26

Chia Tao (779–843) was born near Beijing and became a Buddhist monk in his youth. He later changed his mind and decided to return to lay life so that he could devote himself to poetry. He spent all but his final years in Ch’ang-an living in impoverished, if refined, circumstances among those who shared his love. The mountain he visits here is in the Chungnan Range south of Ch’ang-an, where tens of thousands of recluses have lived over the past three millennia. It is still customary for eminent monks and nuns to be accompanied by a young attendant, even when they retire—as many still do—to the cloud-shrouded slopes that rise beyond China’s cities and towns. Such recluses collected herbs not only for their own use in elixirs and medicinal decoctions but also to exchange for necessities such as salt and cooking oil, lamp oil, flour (in North China) or rice (in South China), and the occasional new blanket or robe.

Looking for a Recluse without Success

CHIA TAO

Below the pines I ask the boy

he says his master has gone to find herbs

he’s somewhere on this mountain

but the clouds are too thick to know where