty said that he "lived in mourning for his mother. The firewood was destroyed and the bones were left standing, and he was almost in mourning." To put it bluntly, he was so sad that his mother died. It is natural for him to believe in Buddhism. Some people say that his mother was a lay Buddhist who was well versed in Buddhism. This rumor is mainly because Wang Wei himself said in "Ask Shizhuang to be the Temple Preface": "My deceased mother is the Juncui family of Boling County, and I studied with Zen Master Dazhao for more than thirty years." Personally, I think this is difficult to say. Because Wang Wei is a celebrity, Chinese people have a strong sense of family status and a complex about famous people. They will always find out dozens of generations of their ancestors and say, "Look, heroes have their origins." In fact, it is Very boring thing.
2 Due to the influence of the general environment, the Tang Dynasty paid more attention to Buddhism and Taoism (it is far-fetched to say that Lao Tzu belongs to their Lao Li family, but in fact it was to establish prestige for his family so that he could rule the world in the future). At that time, the scholar-bureaucrats studied Buddhism The trend of Buddhism is very strong, and many celebrities believe in Buddhism. Wang Wei is undoubtedly the most representative among them.
3 Unsatisfactory career and life.
The young Wang Wei is very smooth. He has no special background, but he is very talented. When he was fifteen years old, he went to the capital to take the exam. He wrote good poems, was good at calligraphy and painting, and had musical talent, so He immediately won the favor of the nobles, including the particularly famous King Qi. Wang Wei relied on King Qi for fame, interpersonal relationships, and scientific research. For poetry, calligraphy and painting, it is enough to have Su Shi's line "When you taste Mojie's poems, there are paintings within the poems; when you look at Mojie's paintings, there are poems within the paintings." Unfortunately, it is said that there are no authentic works of Wang Wei now. Regarding his talent in music, there is a story in "Supplement to the History of the Tang Dynasty". If you are interested, you can read it.
The young and middle-aged Wang Wei was not going well. His career was involved with a celebrity named Zhang Jiuling. After Wang Wei became an official, the court did not give him a particularly important official position. When he first took office, he was celebrating a festival and did not pay attention. His subordinates performed a yellow lion dance, which violated a royal taboo. Wang Wei was aggrieved, but he was still treated as such of course. Derogated. Being young and energetic, there will definitely be some blows. Later, as soon as Zhang Jiuling, whom he had always been friends with, came on stage, he was immediately transferred back and reused. Zhang Jiuling was an upright man and decisive in his approach, so his promotion and demolition were not smooth. Wang Wei's career had its ups and downs with Zhang Jiuling's promotion and demotion. It can be said that he was used to seeing the dangers of his career, and Wang Wei's little youthful enthusiasm was being wiped out little by little. Later, he bought Song Zhiwen's Wangchuan villa and used his spare time to live a half-official and half-hidden life in Wangchuan. Not to mention that if the imperial court pays attention to Wang Wei, Wang Wei will become a different person. Talented people are not necessarily very passionate, and Wang Wei may not be very happy if he is kept busy. Wang Wei's wife died young, and the 31-year-old Wang Wei has been a widower. This does not rule out the emotional factors that have made things difficult for people, but I think the main reason is Wang Wei's own character and beliefs. If you look at the information about Wang Wei, you will find that he is not particularly passionate about anything. He was passionate when he was young. From never boiling to gushing, the older you get, the less you want and want.
Wang Wei’s later years were very rough. Wang Chuan's years should be one of the best memories in his life. Wang Wei's reputation has always been great, so when An Lushan entered Chang'an, he captured Wang Wei who had no time to escape and forced him to take a fake job. At that time, Wang Wei was no longer young (the ancients did not live long), could not escape, and did not have the generosity and impulse to die for his country, so he took laxatives and pretended to be ill. Many materials say that An Lushan was quite respectful to Wang Wei, but if you think about it, An Lushan just wanted a prestigious scholar to win people's hearts, and did not really cherish talents. Wang Wei certainly had nothing to gain. .
This period of pseudo-career was the stain and knot in Wang Wei's life. At that time, Suzong was very angry and the world despised him. Fortunately, Wang Wei's younger brother Wang Jin was the prime minister at that time and requested that his official position be reduced to atone for his brother's sins. Some literati also understood Wang Wei's inner struggle and expressed sympathy to Wang Wei to intercede. However, Suzong saw the decline of people's livelihood and all the suffering in the world along the way, and he did not want to kill any more, so he just demoted Wang Wei's official position.
Wang Wei truly turned to Buddha after experiencing this incident. After the Anshi Rebellion, people gradually understood and forgave Wang Wei, and held him in higher esteem. But Wang Wei himself may not be able to forgive, not to mention that after experiencing this disaster, he has seen through all kinds of human emotions in the world, "There are only tea pots, medicine mortars, sutras, and rope beds." If I were asked to look at Wang Wei objectively to the best of my ability, I would have to say: I must definitely say that Wang Wei is a talented and talented man, but in terms of life, Wang Wei can be said to have failed. Wang Wei believed deeply in Buddhism and was tactful. Although he was able to protect himself in the unclear officialdom, he lacked aggressiveness and a clear stance and principles, so that he could not become a great official or a sage. .
Some people say that during the Anshi Rebellion, Wang Wei thought of a hero and a coward, and Wang Wei became a coward. However, everyone has the right to choose life. We cannot let Wang Wei die aggrievedly because of the expectations of a hero. What's more, the biggest victim in this personal disaster was not the nobles of Li and Tang Dynasties, nor the literati and doctors, nor could it be said that it had nothing to do with the common people of Chang'an. The most seriously injured was Wang Wei, and only Wang Wei. It caused wounds to the peerless genius that could not be healed until death, and almost destroyed the spiritual home that Wang Wei had worked so hard to build over many years. Wang Wei, who left home to travel to Chang'an when he was a teenager, finally found his footing near the end of his life after twists and turns in his life. Maybe it's because I personally admire this great poet and I really can't bear to blame him any more. In the end, I just want to say that it's good that he found the answer in the end.
Second, the title of Poetry Buddha not only refers to the Buddhist meaning in the poems and Wang Wei's religious inclination, but also expresses the later generations' affirmation of Wang Wei's lofty status in the poetry world of the Tang Dynasty.
Wang Wei has profound attainments in Buddhism. Many of his poems are cold and profound, far away from the world, without any smoke from the world, and full of Zen. The artistic conception of landscape has entered a religious realm.