In his life Wang Wei models himself on Vimalakirti Nirdesa and in his poetry the aesthetic thoughts of The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra permeate. A manifestation of this is that Wang Wei achieves his poetic effects neither by willful intellects nor definite images, on the contrary, the lively wisdom of Zen governs all his poetic world. Since the poet has reached his nature in the state of empty wholeness, we cannot follow the procedure of the creation of his poems. Wang Wei's poetry is a spreading of the Pure Land in which, with the barriers of language transcended, the revelation of the Buddhist truth and the inspiration of poetry becomes one.
