His poems were originally compiled and edited into a collection by his next-youngest brother, Wang Jin, at imperial command.

Known for his youthful precocity,[4] Wang Wei, the eldest of five brothers,[5] set off for Chang’an, the imperial capital, at the age of nineteen to prepare for the civil service examination.

While residing in Chang'an before taking the test, Wang gained favor at the court due to his poetic and musical talents, particularly in playing the instrument pipa.

[6] He passed the palace examination in 721 with top position known as the Zhuangyuan, setting the stage for a potentially lucrative civil service career.

Subsequently, a sequence of promotions following this demotion was apparently attributable to his association with the prominent governmental minister, poet, and literary scholar Zhang Jiuling.

By 728, Wang Wei had returned to Chang'an, where he hosted the poet Meng Haoran,[10] forging a close friendship and poetic collaboration.

However, he experienced a later demotion back to Assistant Censor, coinciding with the decline in imperial favor of Zhang Jiuling and the rising political influence of Li Linfu.

In his capacity as a government official, he was dispatched to Liangzhou,[12] then the northwestern frontier of the Chinese empire and a region marked by continual military conflicts.

[13] After returning to Chang'an from Liangzhou, and lacking an official posting, Wang Wei took the opportunity to explore the countryside south of the capital, in the Lantian area within the Zhongnan Mountains.

[14] In 740–741 Wang resumed his governmental career, which included an inspection tour of Xiangyang, Hubei (the home of Meng Haoran).

In addition to his governmental salary, he earned income as an artist, enabling him to acquire the extensive Lantian estate once owned by the poet Song Zhiwen, known as Wang Chuan.

[15] After the death of his mother in 747–748, Wang Wei erected a shrine in her honor at the estate, observing a traditional three-year mourning period.

The An-Shi disorders (755 - 763) profoundly impacted Chinese society in general and Wang Wei in particular, although Nicolas Tackett has recently argued that it was not as destructive to the Tang aristocracy as had previously been thought.

While Emperor Xuanzong, his court, and most of the governmental officials had already evacuated to Sichuan; Wang Wei, plagued by dysentery, was incapacitated and unable to travel,[18] especially through the challenging mountainous terrain of the region.

Some sources suggest that in an attempt to avoid actively assisting the insurgents, Wang Wei feigned deafness; others state that he consumed medicine to damage his voice.

Wang Jin held a high government rank as the Undersecretary of the Board of Punishments, and his loyal efforts in the defense of Taiyuan were well recognized.

Wang Wei never lived to see the empire's return to peace, as the An-Shi disorder and its aftermath continued beyond his lifetime.

In the seventh month of 759 or 761, Wang Wei requested writing implements and wrote several letters to his brother and to his friends before passing away.

The two poets were often collectively referred to as "Wang Meng" (a combination of their surnames), to their shared excellence in poetic composition as contemporaries.

It is recorded that his landscape paintings have two different genres, one of the Father and Son of the Li Family (李氏父子) and the other being of strong brush strokes.

It also draws a comparison between the deceptive simplicity of his works and the Chan path to enlightenment, which is built on careful preparation but is achieved without conscious effort.

[39] "Der Abschied" is set to a loose German translation of Wang Wei's Farewell (送别), a work addressed to fellow poet Meng Haoran on the occasion of his retirement (after a brief civil service career) to become a scholar-recluse (yinshi, 隱士).