professor
Department of Chinese
National Kaohsiung Normal University

In almost every poem by Yu Hsi we encounter a traveler, a passer-by or a character of a wanderer the author uses to preach Buddhism. The symbolic meaning conveyed in such an arrangement is that of “drifting” and “search”; and the goal is to find liberation/Nirvana for all living beings. The emotions accompanying the storyline include both perplexity and endless worries and uncertainty of the human life. Thus the poet also creates numerous dream worlds and “dreams within dreams” alluding to the contradictions of men; at the same time, he advises us earnestly and kindly that only the “return to homeland” and through the realization that repentance is salvation can we attain liberation… Poetry thus becomes the Buddhist doctrine/Buddha Dharma.

(‘Life of the Scrolls and the Material Existence – on the salvation spirit of the Long Scroll Poetry Collections by Yu Hsi’)