Meng Haoran

Meng Haoran (Chinese: 孟浩然; Wade–Giles: Mêng Hao-jan; 689/691–740) was a Chinese poet and a major literary figure of the Tang dynasty. He was a somewhat older contemporary of Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu. Despite his brief pursuit of an official career, Meng Haoran spent most of his life in and around his hometown Xiangyang in Hubei Province, living like a hermit, while creating poems inspired by its landscapes and milieu.

Meng Haoran was a major influence on both contemporary and subsequent poets of the Tang dynasty due to his proficiency in Shanshui poetry and his disciplined, independent spirit. Meng was prominently featured in the Qing dynasty (and subsequently frequently republished) poetry anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems, having a total of fifteen poems included, the fifth largest number, exceeded only by Du Fu, Li Bai, Wang Wei, and Li Shangyin. These poems of Meng Haoran were made available in English translations by Witter Bynner and Kiang Kanghu with the publication of The Jade Mountain in 1920. In 2021, a complete translation of all Meng's poems by Paul W. Kroll was published as The Poetry of Meng Haoran, which also contains an introduction of Meng's life and historical contexts of his poetry.