⬅️ 唐诗 Tang Poems
Wei Yingwu (about 737-792 AD) was a poet of Tang Dynasty. He was born into one of the most prestigious family of his time. His family was said to be the top distinguished clan in central Shanxi plain where Chang'an the capital of Tang was located. Many from Wei clan worked as high level officials since as early as Western Han dynasty (202 BC-8 AD). 17 prime ministers of Tang dynasty were from Wei clan, including Wei Yingwu's great grandfather.
Because of his family background, Wei Yingwu did not need to pass the imperial examination. He can get into government by succession. At age of 15, he started his government career as an officer in the imperial guard corps of Emperor Xuanzong (唐玄宗). In one of his poems Meet Official Yang (逢杨开府), Wei Yingwu described his years as a imperial guard as arrogant and domineering, to say the least. "I started to serve the emperor at young age, with him at my back I was a rogue. I was insolent in my neighborhood, and I hid outlaws at my home. At daytime I gambled, and at night I had affairs with woman living in next door. The law officers did not dare to arrest me, since I stood on the white jade steps in imperial palace. I did not read or write, The only thing I knew was drinking and wandering, dull and shameless." If nothing changed, who knows where Wei Yingwu's life is going to land. However, An-Shi Rebellion changed everything. Emperor Xuanzong abdicated. Wei Yingwu lost his job. And Tang dynasty had one more great poet.
"It was too late to pursue the scholar-literati career, so I started to write poems. As my poetry gained reputation, I was offered some low ranking posts." As Wei Yingwu described on his aforementioned poem. Wei continued his writing when he transferred from post to post. 568 of his poems are extant, and 12 of them were included in the poetry anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems. In 790 AD, Wei Yingwu was dismissed from his position as the governor of Suzhou (苏州). But he had no money for the travel back to his hometown Chang'an. So he had to live temporarily in the Yongding Temple in Suzhou. Shortly after his dismissal, Wei Yingwu died. Months later his body was transported back and buried at his ancestral grave. In 2007, the epitaph of Wei Yingwu and his wife Yuan Ping was discovered in the modern-day city of Xi'an (西安).