Welcome to the seventh lesson of this series of guide on traditional Chinese Poetry. Today, we are going to study the poem “Seeking a Hermit Without Success” written by 贾岛 Jia Dao (799-843 CE) of the Tang Dynasty.

• Text and Background

松下问童子，sōng xià wèn tóng zǐ ，

言师采药去。yán shī cǎi yào qù 。

只在此山中，zhǐ zài cǐ shān zhōng ，

云深不知处。yún shēn bù zhī chù 。

Meaning for each character

[pine tree] under ask (child)

say teacher gather herb go

just stay this mountain in

cloud deep not know place

[] indicates a Chinese character translated into two or more words in English

() indicates two or more Chinese characters forming a single phrase, and therefore translated together

Here’s a translation by Xu Yuanchong:

I ask your lad beneath a pine.

“My master has gone for herbs fine.

He stays deep in the mountain proud,

I know not where, veiled by the cloud.”

The author of this poem, Jia Dao, was kind of a recluse himself. He used to be a monk, before his talents in poetry drew attention from Han Yu, a literary giant and renowned politician.  After meeting Han, Jia Dao decided to quit his previous life devoted to Buddhism meditations and instead seek fame and influence in politics. However, this change in directions did not prove to be fruitful, and Jia remained a petty official all his life. It is because of this unfortunate turn of events that we often see in his poems depictions of his sorrows, lamentations and other negative emotions.

• Senses and Imagery

Title – 寻隐者不遇 Seeking a Hermit Without Success

The title of this poem deserves special mentioning because it provides us with some important information not present in the main body of the poem. We learn of the motive of the poet, who is seeking a hermit in the mountains. Moreover, we also learn about the result of this trip, which ended in failure.

Seeking out a recluse for advice in life or just a friendly conversation is a frequent subject in Chinese poems. Ever since Confucius heaped praise on the princes-turned-hermits Bo Yi and Shu Qi, people in China have always viewed those residing in remote mountains and eating grassroots instead of meat with awe and respects. That is especially true during the Tang Dynasty, when the economy is blooming, cultures flourishing and every learned person eager to get a chance at proving themselves in the emperor’s court. Under such social and political context, it is no wonder people felt perplexed when they know of any hermits and thus an urge to seek them out.

Lines 1&2 – 松下问童子 sōng xià wèn tóng zǐ

言师采药去 yán shī cǎi yào qù

Here we get an exposition of our poet’s situation. He and a child are having a conversation under a pine tree, presumably with him asking the child what the hermit is doing. Notice how the line omits the subject, “I”, asking the question. In most Chinese poems, in which the word limit forces the poets to write in brief and concise sentences, subjects are often dropped, leaving the readers to infer the identity of the individuals discussed in the poems on their own. This rhetorical device is carried on to the next line, in which the subject, this time “the child”, is also omitted.

In the second line, the child answers by saying that the hermit is out picking herbs in the mountains. Apart from revealing what the hermit is doing right now, it also tells us about the relationship between the child and the hermit. It turns out this young boy or girl is a student of the hermit. This tiny detail speaks a lot about the character of the absent recluse. A man cannot be a teacher without some degrees of knowledge, and, as told in the next few words of the line, the hermit of the poem seems to specialise in the field of herbalism. Maybe he doubles as a medic for the nearby village, while the child works as an apprentice and helps him brew potions.

Lines 3&4 – 只在此山中 zhǐ zài cǐ shān zhōng

云深不知处 yún shēn bù zhī chù

These two lines are also presumably spoken by the young apprentice answering to questions posed by the poet. Once again, omissions are at the core of the poem. It is implied that the poet asked two further questions before line 3 and 4 respectively. He may have first asked “where has he gone to gather the herbs”, to which the apprentice replied, “in the mountain range”. The poet then asks not without hope, “where exactly in the mountain”, but only gets a cloudy answer from the apprentice, who is also unsure about the whereabouts of the hermit.

The poem then comes to its end, somewhat abruptly. Nothing is resolved, the poet did not get to meet this hermit he sought, and we do not learn why he seeks this person or what he did afterwards. Everything seems to hang in mid-air, with no clear resolutions or happy endings.

However, perhaps this sense of loss or uncertainty is what the poet really wishes to convey with his poem, that life may not have easy answers to our problems. From the overall flow of the poem, we, together with the poet, experience a roller-coaster ride of emotions, from the anticipation when he first met the hermit’s apprentice in Line 1, through some disappointment knowing he cannot meet him immediately in Line 2, to a renewed hope of finding him in the mountain ranges in Line 3, until the last line in which the poet learns his chances of finding the hermit is slim, to say the least. It is just like how fate and destiny sometimes play on us, giving us a mix of hope and disappointment, aspirations and despairs, fortunes and misfortunes. All in all, it is just the kind of poem a person like Jia Dao, who is forever unsure about his life as a whole, would have written.

• Language Tips

Traditional Chinese Version

松下問童子，sōng xià wèn tóng zǐ ，

言師采藥去。yán shī cǎi yào qù 。

只在此山中，zhǐ zài cǐ shān zhōng ，

雲深不知處。yún shēn bù zhī chù 。

Two images in this poem hold some interesting connotations and may have been intended by the poet as sidenotes for the depiction of the absent hermit.

The first one comes from the character of 松sōng (pine tree). In Chinese culture, pine trees are revered for their evergreen qualities, which allow them to stand firm and strong when most other trees wither and die during winter. The image of pine trees, together with two other plants that thrive in the face of snow, 竹zhú (bamboo) and 梅méi (plum blossoms), is often employed in praising the stoic and honourable qualities of hermits and other individuals.

Another character, 云yún (cloud), can also be viewed as a reference to the hermit. Clouds are often related to concepts of freedom and leisure, which befits the characteristics of a hermit’s life perfectly. A recluse among the mountain ranges is just like the clouds that surround them, leading a life without political restrictions or social obligations.

In general, these two environmental depictions may have been hinting at the qualities possessed by the hermit, or more precisely, the qualities that the poet think the hermit holds and represents.