*Article* **A Study on Pei Yue and His Poems Written to Monks**

**Ludi Wang and Yongfeng Huang \***

> Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; sdlgdxwangludi@163.com

**\*** Correspondence: yongfeng\_huang1976@163.com

**Abstract:** Pei Yue is a poet who flourished in the Late Tang (618–907) and Five Dynasties (907–960). The historical literature contains relatively limited information about his life, and his poems handed down to this day are also rare. To date, he has not been a major focus in the academic literature. Eight complete poems and two remnants from Pei Yue's existing poems were addressed to monks, including the renowned monk and calligrapher Huaisu (737–?), the two outstanding monks and poets Guanxiu (832–912) and Shangyan (fl. 881), as well as the lesser known Chubin , Chumo , Zhiqian , a nameless monk always in his monastery (*bu chuyuan seng* -), and Su Zhan -, who was an advanced scholar (*jinshi* ) and planned to become a monk. It can be seen from these poems that Pei Yue often associated with monks: he discussed Buddhist concepts and artistic skills with them, and he both praised and mourned them. Moreover, Pei Yue was strongly averse to worldly life and yearned for a peaceful and pure land. He understood the intricacies of a number of Buddhist concepts, such as "emptiness" (*wu* ) and "mind" (*xin* ). He sometimes compared and combined Buddhist theories with poetic creation.

**Keywords:** Pei Yue; poems; Buddhism; monks; social association
