A Study Of Han Shan And His Poems

Han Shan, also known as Cold Mountain, was the famous poet of Tang Dynasty. He had lived in Cold Stone Mountain of Zhejiang Province for a long time when people started to call him "a poor crazy man". When he was alive, he often talked with his friends Feng-Kan and Shih-Teh in Kokuseiji, and left the world more than three hundred poems. These poems which interwove with the rich content of the Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism creatively and contained a large number of vernaculars had a certain influence on both China and foreign countries, and they could be regarded as the Chinese valuable literary property.The study on Han Shan and his poems is divided into three parts. The first is the research on Han Shan’s historical life and his legends, which mainly discusses the poet’s era, experiences, real image and the origin, evolution, significance of his legends. Han Shan, who lived in the Tang Dynasty, was a well educated, poor but optimistic hermit. He had a wealthy family at first, when he grew up, he participated in several official exams but all failed, and soon the Rebellion broke out, so he fled to Cold Stone Mountain and settled down to study Buddhism and Taoism. However, Han Shan’s fame owed more to his legendary image such as Manjushri and harmonious immortal. The two images originated from the preface of his poems and the Emperor Yong Zheng’s command. Now these legends have gradually integrated into the Chinese folk customs and classical literature, as well as promoted the development of Buddhist and Taoist culture.The research on poems is the second part. This part mainly discusses the ideological content and artistic features of these poems, such as the content of Buddhist theory, poet’s insights on life, different social phenomena and the artistic style of plain language, bright and clean poetic world and unique rhythm. When reading these poems, people can feel the special charm of Chinese classical poetry, Buddhist verses and southern folk songs.The last part is about the influence of Han Shan and his poems on both China and America, which is also the emphasis of this paper. On the point of literature, Han Shan’s poems were the favorite arts of most famous poets, who drew on the characteristics of Han Shan’s poems and created a new style of poetry. Besides, these poems were also the useful tools for the Vernacular Movement and have made outstanding contributions. What’s more, Han Shan’s legends have promoted the development of Chinese fiction, drama and Noriyuki literature as well. Thirty years later, Han Shan and his poems have become the spiritual leader of American "Beat Generation", successfully influenced the writing style of "Beat Poets" and the emotional orientation of "wandering literature". On the point of culture, Han Shan and his poems not only contributed to the development of Chinese Zen culture, local culture, folk customs and painting art, but also conduced to the evolution of American hippie culture, Zen boom, film and other folk arts, greatly enhanced the exchange and integration of Chinese and Western culture.