Hanshan (poet)

In the Chinese Buddhist tradition, Hanshan and his sidekick Shide are honored as emanations of the bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra, respectively.

Little is known of his work, since he was a recluse living in a remote region and his poems were written on rocks in the mountains he called home.

Afterwards, he attempted to give them clothing and provide them housing, but Lüqiu Yin writes that the pair fled into a cave which closed itself and Shide's tracks disappeared.

[5] Wu Chi-yu in A study of Han-shan[6] identifies him as the monk Zhiyan (智岩, 577–654), but that has been disputed by Paul Demiéville among others.

行江青草合， Walked by rivers where the green grass grows thick, 入塞紅塵起。 And entered the frontier where the red dust rises.

[6] Lüqiu Yin then asked if there were any sages worthy of becoming of his tutor and Fenggan revealed that at Guoqing monastery were two Bodhisattva incarnations.

[6] Three days after arriving at his government appointment, Lüqiu Yin asked his chief administrator if there were any information about Han-shan and Shide.

The administrator reported that "seventy li (approximately 35 km) to the west of the town of T'ang-hsing, there was a cliff where a poor scholar lived.

He relays descriptions of the poet given by elders from Guoqing Temple who said that Hanshan was "a poor and eccentric hermit" who "often went to the Kuo-ch'ing Monastery in order to take home the left-overs of the meal, which he carried in a bamboo tube given to him by Shih-te, a monk working in the dining-hall.

He wore a cap make of birch bark, a simple fur garment, torn and threadbare, and wooden sandals for shoes."

Lüqiu Yin had two sets of clean clothing prepared and asked the monks to give them to Han-shan and Shide should they ever return.

[citation needed] They are notable for their straightforwardness, which contrasts sharply with the cleverness and intricateness that marked typical Tang dynasty poetry.

Thematically, Hanshan draws heavily on Buddhist and Taoist themes, often remarking on life's short and transient nature, and the necessity of escape through some sort of transcendence.

He varies and expands on this theme, sometimes speaking of Mahayana Buddhism's 'Great Vehicle', and other times of Taoist ways and symbols like cranes.

Red Pine poem 253: This mixed influence is probably due to the high preponderance of Taoists and Buddhists in the same area.

The eminent Taoist Ge Hong acclaimed Mount Tiantai as 'the perfect place for practicing the arts of immortality,' which is probably also why so many Buddhist temples were established in the vicinity as well.

Hanshan was a sympathetic and important figure for Beat Generation writers Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac.

In the introduction to his translation which appeared in the Evergreen Review, Snyder wrote of Hanshan, "He and his sidekick Shih-te (Jittoku in Japanese) became great favorites with Zen painters of later days — the scroll, the broom, the wild hair and laughter.

Translations by Snyder and by Red Pine were influential in the work of the artist Brice Marden, who executed a large series of paintings, drawings, and prints themed around the poems.