The Two Sages of Posan包山二聖

The two sages of Posan.

In the Silla period there were two holy masters, Gwangi (觀機) and Doseong (道成). It is not known what sort of men they were, and they hid together on Posan.〔In the native tongue it is called Soseulsan, which is Sanskrit, and here it means 'po (包).'〕

Gwangi built a hermitage on the southern ridge, and Doseong lived in a cave to the north.

They were about ten li apart, and parting the clouds and whistling to the moon, they always went back and forth to each other.

When Doseong wished to call Gwangi, all the trees in the mountain bent toward the south as if to welcome him.

Gwangi saw this and went.

When Gwangi wished to invite Doseong, it was the same, and all the trees leaned north, and Doseong came. This went on for years.

Doseong always sat in stillness on a high rock behind his dwelling.

One day he passed his body out through a crack in the rock, and his whole body rose into the air and vanished, and no one knows where he went.

Some say he reached Suchang District〔It is the present Suseong District.〕 and left his bones there. Gwangi too followed after him and returned to the truth.

Now the sites are named after the two masters, and both have traces remaining.

Doseong Rock is several jang high, and later people built a temple below the cave.

In the seventh year of Taiping Xingguo, the year imo, the monk Seongbeom (成梵) first came to live at the temple. He opened a ten-thousand-day Amitabha practice hall and strove with devotion for more than fifty years, and extraordinary omens appeared many times.

At that time some twenty believers of Hyeonpung formed a society each year, gathered incense wood, and offered it to the temple.

Whenever they went into the mountain to gather incense wood, they split it, washed it, and spread it on screens, and at night the wood gave off light like a candle.

Because of this the people of the district added their gifts to those incense followers, and they took the year the light appeared as a cause for congratulation.

This was the divine response of the two sages, or else the help of the mountain spirit.

The spirit's name is Jeongseong Cheonwang (靜聖天王). Long ago, in the time of the Buddha Kasyapa, he received the Buddha's charge and made an original vow:

"I will wait until a thousand men in this mountain come forth into the world, and then receive the rest of my reward."

Nine sages of this mountain were once recorded, but the details of what they left are not known. They are said to be Gwangi, Doseong, the master Ban, the master Cheop, Doui〔There is the site of Baegamsa.〕, Jayang, Seongbeom, Geummullyeo, and the master Baegu.

In praise it is said:

Treading the moon they visited each other, playing with clouds and springs; how many hundred years the two old men's free ways? In the valley full of mist and glow the old trees remain, their cold shadows rising and dipping as if still in welcome.

The character ban (㮽) is pronounced ban and in the native tongue means binamu, rain tree. The character cheop (𣛻) is pronounced cheop and in the native tongue means galnamu, oak tree.

These two masters hid long in the rocky thickets and had no dealings with the world of men.

Both wove tree leaves into clothing to pass the cold and the heat, only covering what was damp and hiding what was shameful. From this they took their names.

I once heard that Pungak also has such names, so one knows that the hidden men of old mostly had such rare elegance. Only it is hard to follow in their steps.

I once lived on Posan and wrote a record of the beauty the two masters left behind, and I set it down here as well.

Purple thatch grass and yellow sealwort filled their bellies; their covering was of tree leaves, not from the silkworm's loom. The cold pines soughed and the stones were rough and jagged, and at dusk beneath the woods the woodcutter went home. Deep in the night they parted the leaves and sat facing the bright moon, and half of them rustled and flew off with the wind. Lying askew on a worn rush mat with eyes shut, their dreaming souls never reached the fetters of the red dust. Wandering like clouds they went, and at the two hermitage sites the mountain deer climb as they please, and the tracks of men are few.