A careful examination of extant documents about Wang Fanzhi and his poems suggests that Wang was not necessarily a monk.Judging from his poems,he had something to do with Buddhism,Taoism,and Confucianism,and so his poems in the Dunhuang manuscripts should not be regarded as "Chan poems." They could be more preciselyly classified as "ironic poems," which can better explain the thoughts and artistic features of his poems.
