Name Variants
His family name was Wang, his given name Wei. The linguistic reconstruction of Wang Wei's name in Middle Chinese, according to Hugh M. Stimson, in terms of historical phonetics is "Iυαng Ui". Wang chose the style name Mojie, and would sign his works Wang Weimojie because Wei-mo-jie was a reference to Vimalakirti, the central figure of the Buddhist sutra by that name. In this holy book of Buddhism, which is partly in the form of a debate with Mañjuśrī (the Bodhisattva of Wisdom), a lay person, Vimalakīrti, expounds the doctrine of Śūnyatā, or emptiness, to an assembly which includes arhats and bodhisattvas, and then culminates with the wordless teaching of silence.
Read more about this topic: Wang Wei (8th Century Poet)
Famous quotes containing the word variants:
“Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)