Poetry Chaikhana Blog

Ivan M. Granger May 2nd, 2008

[162] This rare and heavenly creature
by Han-shan (Cold Mountain)

English version by Red Pine (Bill Porter)

This rare and heavenly creature
alone without peer
look and it’s not there
it comes and goes but not through doors
it fits inside a square-inch
it spreads in all directions
unless you acknowledge it
you’ll meet but never know

— from The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, Translated by Red Pine

/ Photo by Prince Roy /

I really like this verse by the great Taoist/Buddhist poet and prankster Han Shan. It is almost a riddle, a challenge to figure out what this “rare and heavenly creature” is. But the only way to solve the riddle is not through the thought process, but through the awakening process…

It is “alone without peer.” It is One, whole, complete, and solitary without any “other.”

“Look and it’s not there.” The normal act of looking requires an observer to be separate from the observed. Looking in that sense requires duality, fragmentation, and separation. In that separation, the One is lost and this “it” is lost.

“It fits inside a square-inch / it spreads in all directions.” This is an acknowledgment of the holistic nature of this deep reality. It is found in the heart, in every creature, every cell, every atom — in the tiniest of containers. Yet this “it” is everywhere, and it is not a different “it” anywhere else. It is both specific and, at the same time, all inclusive.

“Unless you acknowledge it / you’ll meet but never know.” This is my favorite line. When the awareness truly opens to this eternal reality, it is profoundly… familiar! There is the shocking realization that you have always known it and felt it. The quest isn’t to find or “meet” this “heavenly creature,” it is to finally recognize or “acknowledge” it — already present.

Han-shan (Cold Mountain) China (730? - 850?) Timeline Buddhist : Zen / Chan Taoist

Both Toaists and Zen Buddhists claim Han-shan as theirs. The poetry of Han-shan shows a familiarity with both traditions, though he seems to have enjoyed poking fun at Taoists and Buddhists alike.

An early biography places the dates of his life in the seventh century, but Red Pine (Bill Porter, the translator of The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain) points out arguments that seem to suggest dates in the late eighth century.

It is difficult to speak of Han-shan’s life with historical certainty since so much folk legend has also grown up around him. Autobiographical hints appear in several of his poems and there are a few historical references to him, as well as his two companions, Feng-kan (Big Stick) and Shih-te (Pickup).

As a young man, Han-shan was apparently a part of the privileged civil servant class, but he left his family and wealth at about age thirty to take up the life of a hermit poet, settling in a remote cave beneath a rocky overhang. It was from this natural retreat that Han-shan took his name, which means Cold Mountain or Cold Cliff. (Han-shan is known in Japan as “Kanzan.”)

Han-shan is said to have been handicapped, having difficulty walking. He describes himself in one poem wearing heavy wooden clogs, which are thought to have helped him to walk.

About a day’s journey away was the Kuoching Temple at Mount Tientai. It was there that he befriended Feng-kan (Big Stick) and Shih-te (Pickup). Many stories are told of the antics of these three, poking fun at the self-importance of many of the monks, while they themselves, in their foolishness, enacted the true Dharma or Way.

Traditionally, Han-shan is said to have lived to be 120 years old and, in fact, in one of his poems he states that he is over 100 years old, so this may be true.

In the legendary stories surrounding Han-shan, he does not die; he disappears. A high official is said to have discovered that Han-shan, contrary to the crazy image he cultivated, was actually a great spiritual being. The official sent several people to Han-shan’s isolated retreat to bring him back but, on seeing their approach, Han-shan wedged himself into a crack within the cliff wall, crying out “Thieves!” Then the crack closed around him. The fissure of that crack is still said to be visible.

After Han-shan’s disappearance, the poems he had inscribed on local stones and trees were gathered together, along with the poems of Shih-te and Feng-kan, and soon began to circulate.

Han-shan was popularized in the West by the Beats. Gary Snyder did an early translation of Han-shan’s poetry and Jack Kerouac dedicated The Dharma Bums to Han-shan.

More poetry by Han-shan (Cold Mountain)

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