Quick Facts
Biography
Wang Zhihuan (traditional Chinese: 王之渙; simplified Chinese: 王之涣; pinyin: Wáng Zhīhuàn, 688–742) and whose name has been traditionally been transcribed "Wang Tsu-huan" was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty's Kaiyuan era. He is best known for his famous poem entitled "On the Stork Tower" (登鸛雀樓).
Poetry
Wang Zhihuan had two of his poems included in the famous poetry anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems, translated by Witter Bynner as "AT HERON LODGE" (also called "On the Stork Tower", a five-character-quatrain) and "BEYOND THE BORDER", a folk-song-styled-verse.
Famous competition at the wine shop
Wang Zhihuan was once involved in a famous incident at a wine shop with fellow poets Gao Shi and Wang Changling, in which they agreed to compete as to which of their poems would be most sung by the professional entertainers who happened to show up in the course of that evening's entertainment. Towards the beginning of the evening one actor happened to sing a performance of one of Wang Changling's poems. Not too long after that, another actor performed one of Gao Shi's poems. And, then another actor recited another lyric of Wang Changling's. The performance then went on, with one for Gao Shi, two for Wang Changling, and none for Wang Zhihuan. It so happened that one of the female entertainers known as the most beautiful finally gave her performance: she delivered a piece, based on a poem of Wang Zhihuan's (this was the one, which, much later, Witter Bynner translated as "Beyond the Border").