孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
题林校书花严寺书窗
Inscribed with Ommissioner Lin by a library window in Flower Garland Temple
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隐咏不夸俗 问禅徒净居 翻将白云字 寄向青莲书 |
Unseen chanters praising the uncommon. Questioning, meditating, pure house of disciples. Overturning desires with pure high words. Turning towards the Pure Lotus sutra. |
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拟古投松坐 就明开纸疏 昭昭南山景 独与心相如 |
Imitating the ancients in sitting meditation. Pursuing enlightenment in unfamiliar texts. In the bright Nanshan landscape, Solitary with all hearts as one. |
-- 孟郊
废话
The Flower Garland (华严) sect of Buddhism began in China on the cusp of the Sui and Tang dynasties. With the Tang, Daoism became the dominant "religion" and the leading Tian Tai (天台) school of Buddhism fell out of favor. This made space for the Flower Garland sect to rise, partly due to interests in its basis of yogacara at court and then by the favor of an empress. South Mountain(s) (nan2shan1 南山) is too common in place names for me to locate a 华严 temple on a 南山.
Two further remarks. First, it has been a long time since we have seen a Daoist influence in Meng Jiao's poems. So we can take him at his much earlier word that he really did embrace Buddhism. Many Tang poets let Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism enter their poetry as it reflects society's and their own ambivalence towards embracing one above the others. Meng Jiao seems firmly Buddhist. Second, the poet appears absent in this poem. At best he is ambiguously there in "solitary (独)." But the easiest interpretation of the final line is that each monk is solitary with hearts as one. You kind of have to make the effort yourself to drag the poet back in. So ... I take back my conclusion that getting the poet our of the poem was not part of Meng Jiao's agenda and put that back under "Undetermined."