Nanwa: a Zen poem about water

Twenty poems in Wangchuan Collection present Wang Wei's ideal landscape world.

Nan 'an is a poem about water, a poem expressing feelings with water.

In the poem "It's hard to sail south alone, but it's hard to sail north alone", Wang Wei floats on the water in a boat, and has left the south, and the north is out of reach. At this time, the canoe has no shore to dock, and a simple sentence creates a vast realm of "no country to depend on". The water area is different from the land, and the only place where the poet lives is a boat under his feet, which reminds me of Su Shi's poem "A reed like a reed, boundless and at a loss" and "Flying with heaven and earth, a drop in the ocean". However, in Wang Wei's works, this kind of "living without a fixed place" brings not a sense of emptiness, but an infinite universe that can accommodate my interpretation everywhere.

Zen emphasizes that water flows freely and follows the shape of things. The Nanzong Zen initiated by Huineng, the sixth ancestor of Zen Buddhism, is even more directed at people's hearts, advocating that "no mind is the Sect, no body, no life is the foundation" [1]. In the Buddhist sutra of Great Nirvana, it is mentioned: "If the walker is the law of birth and death. For example, blisters rise quickly and come out quickly. Cycle is like a wheel. In the view of Zen and Buddhism, water is an eternal movement, and life in Buddhism is like a bubble in this eternal movement, and its ups and downs are more uncertain and transient. But in this poem, Wang Wei's life state has gone beyond the form of blisters. He didn't get into the water of the sport, but relied on a small boat. On the boat, Wang Wei has no such ambition: "One day I will ride the wind and waves, and set my cloudy sail straight and bridge the deep, deep sea". He doesn't care where it is or where it will go. Nan 'an and Bei 'an are like two shores of life and death, and the life in the middle is the water between Nan 'an and Bei 'an, which just moves with the water. I believe that life will have its proper state at any time-the state of taking a boat is also the state of Wang Wei's life.

One of the characteristics of water in Zen Buddhism is purity, which is often used to symbolize the purity of human nature. In the poem Nanwa, Wang Wei externalized this abstract and pure heart into water in a concrete form, which became the most important image of the poem.

Specifically, this water is a barrier between the secular world and Wang Wei's inner world. The land of "people" is where the secular human feelings and noise lie, but in the poem Nanwa, Wang Wei has become a secular bystander. He stood on the water and looked at other people in the water. The sense of distance and the interpersonal relationship of "strangers" make this kind of onlookers reduce the ups and downs of emotions. From an abstract point of view, this water is the embodiment of Wang Wei's attitude towards the world. At this time, Wang Wei no longer actively integrated into the worldly ups and downs, but adopted a wait-and-see attitude with a sense of distance. "Unfamiliar" is the state he wants to achieve on his own initiative.

Having said that, I have to mention that the interpersonal relationship of "strangers" is also a prominent feature of Wangchuan Collection. Jin Zhuling's nobody knows the firewood, Chai Lu's Empty Mountain seems like nobody, Zhu Liguan's Too Light for Nobody to Listen to, Wu Xinyi's Alone, and Nan 'an's and heaven remains our neighbourhood all reflect the poet Wang Wei's sense of distance from the world. The phrase "I'm afraid of monks from the mountains" in Gong Huaimo shows that Wang Wei intends to avoid contact with people, even if they are monks in the mountains. It can be seen that Wang Wei seems to deliberately reduce the existence of "I" and "others" in the secular definition, melt the real "I" into the infinite landscape, and reflect the nature of heaven and earth with a blind eye.

In the poem Nanwa, water is like a clue that runs through.

The poet floats on the water and looks at "others" through the water, so in this poem, water is undoubtedly a meaningful medium. Wang Wei stood on the free flowing water field, watching others from a distance. The spatial contrast between "individual" and "numerous" highlights the difference between Wang Wei and the world. The waters are vast, only Wang Wei is taken lightly, but the world is running around on the ground. Wang Wei neither praises nor belittles these two living conditions, just watching, just like a world where everything is a dog. Wang Wei is externalized in nature and internalized in the heart, thus approaching the Zen realm.

The movement in Nanwa is also noteworthy. In China Aesthetics, Li Zehou commented on the Zen in Wang Wei's poems: "Everything is dynamic, normal, realistic and natural, but the meaning it conveys is eternal quietness and ontological quietness ...". The movement of Nan 'an is reflected in the movement of water, boats and others, but it conveys a sense of tranquility to readers. This is because the author integrates himself into the eternal nature, subjectively does not want to confront the outside world and follows the laws of nature. Thinking of Huineng's "motionless, benevolent heart", all movements come from the heart, and thinking of "hidden in the world", watching the world without making noise, so all movements between heaven and earth come from the heart.

Water is the smartest thing in the world. If you stand still, it will become dull stagnant water. Wang Wei leans on the boat that moves with the water, but he has reached a state of meditation, which is the fusion of heart and nature. Although heaven and earth are circulating, I am also the cycle itself. Everything is like water, there is a place to go, and everything is normal.

Liu Yanfen. On the differences of time views among Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Zen from the perspective of water image [J]. Journal of Jinan University (Social Science Edition) .2013.23 No.5: 40.