The Moon is Not the Moon - Non-Transcendence in the Poetry of Han-shan and Ryokan

Christopher Ryan Byrne

Library and Archives Canada

2005

128 páginas

4h 16m

ISBN-13: 9780494248553

The Zen (Ch'an) poets Han-shan (circa 6th to 9th C.) and Ryôkan (1758-1831) participate in literary activity, reclusion, and ordinary emotions in a manner that questions their typical image as models of transcendence. They participate in literary activity without attachment to either linguistic adequacy or a dualistic notion of "beyond words," and poetry serves as their mode of communication from reclusion. Reclusion is a context to realize the nature of the conventional world rather than a me ans of transcendence to an ultimate realm and is significant as a social and political act. Interpreted through the functional model of language, the poets' expressions of sorrow experienced in their reclusive lives embody the Zen ideal of selflessness. Ultimately, the poetry of both Han-shan and Ryôkan supports a non-transcendent, or trans-descendent, ideal consistent with the nondual logic of Zen Buddhism and contrary to scholarship that assumes a dualistic view of Zen enlightenment.