Han Shan
Han Shan (Cold Mountain)
In 1954, in a scene he described
in his book, "The Dharma Bums,"
Jack Kerouac visited the Berkley
shack of his new friend and
Ur-Dharma Bum, Gary Snyder
and found him translating the poems
of an obscure Chinese poet named
Han Shan, or Cold Mountain.
Snyder told Kerouac about this "Chinese scholar who got sick of the big city and the world and took
off to hide in the mountains", writing poems on rocks and bamboo and the sides of cliffs. Kerouac
became so enthralled with Cold mountain that he dedicated “The Dharma Bums” to him when it was
published in 1958. Read just a few of the 300 poems found written down on the bamboo and rocks and
boulders of the mountain where he made his home, and it is not difficult to see how Cold Mountain
would appeal to these two bhiku wanderers. Scenes abound of frustrations with the modern world,
loneliness, leaving the manic world behind for mountaintop solitudes; wind blowing through pine trees;
clouds touching mountain and tree tops; clear running streams flowing into jade colored lakes.
Biographical details of Cold Mountain are few and far between. Any details about his life must be
gathered from his poems and the few mythic stories surrounding his existence. Chinese scholar and
Cold Mountain translator Red Pine estimates Cold Mountain lived from 730-850 during the Tang
Dynasty. He was born into some level of privilege and may have been a gentleman farmer and some sort
of minor official in the grand bureaucracy of imperial China. At some point he was married. Eventually
he became disaffected with society and left the world at 30 to make his home in the T’ien-T’ai
Mountains at a place called Cold Cliff. He may or may not have become a monk. His physical
appearance in drawings make him look like a template for the Zen lunatic or hobo-saint: wild hair, birch
bark hat, patched robe, big wooden clogs, gnarled staff and an unconventional manner interpreted by
others as craziness.
In 1954, in a scene he described
in his book, "The Dharma Bums,"
Jack Kerouac visited the Berkley
shack of his new friend and
Ur-Dharma Bum, Gary Snyder
and found him translating the poems
of an obscure Chinese poet named
Han Shan, or Cold Mountain.
Snyder told Kerouac about this "Chinese scholar who got sick of the big city and the world and took
off to hide in the mountains", writing poems on rocks and bamboo and the sides of cliffs. Kerouac
became so enthralled with Cold mountain that he dedicated “The Dharma Bums” to him when it was
published in 1958. Read just a few of the 300 poems found written down on the bamboo and rocks and
boulders of the mountain where he made his home, and it is not difficult to see how Cold Mountain
would appeal to these two bhiku wanderers. Scenes abound of frustrations with the modern world,
loneliness, leaving the manic world behind for mountaintop solitudes; wind blowing through pine trees;
clouds touching mountain and tree tops; clear running streams flowing into jade colored lakes.
Biographical details of Cold Mountain are few and far between. Any details about his life must be
gathered from his poems and the few mythic stories surrounding his existence. Chinese scholar and
Cold Mountain translator Red Pine estimates Cold Mountain lived from 730-850 during the Tang
Dynasty. He was born into some level of privilege and may have been a gentleman farmer and some sort
of minor official in the grand bureaucracy of imperial China. At some point he was married. Eventually
he became disaffected with society and left the world at 30 to make his home in the T’ien-T’ai
Mountains at a place called Cold Cliff. He may or may not have become a monk. His physical
appearance in drawings make him look like a template for the Zen lunatic or hobo-saint: wild hair, birch
bark hat, patched robe, big wooden clogs, gnarled staff and an unconventional manner interpreted by
others as craziness.
Cold
Mountain
Mountain
Cold
Mountain Trevor A. Washko PO Box 9474 Aspen, CO 81612 970-920-2653 coldmountaincraft@yahoo.com
Craft
| Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 ~ Cold Mountain Craft |
| People ask the way to Cold Mountain Cold Mountain? There's no road that goes through. Even in summer the ice doesn't melt; though the sun comes out, the fog is still blinding. ~ Han Shan |
| If you're looking for a place to rest, Cold Mountain is good for a long stay. The breeze blowing through the dark pines sounds better the closer you come. ~ Han Shan |
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