Chinese Poem: "Seeking the Hermit in Vain" 尋隱者不遇 Tang Dynasty Poet Jia Dao | Learn Chinese Now

Traditional: 松下問童子，言師採藥去。只在此山中，雲深不知處。
Simplified: 松下问童子，言师采药去。只在此山中，云深不知处。
sōng xià wèn tóng zǐ ， yán shī cǎi yào qù 。zhǐ zài cǐ shān zhōng ， yún shēn bù zhī chù 。

Seeking the Hermit in Vain
Under a pine tree, I asked a young student, who said that his master went off to gather medicinal herbs.
“It’s just that on this mountain,” he said, “that the clouds are so deep that I don’t know his whereabouts.”

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We’ve got another great Tang Dynasty poem for you today. You know, the great thing about these poems is that they pack so much meaning into so few words. This next poem is about a trip to the mountains to find a spiritual master. It’s called “Seeking a Hermit in Vain,” and it’s written by Jia Dao 賈島 Jiǎ Dǎo, a monk in the middle of the Tang Dynasty.

So I’ll read the poem first, and then we’ll break it down.

So let’s start with the title.

尋隱者不遇
xún yǐn zhě bù yù

So 尋 xǔn means to search for, and 隱者 yǐn zhe means hermit, so together they mean “search for a hermit.” But after that, we have 不bù, which means no or not (modified to bú because of the fourth tone character that follows it), and 遇 yù, which means encounter. So there is an action, searching for the hermit, and a result, not encountering the hermit. To put this into the English context, we would say “Seeking a Hermit in Vain.”

Now onto line one:

松下問童子
sōng xià wèn tóng zǐ
松 sōng means pine tree, and 下 xià means below. In Chinese, we put direction modifiers after the original word, so in this case, these two characters put together would mean “below the pine tree.” 問 wèn means to ask, and 童子 tóng zǐ is a youth who is studying from someone. So together, they mean “I asked something a young student.”

You may say, well, where is the “I”? In Chinese, especially ancient or poetic Chinese, pronouns, especially I, are often omitted, and understood in the context of the text. “Something” is also added from the English, as our language usually requires a result to that verb, but in the minimalistic ancient Chinese, that’s not required. In fact, in ancient texts they didn’t even have punctuation! Everything is understood from context.

So anyway, that whole phrase together says, “Under a pine tree, I asked something to a young student.” He’s actually asking the student the whereabouts of his master, which we’ll understand from the next phrase.

言師採藥去
yán shī cǎi yào qù

言 yán is an ancient way of saying “to say,” 師 shī means spiritual master, so together they mean “he said his master.” Again, the “he” is contextual. 採 cǎi means to gather, 藥 yào means medicinal herbs, and 去 qù means to go, which means “he went to gather medicinal herbs.” In Chinese, sometimes (but not always) you put the “go” after the other verb, although in this case, this was done for more poetic reasons, as 去 qù rhymes with 遇 yù.

So in full, this sentence means “He said that his master went off to gather medicinal herbs.”

Alright, now onto the second line:

只在此山中，
zhǐ zài cǐ shān zhōng

只 zhǐ in this context means “it’s just that”. 在 zài means at, 此 cǐ is an ancient word for “this”, 山 shān means mountain, and 中 zhōng is a location word that usually means “amidst” but with it referring to a mountain, I would put the two words together as “on the mountain.”

So let me analyze this further. First 在 zài is more of a grammatical word that you use before a location in regular Chinese. It wasn't used when the poet wrote “below the pine tree” but it is used here, and I think it’s used to emphasize this particular location, “on this mountain.” So the phrase in full means “It’s just that on this mountain.”

雲深不知處。
yún shēn bù zhī chù

雲 yún means clouds 深 shēn means deep, so together they mean “the clouds are deep.” 不 bù means no but in this case negates the next verb 知 zhī means to know 處 chù means whereabouts, so these three characters together means “you don’t know your whereabouts.”

So this phrase all together means “the clouds are so deep that you don’t know your whereabouts.” But since this is the student talking about his teacher, it should probably be “the clouds are so deep that I don’t know his whereabouts.” Again, context is everything when all of the pronouns are omitted.

These poems are like Chinese paintings, where all details are omitted save the barest essentials, allowing a few words to carry great depth of meaning. We have a mission, a dialogue, and scenery, all in 25 characters! The rest is up to your imagination.


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