Yang Mu (Chinese: 楊牧; pinyin: Yáng Mù, September 6, 1940 – March 13, 2020) was a pen name of Wang Ching-hsien (王靖獻), a Taiwanese poet, essayist, critic, translator, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, and Founding Dean at NDHU College of Humanities and Social Sciences and HKUST School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Originally majoring in history at Tunghai University,[1] he later found that it went against his genuine interest and finally transferred to the Department of Foreign Languages to pursue his literary ideals.
[4] Notably, a group of writers who later have become leading figures in the literary scene in contemporary Taiwan like Pai Hsien-yung, Yu Kwang-chung, Wai-lim Yip, and Wang Wen-hsing, were all his alumni at UI.
Changing from emphasizing sentimental and romantic feelings to intervening in social issues, the works in Yang's later period appear to be more calm, reserved and profound.
These poetry collections were published under the pen name Ye Shan (葉珊) and were publicly thought to have created a new way of writing romantic poems.
In this preface, Wang spoke highly of its success in applying language and said that it took an important step towards achieving the new order of modern Chinese poetry.
These works are mainly represented by Annual Ring (年輪), Storms over Hills and Ocean (山風海雨), The Completion of a Poem (一首詩的完成), The Midday Hawk (亭午之鷹) and Then as I Went Leaving (昔我往矣).