Subscribe to our email newsletter

About this site

This web site is dedicated to the preservation of the spirit of Tang poetry.

Li Bai and Du Fu

More Tang Poets

Read poems by the greatest masters of Tang poetry translated by Lan Hua


Tang Spirit Archive

Prior articles from TSN


Other Internet Resources


The Adventures of Monkey King

Have you ever heard of the Adventures of Monkey King? A great classic now available in a new translation from Lan Hua

The Gan Yu

Chen Zi'ang is one of the early masters of Tang poetry. Now you can read some of his poems translated for the first time into English by Lan Hua

Contact Us


This is one of those poems that manages to successfully and succinctly describe both an interior and exterior landscape. I have discussed this poem with a friend of mine who is much better versed in Tang poetry than I. He claims that it is just a landscape poem but I can't read it - or translate it -- in such a limited way.


Passing the Incense Temple
by Wang Wei


Passing the Incense Temple
Unknowing on a journey
Deep into the cloudy peaks
Alone among ancient trees
A distant bell resounds

Down a steep rocky path
The mountain stream tumbles
Through a dim pine glade
In the fading light of day

Before rounding the bend
It settles in a pool of quiet
Where the peace-filled mind
At last stills the lashing dragon






More poems by Wang Wei translated by Lan Hua: