The Zen (Ch'an) poets Han-shan (circa 6th-9 thC.) and Ryokan (1758-1831) participate in literary activity, reclusion, and ordinary emotions in a manner that questions their typical image as models of transcendence. They participate in literary activity without attachment to either linguistic adequacy or a dualistic notion of "beyond words," and poetry serves as their mode of communication from reclusion. Reclusion is a context to realize the nature of the conventional world rather than a means of transcendence to an ultimate realm and is significant as a social and political act. Interpreted through the functional model of language, the poets' expressions of sorrow experienced in their reclusive lives embody the Zen ideal of selflessness. Ultimately, the poetry of both Hanshan and Ryokan supports a non-transcendent, or trans-descendent, ideal consistent with the nondual logic of Zen Buddhism and contrary to scholarship that assumes a dualistic view of Zen enlightenment.
