King of the lonely country, Zhou Mengdie left an outstanding mark in the Taiwanese poetry. Most people know him as a sadhu in poetry and a hermit in the city. Solitude and simplicity accompanied with creativity made him remarkable, as he devoted his life to exploring modern poetry and viewed life and poetry as two inseparable determinants of his personality. The road of Zhou Mengdie was full of hardships. It was as well influenced by religion and the contemporary political environment. All of these factors are easily traced in his poetry because they determined his writing style and made it unique and outstanding. In this way, the sense of self-exile interwoven with the integrated religious themes played a profound impact on the evolution of Zhou Mengdie’s poetry. Therefore, the paper at hand aims at investigating the life and works of the poet with the focus on the influence of religion, political environment, and life experience on his poetries as well as using these three factors as a premise for analyzing and understanding his literary heritage. In order to gain a better understanding of Zhou Mengdie’s poetry, it is essential to become aware of his background. He was born in Henan Province where he graduated from middle school, got married, and had a family. Nevertheless, serving in the military, he was forced to follow the Nationalist government to Taiwan and leave his family in the Mainland, thus sealing himself to self-exile and solitude. Born as Chou Meng-tieh, he decided to change his name. His pseudonym is dedicated to Zhuangzi, a Taoist philosopher, whom he often mentions in the poetries. That said, Zhou refers to the philosopher’s family name, while Mengdie is the translation of one of the sage’s tales – the butterfly dream. It was a perfect representation of his personality, as he was a hermit who dreamt of becoming a butterfly to be always happily fluttering around (Yeh and Malmqvist 92). Later, he became a Buddhist and turned into the religious icon of the epoch. During all this time, Zhou Mengdie ran a small sidewalk bookstand in Taipei. He sold newspapers, poetry books, and magazines. Sometimes, he gave literature for free to students, thus demonstrating the desire to share knowledge. What is special about the poet is the fact that he never had home and family after leaving his wife and children and his self-exile to Taiwan. Therefore, his solitude in exile and his life choice to remain alone, as well as religiosity, became outstanding determinants of his poetries. During his life, he published two books of poetry and some poetry collections. His first book is entitled Lonely Country , and it is the very piece of art, which made him known as the king of the lonely country and proved that he was a sadhu in poetry and the city. The influence of the political environment is complicated to trace in the poetries of Zhou Mengdie. Nevertheless, it is the political atmosphere in the Mainland that forced him to self-exile, thus determining the direction of his future life. Except for it, Zhou Mengdie’s poetry was significantly affected by religion, as there are references to Buddhism and religious themes in nearly all pieces of writing. Still, there are two ways of analyzing the poet’s works and their religiosity. First and foremost, it is the