The Pepper Garden
- Poetry of Wang Wei

This poem is the seventeenth of the twenty in Wang Wei's Wang River Collection, composed in response to a matching-title poem by his friend Pei Di. It does not depict a real landscape of the estate but constructs a pure, sacred, ritualistic space using highly condensed imagery modeled on the Songs of Chu, particularly the "Nine Songs." In his later years, deeply immersed in Buddhist philosophy, Wang Wei also demonstrated a keen affinity for the spirit-communion ethos of Chu shamanistic culture. In this poem, he deftly adapts archetypes from Xiang-Chu mythology, elevating a corner of Wangchuan—the "Garden of Peppers"—into a spiritual altar for communion between humanity and the divine. It reveals a rare dimension of mysticism and classical ritual beauty in his poetry.