How pathetical it is to lack generosity

It is a rarity that Zen monks explicitly compare the rich and the poor in a poem. The author might have been able to criticize a lack of generosity and sharing among people blinded by money in a blunt way because he was a reclusive man away from all the greed of the secular world. Whether you are financially faring well or struggling can make a difference in how even your family treats you. You can be born poor but gain wealth later. That is how life works. Nevertheless, people, only in reckless pursuit of fortune, seem indifferent to the problems of others, which the author considers pathetic.

With the main focus on a religious and instructive lesson, the poem seems to lack poetic joys and pleasures. However, a friendly tone and easy-to-understand phrases differentiate his poem. That is why many temples used it to educate beginners. “Rather than leaving me hungry, shivering with cold/Please let me give myself back to you, God/Take me to the time before I was born.” As such, a bohemian and novel way of thinking decorated with a sense of humor and satire led to the birth of the Fanzhi style, which later was followed by many poets such as Hanshan, Wang Wei, and Bai Juyi.