Poetry

No collection of Wang's poems seems to have been made. Only six of his poems survive, all of which are quatrains, but almost every one has become a minor classic.

Two poems were 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").

生平

王之渙現存生平資料不多。其五代祖從并州遷居至絳州（今山西絳縣）後，家族一直定居于此。其父王昱歷任鴻臚主簿，雍州司士，汴州浚儀縣令，王之渙為其四子，生于武后垂拱二年（688年）。

曾以門子調補冀州衡水主簿，此時其父母均已去世。衡水縣令李滌將三女兒許配給他。因被人誣謗，乃拂衣去官，「遂化遊青山，滅裂黃綬。夾河數千里，籍其高風；在家十五年，食其舊德。雅談珪爵，酷嗜閒放。」。期間曾流寓薊門。後復出擔任文安縣尉，頗有政績，于天寶元年（742年）二月在任內去世。

文學評價

王之渙「慷慨有大略，倜儻有異才」，早年精于文章，並善於寫詩，多引為歌詞，常與王昌齡、高適、崔國輔等詩人互相唱和，名動一時。

他尤善五言詩，以描寫邊塞風光為勝。他的詩今僅存六首，以《登鸛雀樓》、《出塞》為代表作。章太炎推《涼州詞》為「絕句之最」:「黃河遠上白雲間，一片孤城萬仞山。羌笛何須怨楊柳，春風不度玉門關。」

墓誌銘

王之渙墓誌銘出土的具體時間與地點均未詳，估計是在20世紀的二三十年代之間，盜墓者掘出來的，後幾經轉手賣給了收藏者李根源。現存南京博物院。最早議論此墓誌的是章太炎，他在1932年寫的《曲石唐志目四跋》中有《王之渙墓誌》，以後又有岑仲勉《續貞石証史》、啟功《碑帖中的古代文學資料》、傅璇琮《唐代詩人叢考》中的《靳能所作王之渙墓誌銘跋》等文。

家庭

• 有子王炎，王羽，皆不知名。

• 王之咸，唐朝詩人，王之渙堂弟，一說為王之渙親兄。

注釋