HOW WANG-FO WAS

SAVED
By Marguerite Yourcenar
Marguerite Yourcenar | The Author
◦ Marguerite Yourcenar was born in 8th of June in 1903 in Brussels, Belgium. She became an US citizen in
1947. She started writing at nineteen and by the help of her father, she adopted her pen name
«Yourcenar», which was an anagram of her real surname, «Crayencour», as her legal surname,
◦ Throughout her life, she wrote many works, some of which include Memoirs of Hadrian, The Abyss,
Alexis, Oriental Tales.
◦ She was the first female to be elected to French Academy (Académie Française) in 1980, She also won
the noteworthy Erasmus Prize, moreover, became the winner of the Prix Femina.
◦ She died, at the age of 84, in 17th of December 1987.
How Wang-fo was saved? |Brief Plot
Summary
◦ The story immediately introduces the two important characters, famous painter Wang-fo and his Disciple,
Ling wandering through the Han Empire. It then continues by giving short excerpts from Ling’s
childhood, how his childhood home was, how he and his master had met and how beautiful and kind his
wife had been to him up until her suicide by hanging herself. The Author explains the reason for this as
the woman’s distorted logic, how Wang-fo’s paintings of Ling’s wife made his Disciple be more
interested in the phenomenal beauty of the paintings themselves, rather than the woman. Ling sells his
slaves and leaves everything behind and they thus travel.
◦ After Ling finds a place to stay temporarily, that is, an inn, at dawn both men see the soldiers who came
to get them. After a relatively short fight, by force they grab Wang-fo and Ling and lead them to the
Imperial Palace, which is where the Emperor resides, described elegantly.
◦ Seeing the Emperor himself, Wang-fo asks what he has done and the Emperor replies by starting from his
own childhood, during which he was secluded from the outside world for fear of receiving impurity.
After ten lonely years of looking at Wang-fo’s paintings, he imagines the outside world would be as
marvellous, only to find the complete opposite. Accusing the painter of lying, the Emperor orders for
Wang-fo’s eyes to be burnt out and his hands to be cut. Ling tries to stop this order but ends up dead.
◦ Wang-fo, then, is ordered to complete an unfinished painting of his before he’s being punished. He does
so, and as he continues painting, he sees his Disciple alive. Ling helps his master to get onto the boat and
together they sail away inside the final product Wang-fo magically created.
Technical Analysis
◦ Technical-wise, the story has an elaborated tone with lots of wordplay, intense depictions, almost as if
Yourcenar paints with words an extremely detailed chain of events in the same way Wang-fo paints with
colors. Plot structure is traditional, the reader is exposed to characters at the beginning and then the
climax, where Wang-fo receives his tools and starts painting for the last time. After this, the story closes
in a rather slow yet rich way, bringing the reader to the ending.
◦ Title can be considered ironic, as well as a tool used for foreshadowing, for it is understood that Wang-fo
will be in a tough situation as the events unfold, yet it is not known for sure whether he is really saved or
not at the end.
◦ As for time and place, the story gives pastoral vibes in that it hosts various natural elements, including
but not limited to gardens and riverbeds as well as man-made buildings, all of which are inspirations for
Wang-Fo.
◦ Much like the places they travel together, Wang-fo's works are temporary. Inspired by the natural things,
they come in cycles, which strengthens the theme of death and rebirth.The Author also presents how art
immortalizes people in two death situations, by allowing Wang-fo to capture Ling's wife's death scene
and Ling’s.
◦ Art seals memories in the artist's heart, as long as the artist is alive, every single moment he uses as a
source of inspiration is ageless and insomuch alive, even if the physical versions of them are gone, or in
Wang-fo's case, burnt.
Wang-Fo | Character Analysis
◦ Wang-Fo is an old, experienced, skillful painter. He is not money or fame-driven, on the contrary as long
as he has enough tools and inspiration, he does not mind not having food, let alone a warm roof above
him. Despite his old age it is known, even by the Emperor, that he is to some extent childish; chasing and
observing many animals, watching the nature taking its course, and sometimes throwing tantrums. As art
is his passion, he sees the life from an artist's perspective, he looks at people and objects, even abstract
concepts such as death and beauty, in an artistic way. His works show the reality around him and others
so unrealistically beautiful that it is both a blessing and a curse. While it brings recognition which gets to
the Emperor's ears, it also indirectly ends Ling's life. One timeless truth Wang-fo accepts is that Art
comes from pain and suffering. That is, it might be true that his paintings were a result of various topics
ranging from women, nature, people, cities and so on, yet his masterpiece stemmed from his personal
pain. It was through the creative use of this pain that explains how Wang-fo was saved.
Ling | Character Analysis
Ling is one of the people who is being charmed by the worlds Wang-fo creates. As he is in the role of a student,
he is rather inexperienced when compared to his master. After he meets Wang-fo, he becomes disillusioned and
learns how the material achievements or status are nothing, that there are some things greater than these.
His first step towards the disillusionment is how he notices that the real color of his house is in fact, orange
when light is pointed.
◦ Wang-fo’s paintings, in a way, depict more than the faces and the objects he paints, as if they reveal hidden
aspects that are only obvious to Wang-fo himself. This fact is seen when Ling starts loving the paintings of
his wife more than her, resulting in her suicide. It is not clearly understood whether this fact was known to
Ling, but still it shows the beauty of his wife was also a price to pay to achieve the true Zen state of mind.
Throughout the story up until his self-sacrifice, Ling constantly transforms by the personal experiences
brought by knowledge. Through these, he achieves a metaphysical role, as a psychopomp, guiding his master
through the familiar transition at the end, which he also experienced while being alive. This might be an
illusion too, given how Wang-fo paints an idealised version of his subjects.
The Emperor | Character Analysis
◦ The Emperor is the first person to actively realise how devastating the real world is when compared to
Wang-fo's paintings. He admits how Wang-fo is greater than himself, that he is the true Emperor, for he
has charm and artistic charisma which an Emperor needs. He is the Emperor of the paintings he created,
not only are Wang-fo's painted sceneries more beautiful as opposed to all the dirtiness the Emperor has,
they are also more in terms of quantity.The fact that the Emperor was secluded throughout his childhood
from the outside, real world might be a reference to today's upper class living as if the poverty and
sociocultural problems does not exist just because they are not actively involved with them. In a way, the
story is about the clash between people who have the illusion of material abundance and the ones who
are really rich, not concerned with wealth such as Wang-fo and Ling, who have practically nothing other
than inner richness. Solely by their way of living, they overshadow the Emperor, it is spiritual and more
of a quest for aesthetic truth, rather than the pleasures of the world.