Classic Poem

The Five Holy Mountains are great works raised by spirits,
The four rivers have vast and surging floods
I went there to seek of myself a true wisdom,
In its silence I guarded there the heights of tranquil love.
If I do not feel happy out of my seclusion,
It is because I have found a constant pleasure there.
Those who seek heaven will live for ever,
From my cave I look on those who have left the world of men
There is pure jade at the foot of the crags,
A sound as of metal as the stream washes the nearby banks.
I went gathering flowers and was hidden in deep mist,
I shook my coarse clothes and brushed them free of dust.
What I have done has been like the measuring worm when it draws itself up,
The Tao stretches like a leaping dragon.
On this peak is no successor to Shan Bao,
It is not my lot to know the truth revealed on Shouyang.
With a long whistle I go back to my wooded peak,
In that solitary place I shall devote myself to my potter's wheel.