Shiwu

Biography

He is said to have followed a monk to the Tianmu Mountains to meet with Chan master Kao-Feng. On his arrival Kao-feng asked why he came to his hermitage to which Shiwu answered "I've come for the Dharma".

Kao-feng said "The Dharma isn't so easy to find. You've got to burn your fingers for incense".

Shiwu replied "But I see the Master before me with my own eyes. How could the Dharma be hidden?".

Kao-feng took him as his pupil and gave him the koan "All things return to one" for study.

Chi-an

After three years with little progress, Shiwu decided to leave and Kao-feng recommended he study under the Chan master Chi-an. Shiwu crossed the Yangtze and met Chi-an at West Peak Temple near Chienyang.

Chi-an asked Shiwu what teaching he had received.

Shiwu said, "All things return to one".

Chi-an asked what it meant and Shiwu remained silent.

Chi-an said "Those words are dead. Where did you pick up such rot?".

Shiwu bowed and asked for instruction.

Chi-an then gave him another koan: "Where buddhas dwell, don't stop. Where buddhas don't dwell, hurry past".

Shiwu said he didn't understand but decided to stay with Chi-an.

One day, Chi-an asked once more about the koan and Shiwu answered, "When you mount the horse, you see the road".

Chi-an admonished him once again.

Shiwu left but on his way down the mountain he saw a pavilion and had a sudden insight. He turned back and told Chi-an, "Where buddhas dwell, don't stop. Those are dead words. Where buddhas don't dwell, hurry past. Those are dead words too. Now I understand living words".

Chi-an asked him what he understood and Shiwu answered, "When the rain finally stops in late spring, the oriole appears on a branch"

Chi-an later served as abbot of the Taochang temple and Shiwu joined him. Shiwu also served as a meditation teacher in Lingyin temple.

Poet

In 1312 at the age of forty he moved to Xiamu Mountain near Huzhou to live as a hermit and it is here that he composed his "Mountain Poems" (Shan-shih), one-hundred and eighty-four verses mostly dealing with life in the mountains. In the preface to the Mountain poems, Shiwu writes:

Here in the woods I have lots of free time. When I don't spend it sleeping, I enjoy composing gathas. But with paper and ink so scarce, I haven't thought of writing them down. Now some Zen monks have asked me to record what I find of interest on this mountain. I've sat here quietly and let my brush fly. Suddenly, this volume is full. I close it and sent it back down with the admonition not to try singing these poems. Only if you sit on them will they do you any good.

The opening poem of the Shan-Shi describes the natural setting of his hermitage:

I made my home west of the Sha where water fills Sky Lake and the moon fills the river people are frightened when they see the heights but once they arrive they know the trail dried snail shells on rock walls fresh tiger tracks in the mud my door stays open when spring days grow long when paulownias bloom and cicadas call

Many of his poems deal with the mundane facets of everyday hermit life.

I don't stop moving all day long before sunset I'm done back home I wash off my feet and sleep too tired to notice the mountain moon's passage birds wake me up from a distant grove the red sun's disc shines through the pines today and tomorrow don't differ the years are all the same.

Some of the poems also focus on Zen Buddhist philosophical ideals like impermanence and non-attachment.

This body's existence is like a bubble's may as well accept what happens events and hopes seldom agree but who can step back doesn't worry we blossom and fade like flowers gather and part like clouds worldly thoughts I forgot long ago relaxing all day on a peak.

Reception

American translator Red Pine who traveled to China and the Zhongnan Mountains, translated Shiwu's poems into English.