**1. Introduction**

No existing historical record reveals the year of Pei Yue's birth or death, and many history books summarize his life in a few words: Pei Yue became the Number One Scholar (*zhuangyuan* ) in the third year of Tianyou (906) in the Tang Dynasty;<sup>1</sup> he once served as Rectifier of Omissions (Buque ) and Vice Director in the Ministry of Rites (Libu yuanwailang ), and he often wandered among "civilian society" (*jianghu* ) because his official career was hindered by war (Jiang 1981, p. 807). Academic circles have paid little attention to Pei Yue thus far due to his lack of reputation as a poet. Only two journal papers take Pei Yue and his poetry specifically as research objects. Shi Shengnan (Shi 2014) classifies Pei Yue's poems into the following categories, interpreting each category with simple examples: "poems chanting things and depicting ambitions", "poems describing traveling or sceneries", "poems expressing emotions", "poems on history", "farewell poems", "poems showing quiet life in monasteries" and "poems recording communication with friends". Wu Haiyuan (Wu 2018) explores the "contents", "thoughts" and "artistic styles" of Pei Yue's "poems describing traveling or sceneries", "Buddhist and Daoist poems", "poems recording current events" and "mourning poems". He emphasizes that Pei Yue's poems have the characteristics of "thinking hard, polishing words and desiring for novelty". He also laconically analyzes Pei Yue's two poems "Mourn Monk Chumo" (Ku Chumo shangren , Peng et al. 1960, p. 8267) and "See off Advanced Scholar Su Zhan Who Will be a Monk After War" (Song jinshi Su Zhan luanhou chujia - - , Peng et al. 1960, p. 8263), which will be elaborated upon by the authors of the present paper in the following text, and he claims that "Pei Yue's Buddhist and Daoist poems are limpid and ethereal, Pei Yue seems to be a person free from vulgarity".

**Citation:** Wang, Ludi, and Yongfeng Huang. 2022. A Study on Pei Yue and His Poems Written to Monks. *Religions* 13: 194. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/rel13030194

Academic Editor: Xiaohuan Zhao

Received: 17 November 2021 Accepted: 21 February 2022 Published: 24 February 2022

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Buddhism was prosperous in the Tang Dynasty; at that time, scholars often communicated with and created many poems for monks. By examining these poems, we can learn more about the causes, process and aims of their association, their lives, beliefs and hobbies, as well as some other notions, such as the political context and current affairs in the Tang Dynasty. Although Pei Yue's existing poems are sparse, those written to monks constitute a large proportion of these. From Pei Yue's poems for monks, we know that he interacted with monks not only because of his religious belief or interest, but also because he regarded monks as intimate friends and even confidants. Therefore, Pei Yue expressed worship, admiration, mourning and pity for monks. He generously eulogized a monk calligrapher, discussed poetry with a monk poet, memorialized a dead monk and interacted with a scholar who would later become a monk and, thus, achieve liberation.

Although some of these poems bear no direct relationship to Buddhist doctrines, they concern monks, and since monks are an indispensable part of Buddhism, all of Pei Yue's poems for monks, in this sense, bear a close relationship with Buddhism. In short, both Buddhist ideas and figures are expressed and embodied in Pei Yue's poems for monks. In addition, Pei Yue compared poetic creation with Buddhist doctrines or dharma practices, which revealed his unique theory of creation and his comprehension of Buddhism. Most importantly, he identified some common ground between poetic creation and Buddhism, proving that the two are similar in some ways. Thus, performing in depth research on Pei Yue's poems for monks represents a good starting point from which to explore the relationship between Buddhism and the poetry of the Tang Dynasty.
