Author of the preface of Wang Jingwei’s Poetry Professor Chiu Kay Tang, who has long studied the artistic value of Wang Jingwei’s poetry, just published his latest work on Wang’s poems about waterfalls in Volume 15, Bulletin of Studies of Literature and Culture in Republican China. In the article, Professor Tang observes that of the more than 400 poems collected in Wang’s poetry collection Shuanzhaolou shicigao, many are dedicated to scenery, landscape, and travel. Of these, poems about waterfalls demonstrate Wang’s remarkable ability to observe nature, cultivate imagery, and imbue one’s state of mind.

Citing three representative works, Professor Tang analyzes Wang’s allusions, composition, sensory descriptions, and emotional shifts and concludes that waterfalls are not purely objects of nature. Rather, they possess grandeur and rugged majesty, with a realm of profound depth and solitude. Often transitioning from natural imagery to reflections on human life, the poems reveal Wang’s contemplations regarding the state of the world, personal ideals, and his personal circumstances.

Discover these and other revelations by reading more firsthand material published in Wang Jingwei & Modern China.