Huang Ting-Jian, a Chinese poet of NamSong Dynasty, wrote many well-known poems that can be explained in terms of Buddhist ideas, especially Zen buddhism. Biographical facts show the background of his literary trend. He was born in the buddhist family whose relationship with Buddhist monks was deeply rooted and his home town Xiusui also had lots of temples. As a boy, he loved to learn and practice Zen ideas with the help of his uncle who was a guardian. As he grew up, he made friends with the old priests who were talented in literary writing. A great number of Huang Ting-Jian's poems deal with Zen ideas, temples, Buddhist Statues and moral tales of Buddhism. His lifetime relationship with Zen Buddhism made his poems have originality and his Buddhist-colored poems enabled him to be one of the representative poets of the period. This paper discusses Huang Ting-Jian's Zen poems in four categories according to the subj ects. In doing so, this paper shows how deeply Zen ideas are reflected in Huang Ting-Jian's poems and, at the same time, what are the originality and significance of his Zen poems in the history of Chinese poetry.
