Liu Zongyuan is not only an outstanding essayist, but also a very accomplished poet. Wei Qingzhi said: "You don't have to write many poems in life, as long as you spread it far away." If the willow is thick, how many poems can you write? Eternal life is indelible. Liu Kezhuang also said: "Like a thick poem by Liuzi, it is enough to have one or two poems." It can be seen that his poems have a great attraction to later generations and a long vitality. On the one hand, the reason for the formation of the characteristics of Liu Zongyuan's poetry is related to the author's talent and experience, and at the same time, we cannot help but see that the influence of Buddhism, which was widely spread in those years, on his poetry creation is also an important factor.

Liu Zongyuan was a good Buddha in his life, he once said: "I have been a good Buddha since I was a child, and I have been seeking his way for 30 years." ”

The past 30 years can be roughly divided into three stages: blindness in childhood, the fashion of the association during the political period, and the consciousness after the demotion of officials.

During the period of Chang'an's Yingju and political affairs, he had made friends with Wen Chang and other monks who had entered and exited the officialdom and literary circles, and admired the relationship between Xie Anshi, Wang Xizhi, Xi Chiaoya, Xie Lingyun, Bao Zhao and others since the Jin and Song dynasties and the monks Zhi Daolin, Shi Dao'an, Huiyuan, and Huixiu, and strongly praised the life of Confucianism and Buddhism who "served the teachings of the saints and respected the things of the Futu" with his contemporaries. It's just that at this time, he was politically smooth sailing, busy with realizing his political ambitions, and did not take the text as his intention, so his works were few, and his Buddhist thoughts were not obvious. After being demoted to Yongzhou, he went from being an important minister to a distant wilderness, and the huge contrast in social status and the extreme pain in his heart forced him to seek sustenance or even liberation in Buddhism. When he first arrived in Yongzhou, he had no fixed place to live, so he had to live in Longxing Temple in Chongxun, so that he came into contact with the scripture meditation hall every day, prompting him to further study Buddhist teachings, so that he had a deep understanding of Buddhism.

After he changed to Liuzhou, he came to the nest of Nanzong Zen, which advocated "epiphany", and was further impregnated by Zen Buddhism. Buddhism's method of birth has influenced his life and aesthetic tastes, and has permeated his poetry.

Liu Zongyuan believes that "the way of the Buddha is large and tolerant, and those who are interested in the outside of things and are ashamed of the world will think about it." It is the real psychological state of his demotion to Yongzhou after the failure of reform. Influenced by Buddhism and Zen, he traveled in the mountains and forests, and experienced the Zen of "being in harmony with all things" in the natural landscape.

He has long had a good habit of leisurely traveling in the mountains and forests, "dreaming of hugging the hills and ravines, and wandering freely." After the depreciation of Yongzhou, with the deepening of the understanding of Buddhist teachings, and the belief that he "has been committed to the world, he has to be in the company of mountains and rivers", so he "wantonly among the mountains and rivers" more consciously searched for curiosities and shows in this sparsely populated remote place, traveled to the hills, ravines and springs in order to seek inner peace and spiritual pleasure, and sought solace from the natural mountains and rivers to relieve the depression in his heart. He wrote in "Twenty Rhymes of Traveling to Chaoyang Rock and Dengxi Pavilion": "Abandoning the seclusion, Dengzhi is not far from the suburbs. Slow Yiyu, want to shoulder the nest? It can be seen that the purpose of his visit is to relieve the depression in his chest. He made no secret of the fact that he had come to visit the Ascending with a whining heart. Many of his landscape poems often begin like this:

"Hidden sorrow and tiredness in the eternal night, Ling Wu is in Jiangjin." ("Dengpuzhou Shiji Wanghengjiangkoutan Island Deep Reverse Slope to Xiangling Mountain")

"Depression and depression, high ambition." ("Thirty Rhymes of the Stone Gate Essence Room of Fahua Temple")

"Running in the Antarctic of Chu, the mountains and rivers are poor and difficult." ("The West Pavilion of the Formation of the Hokhua Temple")

"Get up at night in the bitter heat, go upstairs and wear clothes alone." ("Summer Night's Bitter Heat Ascending the West Tower")

Liu Zongyuan wrote "The Sixth Ancestor of Cao Xi Gave Dajian Zen Master Tablet"

According to the "Chuan Lantern Record", Dajian is Master Huineng, commonly known as Lu, and is one of the four major families of "Cui, Lu, Wang, and Xie" in Hebei. His father served in Xinzhou in the South China Sea during the reign of Tang Gaozu Wude, so he settled in the south. On the eighth day of February in the twelfth year of Zhenguan (638), Huineng was born in Xialu Village, Xinzhou, Lingnan. His father, Lu Xingtao, suffered misfortune because of the darkness of officialdom until he died of depression. Huineng's family was poor, he lost his father at the age of three and moved to the South China Sea. Slightly longer, sell firewood to support the mother. Because he heard people recite the "Diamond Sutra" and had enlightenment, he asked the Fayan, and the guest thought that he was right with Master Huangmeiren. Huineng first arrived in Shaozhou, and explained the "Nirvana Sutra" with the Ni Endless Collectors, and Ni was amazed and told the villagers that there were people in the Tao and those who could have Tao. The locals then came to pay their respects and prepared to renovate the old site of the Baoling Temple for them to live in. Hui Neng said: "I seek Dafa, how can I stop in the middle of the road? "Tomorrow, I will meet Zen Master Zhiyuan for advice. Zhiyuan replied: "Bodhidharma's heart is imprinted in Huangmei, and it is appropriate to go to the decision." Hui Neng then went to Huangmei to pay homage to Master Hongren. Hiroshi asked him, "Where are you from?" What are you looking for here?" Huineng replied: "The disciple is from Lingnan, and he came here not to ask for anything else, but to 'be a Buddha'. After hearing this, Hongren asked: "You are from Lingnan, where can you 'be a Buddha'!" Huineng replied: "There is a distinction between north and south, and there is no distinction between north and south in 'Buddha nature'. This extraordinary ambition impressed Hongren, and in order not to attract everyone's attention, he arranged for him to work with the crowd and cook rice in the house. Huineng is willing to obey his fate, licking rice all day long, and doing a very happy job. At that time, there were 700 disciples of Hongshinobi.

Eight months after Hui Neng entered the temple, Hiroshi ordered everyone to present a verse, which was actually an exam, and he had to choose an heir. Shenxiu is the highest monk among the monks, he held the lamp alone in the middle of the night, and wrote a note in the south corridor of the Buddha hall: "The body is a Bodhi tree, the heart is like a mirror platform, always diligently wipe, do not make dust." In the early morning, Hongren was indifferent when he saw this. Huineng heard the sound and came to the corridor, he asked to do a side too, and got permission, so he read aloud: "Bodhi has no tree, the mirror is not a platform, there is nothing originally, where to stir up dust." Hongren saw that it was Huineng, so he told him to step back. This is a good fit for the Zen idea of epiphany. It is a kind of attitude of birth, seeing that everything in the world is an empty word, the world is originally empty, and the heart is originally empty, then it does not matter to resist the temptation of the outside, and everything passes through the heart without leaving a trace. This is a very high state of Zen Buddhism, and those who have experienced this level of realm are called enlightened. Hongren called Huineng the next day to give a lecture on the scriptures, and handed him the Dharma clothes that had been passed down from generation to generation, and passed him on as the six ancestors of Zen Buddhism. For the safety of Huineng, Hongren personally sent Huineng to Jiangzhou Ferry to leave, and told him not to tell his identity as the sixth ancestor of Zen Buddhism until the necessary time, so as not to have Zen monks to fight.

In order to hide the harm caused by the "troubles that have not been broken", Huineng hid among the hunters in the area of Lingnan Sihui for 15 years. It was not until the first year of Emperor Gaozong Yifeng of the Tang Dynasty (676) that he appeared in public. On the eighth day of the first month of the year, Huineng came to the Faxing Temple in Guangzhou. One day, the wind raised the flags of the temple, and the two monks were arguing about whether it was "wind" or "flags"? Huineng said: "It is neither the wind nor the flag, but the heart of the benevolent." Huineng's statement amazed all the monks and attracted the attention and respect of Master Yinzong. Soon, Master Yinzong shaved the ordination of Huineng, and later convened a grand ordination ceremony for Huineng. In the spring of the following year, Huineng left the Dharma Temple and went north to Shaoguan Nanhua Temple to open the mountain to preach the Dharma, and more than 1,000 people came to see him off. In Nanhua Temple, the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng preached for 37 years.

Bodhidharma is the eldest disciple of the 27th Patriarch of Indian Zen Buddhism, His Holiness Prajnata, and became the 28th patriarch of Indian Zen Buddhism. He was born in Nantianzhu (India), a Brahmin tribe, and legend has it that he was the third son of King Xiangzhi, and after becoming a monk, he devoted himself to Mahayana Buddhism. During the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty, he sailed from India to Guangzhou, and from here he traveled north to the Northern Wei Dynasty, teaching people everywhere with Zen teachings. In Luoyang, he saw the exquisite architecture of the pagoda of Yongning Temple, and said that he was one hundred and fifty years old, and he had never seen it in all the countries he had traveled, so he "sang Nanwu with his mouth and joined his palms for days" ("Luoyang Jialanji" volume 1). His name was originally Bodhidora, but when he became an adult, he changed his name to Dharma Dora according to custom. Bodhidharma began to preach Zen Buddhism in China, "pointing directly to the hearts of the people, seeing nature to become a Buddha, not setting up words, and not teaching outside the teaching". The Buddha smiled with flowers, and the Buddha understood and became the ancestor of Chinese Zen Buddhism. Without the meaning of words, Zen is detached from words, and words and words are just code names to describe everything. This is also the reason why Hui Neng does not know one, but he knows the Buddhist scriptures, as long as he sees the nature of the mind and understands his own nature, he can become a Buddha. After the two ancestors Hui Ke, the three ancestors of the monks, the four ancestors of Daoxin, the five ancestors of Hongren, the six ancestors of Hui Neng, etc., finally a flower and five leaves, blooming the secret garden, becoming the largest sect of Chinese Buddhism, descendants will respect Bodhidharma as the first ancestor of Chinese Zen Buddhism, respect Shaolin Temple as the ancestral court of Chinese Zen.

Huineng won the favor of the imperial court during his lifetime, and in the first year of Tang Wanzai Tongtian (696), the empress Wu Zetian had been "the sincerity of the expression of me", and specially sent the scholars to give Huineng crystal bowls, grinding robes, white felt and other gifts, and his edict expressed a very respectful mood for Huineng: "I hate not to accompany the next position, and I will listen to the sound on the side, and seek the source of separation, and the top of the peak of the high step." ”

In the first year of Shenlong (705), Wu Zetian and Tang Zhongzong sent their attendant Xue Jian to Caoxi to summon him to Beijing. Huineng has been in the mountains and forests for a long time, old and windy, but he does not go. In the meantime, Shaozhou Thorn Shi Wei Xuan invited Huineng to Shaozhou Kaiyuan Temple to give a lecture, and his words and deeds were compiled into a book by his disciple Fahai, which is the "Six Ancestors Master Dharma Treasure Altar Sutra" which is regarded as a Zen sect scripture.