Clouds Thick, Whereabouts Unknown

Poems by Zen Monks of China

Charles Chu, Charles Egan

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2010
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9780231520980
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy
• Index: Literature

Compiled by a leading scholar of Chinese poetry, Clouds Thick, Whereabouts Unknown is the first collection of Chan (Zen) poems to be situated within Chan thought and practice. Combined with exquisite paintings by Charles Chu, the anthology compellingly captures the ideological and literary nuances of works that were composed, paradoxically, to "say more by saying less," and creates an unparalleled experience for readers of all backgrounds.

Clouds Thick, Whereabouts Unknown includes verse composed by monk-poets of the eighth to the seventeenth centuries. Their style ranges from the direct vernacular to the evocative and imagistic. Egan's faithful and elegant translations of poems by Han Shan, Guanxiu, and Qiji, among many others, do justice to their perceptions and insights, and his detailed notes and analyses unravel centuries of Chan metaphor and allusion. In these gems, monk-poets join mainstream ideas on poetic function to religious reflection and proselytizing, carving out a distinct genre that came to influence generations of poets, critics, and writers.

The simplicity of Chan poetry belies its complex ideology and sophisticated language, elements Egan vividly explicates in his religious and literary critique. His interpretive strategies enable a richer understanding of Mahayana Buddhism, Chan philosophy, and the principles of Chinese poetry.

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 monk’s 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 (618–907) and Five Dynasties (907–960)

1. Shitou Xiqian, Untitled¹

*Shitou Xiqian (700–790) and Mazu Daoyi (709–788) 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 Huineng’s death, the disciple and Dharma heir of Qingyuan Xingsi (?–740) in Jiangxi. In the early years of the Tianbao reign (742–756), 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 Shitou’s and took it to Japan. It remains today in Sōjiji Temple in Yokohama.³

He’s always been with me—the buddha nature, tathāgatagarbha.

2. Shitou Xiqian, The Grass Hut Song⁴

Grass hut (cao’an, caotang)—euphemism for the domicile of a recluse. The Platform Sūtra notes, “Good friends, the physical body is a house, but you can’t take refuge in it.”⁵

The old man in the tiny room (fangzhang laoren)—fangzhang means “ten square feet,” and alludes to the tiny size of the sickroom in which the layman Vimalakīrti isolated himself while teaching the doctrine of emptiness to Buddha’s disciples, as related in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa sūtra. The term was used to refer to the room of the abbot in a Chinese Buddhist monastery.

Bodhisattva (pusa)—advanced beings who vow to attain enlightenment to save all those suffering in saṃsāra. One who has accomplished the bodhisattva practice is a buddha.

Shine the reflections back (huiguang fanzhao)—the 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 prajñā, and the light of this wisdom reveals the buddha nature within.

divine root (linggen)—the buddha nature, tathāagatagarbha. In the “mind field” (xintian), enlightenment grows from the root.

skin bag (pidai)—the body. Also “sack of bones and skin” (pidaigu), “stinking sack of skin” (chou pidai), or “worn-out sack” (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 Lü Qiuyin asked for Buddhist teachers on Mount Tiantai, Master Fenggan (who was considered an incarnation of Amitābha) 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, “Fenggan talks too much! Talks too much! If you didn’t recognize Amitābha, what good will it do to bow to us?” When the prefect offered presents of clothing and medicine, Hanshan just yelled out, “Thief! Go away, thief!” He slipped into a fissure in the rock, which then sealed itself, leaving no trace. Hanshan was sometimes considered an incarnation of Mañjuśrī, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. The Tang dynasty Gleanings of Immortal Biographies describes him as a recluse of the Dali period (766–780), 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 Hanshan’s 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 (627–649).⁸

For an explication of this poem, see the introduction.

4. Hanshan, Untitled⁹

wordless knowing (mozhi)—enlightenment comes completely and spontaneously from within, in a process that is inexplicable and unteachable.

watch the void (guankong)—a deliberate meditative exercise aimed at realizing the illusory nature of reality.

world—the text uses the word jing (Skt. vişaya), or “realm.” See the introduction.

5. Hanshan, Untitled¹⁰

fruits and fish—the 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 spring—the pure source of a stream.

monkeys—th...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half title
• Editorial Board
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents 
• Dynastic Timeline
• A Note on Pinyin Romanization
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Poems
• Illustrations
• Introductions to the Poets and Explanatory Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• Series List