Wang Zhihuan


Wang Zhihuan and whose name has been traditionally been transcribed "Wang Tsu-huan" was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty's Kaiyuan era. He is best known for his famous poem entitled "On the Stork Tower".

Poetry

Wang Zhihuan had two of his poems included in the famous poetry anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems, translated by Witter Bynner as "AT HERON LODGE" and "BEYOND THE BORDER", a folk-song-styled-verse.

Famous competition at the wine shop

Wang Zhihuan was once involved in a famous incident at a wine shop with fellow poets Gao Shi and Wang Changling, in which they agreed to compete as to which of their poems would be most sung by the professional entertainers who happened to show up in the course of that evening's entertainment. Towards the beginning of the evening one actor happened to sing a performance of one of Wang Changling's poems. Not too long after that, another actor performed one of Gao Shi's poems. And, then another actor recited another lyric of Wang Changling's. The performance then went on, with one for Gao Shi, two for Wang Changling, and none for Wang Zhihuan. It so happened that one of the female entertainers known as the most beautiful finally gave her performance: she delivered a piece, based on a poem of Wang Zhihuan's.