Introductions TO THE Poets
AND Explanatory Notes
*Introductions to the poets are marked with an asterisk. The source material is primarily the transmission-of-the-lamp anthologies, so the influence of mythmaking is very apparent. Moreover, poem attributions to some major masters are suspect. Monks abandoned their birth names when they took their vows. A monkâs name is generally four characters: the first two are usually the name of the mountain or temple with which he was most associated, and the last two are his name in religion. The most influential masters often became known by the name of their mountain or temple alone. Often there is also a cognomen (zi) and/or a sobriquet (hao); the former is a fairly formal alternate name, while the latter, lighter in tone, can be a studio name, pen name, or even a popular nickname. Finally, a monk who enjoyed imperial favor might gain one or more honorific titles, bestowed either during his lifetime or posthumously. Notes to the texts are marked in italics. Besides providing definitions of terms and contextualizing information, the notes include some suggestions for interpretation. These should be taken only as starting points for approaching the poems, rather than as standard or comprehensive explanations. Chinese characters for transliterated terms are in the glossary.
SOURCES ARE LISTED IN THE ENDNOTES.
POETIC FORMS OF ORIGINAL TEXTS ARE CITED IN THE ENDNOTES.
Tang Dynasty (618â907) and Five Dynasties (907â960)
1. Shitou Xiqian, Untitled1
*Shitou Xiqian (700â790) and Mazu Daoyi (709â788) are credited by tradition as the two most influential Chan masters in the second generation after the Sixth Patriarch Huineng. Shitou was from Gaoyao in Duanzhou (in Guangdong); his family name was Chen. The anthologies describe him as a sensitive child who rescued many cows from death in local ritual sacrifices. He was said to have been an informal student of the Sixth Patriarch, and after Huinengâs death, the disciple and Dharma heir of Qingyuan Xingsi (?â740) in Jiangxi. In the early years of the Tianbao reign (742â756), he moved to Nansi Temple at Mount Heng (in Hunan) and remained there for the rest of his life. To the east of the temple was a stone ledge. He built a hermitage on it and began calling himself Shitou Heshang (Stone Monk). He taught sixty-three disciples.2 In modern times, a Japanese dentist recovered a mummy from a ruined Chinese monastery in Hunan. He claimed the mummy was Shitouâs and took it to Japan. It remains today in SĆjiji Temple in Yokohama.3
Heâs always been with meâthe buddha nature, tathÄgatagarbha.
2. Shitou Xiqian, The Grass Hut Song4
Grass hut (caoâan, caotang)âeuphemism for the domicile of a recluse. The Platform SĆ«tra notes, âGood friends, the physical body is a house, but you canât take refuge in it.â5
The old man in the tiny room (fangzhang laoren)âfangzhang means âten square feet,â and alludes to the tiny size of the sickroom in which the layman VimalakÄ«rti isolated himself while teaching the doctrine of emptiness to Buddhaâs disciples, as related in the VimalakÄ«rtinirdeĆa sĆ«tra. The term was used to refer to the room of the abbot in a Chinese Buddhist monastery.
Bodhisattva (pusa)âadvanced beings who vow to attain enlightenment to save all those suffering in saáčsÄra. One who has accomplished the bodhisattva practice is a buddha.
Shine the reflections back (huiguang fanzhao)âthe term in general use refers to the glow of colored light in the sky at sunset. Chan Buddhists use it to suggest that through meditation on the emptiness of dharmas the practitioner gains prajñÄ, and the light of this wisdom reveals the buddha nature within.
divine root (linggen)âthe buddha nature, tathÄagatagarbha. In the âmind fieldâ (xintian), enlightenment grows from the root.
skin bag (pidai)âthe body. Also âsack of bones and skinâ (pidaigu), âstinking sack of skinâ (chou pidai), or âworn-out sackâ (binang).
3. Hanshan, Untitled6
*Hanshan (Cold Mountain) was a legendary Tang dynasty recluse on Mount Tiantai (in Tiantai, Zhejiang). There is no compelling evidence that such a person ever existed, yet the tales and texts associated with his name have had an enormous impact on East Asian cultures. The prototypical carefree Buddhist vagabond, Hanshan was said to frequent Guoqing Temple on Mount Tiantai, often in company with two other eccentric recluses, Shide and Fenggan. When Prefect LĂŒ Qiuyin asked for Buddhist teachers on Mount Tiantai, Master Fenggan (who was considered an incarnation of AmitÄbha) directed him to Hanshan and Shide. The prefect sought the two out in the temple kitchen to pay his respects, and unconsciously bowed to them. The two eccentrics just laughed at him and hand in hand walked out the temple gate, saying, âFenggan talks too much! Talks too much! If you didnât recognize AmitÄbha, what good will it do to bow to us?â When the prefect offered presents of clothing and medicine, Hanshan just yelled out, âThief! Go away, thief!â He slipped into a fissure in the rock, which then sealed itself, leaving no trace. Hanshan was sometimes considered an incarnation of MañjuĆrÄ«, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. The Tang dynasty Gleanings of Immortal Biographies describes him as a recluse of the Dali period (766â780), yet also claims that a mysterious stranger who visited a Daoist adept in the year 872 was the selfsame Hanshan, made immortal through Daoist meditation techniques! The collection that bears Hanshanâs name is not linguistically or stylistically uniform, and it has been suggested that the more than three hundred poems in it were composed at different times and by different people.7 Viewed as a whole, the collection is characterized by simple, near-colloquial language and didactic, admonitory purpose. Hanshan is also associated with Cold Mountain Temple atop Mount Han (near Suzhou, Jiangsu); local tradition has it that the temple was given this name because Hanshan and Shide lived there during the Zhenguan reign period (627â649).8
For an explication of this poem, see the introduction.
4. Hanshan, Untitled9
wordless knowing (mozhi)âenlightenment comes completely and spontaneously from within, in a process that is inexplicable and unteachable.
watch the void (guankong)âa deliberate meditative exercise aimed at realizing the illusory nature of reality.
worldâthe text uses the word jing (Skt. viĆaya), or ârealm.â See the introduction.
5. Hanshan, Untitled10
fruits and fishâthe attainment of enlightenment was very often couched in physical metaphors of harvest or capture. Also metaphorically significant here are the fruits as culmination of a natural process and the fish as denizens of a mountain springâthe pure source of a stream.
monkeysâth...