Pei Di (Chinese: 裴迪; pinyin: Péi Dí; Wade–Giles: P'ei Ti) was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty, approximate year of birth 714, with twenty preserved poems in the Wangchuan ji poetry collection and one work included in the popular Three Hundred Tang Poems.
The two were separated at last when Pei Di was made governor of Szechuan, then a wild, remote place, reachable only by treacherous plank paths hung from the sides of cliffs.
A letter from Wang Wei to his friend Pei Di (here transliterated P'ei Ti) is preserved, and has been translated by Arthur Waley:
When night was far advanced, I mounted Hua-tzuu's Hill and saw the moonlight tossed up and thrown down by the jostling waves of Wang River.
On the wintry mountain distant lights twinkled and vanished; in some deep lane beyond the forest a dog barked at the cold, with a cry as fierce as a wolf's.
The sound of villagers grinding their corn at night filled the gaps between the slow chiming of a distant bell.
Then wandering together in the spring hills we shall see the trout leap lightly from the stream, the white gulls stretch their wings, the dew fall on the green moss.
[11] Pei Di's influence on posterity mainly derives from his contributions to the Wangchuan Ji anthology, consisting of 20 of his poems written as responsive matches to 20 of Wang Wei's.
The series has inspired various subsequent works, including translations into English by Jerome Ch'en and Michael Bullock [12] and by H. C.
Poetic notes: In the penultimate line, Wang Wei obliquely refers to Pei (who was also in government service) as 接輿 Jiēyú (also Chieh-yu or "great Hermit or Lu Tong 陸通).
Five Willows is an allusion to Tao Qian, another poet famous for drinking and eventually seeking some level of seclusion after encountering danger as part of a political career.