Famous poems are those expressing anti-Buddhist sentiment

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Tang Literature and Art
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Big Buddha Caves, 116 caves, 1500 statues The
largest Seated Buddha, 20 meters, AD 628,
Bingxian, Shanxi
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Portion of the Thousand-buddha Shrine, Gaozongs
reign
Standing Guanyin, 17.5 meters, Taizongs reign
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Tang Poetry (II)

• Han Yu (768-824)
• Bai Juyi (Po Chu-I, 772-846)
• Han-shan (8th centry)
• Liu Zongyuan (Liu Tsung-yuan, 773-819)
• Li He (Li Ho, 791-817)
• Jia Dao (Chia Tao,779-843)
• Du Mu (Tu Mu, 803-853)
• Li Shangyin (Li Shang-yin, 813?-858)

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Han Yu (768-824)

• A Jinshi degree holder best known as a leader of
  the ancient style prose (guwen ku-wen) movement
• Poems stress the freedom of form, expression, and
  subject matter often use archaic and
  philosophical language
• Famous poems are those expressing anti-Buddhist
  sentiment
• The Girl of Mt. Hua, Written on My Way into
  Exile.

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Han Yus Memorial on the Bone of the Buddha

• Buddhism is merely one of the religions of the
  barbarians. It entered the Central Kingdom
  beginning in the Eastern Han, but it never
  existed in high antiquity. Now, the Buddha was
  originally a barbarian man. He did not comprehend
  the language of the Central Kingdom, and his
  clothes were of a different cut. His mouth did
  not speak the model words of the former kings.

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• If he were still alive today and, having been
  commanded by the state, came to an audience in
  the capital, Your majesty would tolerate and
  receive him. However, it would be limited to a
  single meeting at the Xuanzheng Palace, one feast
  appropriate for a guest, and one suit of clothing
  as gift. He would then be sent to the border
  under guard so as not to allow him to delude the
  masses.

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• Now without reason Your Majesty has caused this
  loathsome thing to be brought in and would
  personally go to view it. No exorcists have been
  sent ahead, no peach wands employed. The host of
  officials have not spoken out against this wrong,
  and the censors have failed to note its
  impropriety. Your servant is deeply shamed and
  begs that this bone be given to the proper
  authorities to be cast into fire and water, that
  this evil may be rooted out, the world freed from
  its error, and later generations spared this
  delusion

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• Should the Buddha indeed have supernatural power
  to send down curses and calamities, may they fall
  only upon the person of your servant, who calls
  upon high Heaven to witness that he does not
  regret his words. With all gratitude and
  sincerity your servant presents this memorial for
  consideration, being filled with respect and awe.

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Buddhas finger bone relic, unearthed 1987,
Famen Temple, Shanxi
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Written on My Way into Exile (to show my
grandnephew) by Han Yu, trans. Burton
Watson Once document at dawn, submitted to the
nine-tiered palace By evening, banished to
Chaozhou eight thousand li away. For the sake of
our holy ruler I longed to drive away the
evil What thought for this old body, for the few
years remaining? Clouds blanket the Qin
Rangewhich way is home? Snow blocks the Lan
Passmy horse will not go on. You must have some
purpose, coming so far with me Be kind and
gather up my bones from the shores of the fetid
river.  
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Bai Juyi (772-846)

• A jinshi degree holder at times held high office
  in Changan and Loyang a devout Buddhist
• Most prolific Tang poet excelled in the long
  narrative New Yuefu (Yueh-fu) Style
• Song of Everlasting Regret
• Song of the Lute
• Poems characterized by simplicity and facileness
  in diction, popular with even old country folks
  and women

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Idle Droning (by Bai Juyi)

• Since earnestly studying the Buddhist doctrine of
  emptiness
• Ive learned to still all the common states of
  mind
• Only the devil of poetry I have yet to conquer
• Let me come on a bit of scenery and I start my
  idle droning

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Song of Everlasting Regret??? cháng hèn ge

• Chinas Emperor, craving beauty that might shake
  an empire,
• Was on the throne, for many years, searching,
  never finding,
• Till a little child of the Yang clan, hardly even
  grown,
• But with graces granted by heaven and not to be
  concealed
• At last one day was chosen for the imperial
  household.
• If she but turned her head and smiled, she cast a
  hundred spells,
• And the powder and paint of the Six Palaces faded
  into nothing.

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• (life in the palace)
• On cool spring day, she bathed in the Flower-pure
  Pool,
• Her soft creamy skin laved by the smooth, warm
  waters.
• When helped up by her waiting maids, so languid
  and delicate was she
• That was the time she first gained the emperors
  favor.
• Her cloudy tresses, her flowery face, her gold
  headdress quivering with every step
• The spring nights spent warmly inside the
  hibiscus curtain.
• Spring nights were too short she did not arise
  until the sun was high.
• Henceforth, the Emperor held no more his morning
  court

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• (death at the Ma-wei slop)
• Her hair ornaments were scattered on the
  groundno one picked them up
• Kingfisher, golden sparrows, and hair clasps of
  jade.
• The Emperor, powerless to save her, covered his
  face
• The looked back to where the blending tears and
  blood flowed.
• Yellow dust dispersed widely and the wind blew
  cold and bleak,
• Where the cloud-capped path spiraled to the
  Dagger-Tower.
• Only a few passersby wended their way beneath Mt.
  Omei
• The pennons and flags lost their gleam and the
  sun grew faint.

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• The hibiscus by the Pool of Primeval Fluid, the
  willows by the Hall of Never-ending Night
• The hibiscus was like her face and the willows
  her brows.
• In such presence how could he refrain from tears?
• .
• Having risen from her sleep, with her cloudy
  coiffure half slanted
• And her flowery headdress disarranged, she came
• Down the hall.
• Her fairy sleeves, wafted by the wind, fluttered
  gracefully,
• As if she was dancing the Rainbow Skirt and
  Feather Jacket.
• Her jade face was sad and cold, her tears were
  falling fast,
• She looked like a sprig of pear blossom, hearing
  the spring raindrops

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• (Daoist magician searched for her spirit)
• our soul belong together, she said, like this
  gold and this shell
• Somewhere, sometime, on earth or in heaven, we
  shall surely meet.
• And she sent him, by his messenger, a sentence
  reminding him
• Of vows which had been known only to their two
  hearts
• On the seventh day of the Seventh-month, in the
  Palace of Long Life,
• We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight
  world
• That we wished to fly in heaven, two birds with
  the wings of one,
• And to grow together on the earth, two branches
  of one tree.
• Heaven and Earth, long lasting as they are, shall
  someday fall,
• But this great sorrow will endure, forever
  without end.

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Emperor Xuangzong
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Hanshan (Cold Mountain)

• One of eccentric Scholar-Monks in Tang times
• Not a major poet in Tang China, but became
  favorite figure in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist
  art
• Popular during the 60s in the US after Zen/Chan
  Buddhism was introduced to American intellectuals
• Poems convey the idea that the very experiences
  of daily life are what make enlightenment
  attainable

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Untitled, 6 (by Hanshan)

• I think of all the places Ive been,
• Chasing from one famous spot to another.
• Delighting in mountains, I scaled the mile-high
  peaks
• Loving the water, I sailed a thousand rivers.
• I held farewell parties with my friends in Lute
  Valley,
• Brought my zither and played on Parrot Shoals
• Who would guess Id end up under a pine tree,
• Clasping my knees in the whispering cold?

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Untitled, 2 by Hanshan

• In the house east of here lives an old woman.
• Three or four years ago, she got rich.
• In the old days she was poorer than I
• Now she laughs at me for not having a penny.
• She laughs at me for being poor now
• I laugh at her for having been poor before
• We laugh as though wed never stop
• She from the east and I from the west!

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Liu Zongyuan (Liu Tsung-yuan, 773-819)

• A jinshi degree holder also a master of the
  Ancient Style Prose
• Poems characterized by his sensitiveness to the
  tranquility of nature
• Better known as a prose writer and an active
  patron of Buddhism
• Most famous piece
• River Snow

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River Snow by Liu Zongyuan

• From a thousand hills,
• bird flights have vanished
• On ten thousand paths,
• human traces wiped out
• Lone boat, an old man
• in straw cape and hat,
• Finishing alone in the
• cold river snow.

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Jia Dao (Chia Tao, 779-843)

• A Buddhist monk in his early age gave up
  monkhood to make several attempts at the civil
  service examinations but failed them all became
  a member of Han Yus circle
• Continued to live a life of constant frustration
  and misfortune
• Most poems written in response to Buddhist monks
  and Taoist priests
• Most famous piece
• Looking for a Recluse
• Most discussed line The birds nest in the
  lake-side tree/A monk knock on a moon-lit door

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Looking for a Recluse by Jia Dao

• Under the pines I questioned the boy.
• My masters off gathering herbs.
• All I know is hes here on the mountain
• Amidst deep clouds not to be found.

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Du Mu (Tu Mu, 803-853)

• A jinshi degree holder
• Most admired as a master of the New Style
  quatrain
• Poems demonstrate his acutely sensual delight in
  wine, women, spring landscapes, and brilliant
  colors of birds and flowers full of joys than
  regrets
• Most famous piece
• Sent in Parting

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Sent in Parting by Du Mu

• Great love may seem like none at all
• Wine before us, we only know that smiles wont
  come
• The tallow candle has a heartit grieves at
  parting
• In our place drips tears until the break of day

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Li Shangyin (Li Shang-yin, 813-858)

• A jinshi degree holder
• Poems best known for their ability to express
  clandestine love and effectively explore various
  facets of complex emotion and love
• Lust, hope, joy, frustration, jealousy,
  tenderness, and despair
• Poems embody passion, commitment, and conflict
• Most famous pieces are those without title
• Untitled (7-ch. regulated verse)

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Untitled by Li Shangyin

• Last nights planets and stars, last nights
  wind,
• By the painted towers west side, east of Cassia
  Hall---
• For us no nearness of phoenixes winging side by
  side,
• Yet our hearts became as one, like the rhinos
  one-thread horn
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Poetry of Complaint

• Poetry written by men in distress, in prison, in
  disgrace, and in exile
• Li Bai
• Distant Separation an allegorical ballad
  lamenting the devolution of authority to men of
  no qualification
• Du Fu
• Autumn Day in Kui Prefecture
• Han Yu
• Written on My Way into Exile
• Liu Zongyuan
• Poems from Dimwits Stream