As
a result of a riding accident, Hanshan sustained an injury to his foot which
left him slightly disabled. This
physical impediment prevented him from advancing in the Chinese civil service,
and he was unable to rise beyond the lowly position of clerk. Disenchanted with
the established traditions of his day, he gave up his office, left his wife and
child, and went into the mountains, where he found shelter in caves and make-shift
huts.
His retreat was near the
monastery at Guoqing, which he visited from time to time, scrounging scraps
left by the monks at meal time. It is
said that he would walk the halls of the temple talking to himself during the
monks’ periods of meditation. When his
behavior became too disruptive, he would be was asked to leave. Then he would
clap his hands and laugh as he made his way back to his cave.
He
became a beloved figure in
Chinese lore and is considered an embodiment of the Chan (Zen) spirit
because of the poems he wrote, sometimes leaving them on the trunks
of trees or on the faces of rock.
[Hanshan – Zen Masters of China: 153-61; The Story of Zen: 246, 345]
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