The Zen master, Shiwu 石屋, or Stonehouse (1272–1352) was a Chinese Chan poet and hermit monk who lived during the Yuan Dynasty. He was considered one of the greatest Chinese Buddhist poets and used poetry as his medium of instruction for Dharma.  In 1312 at the age of forty he moved to Xiamu Mountain near Huzhou to live as a hermit and it is here that he composed his "Mountain Poems" (Shan-shih), one-hundred and eighty-four verses expounding Dharma and the facets of living in the mountains. Near the end of his life, monks asked him to record what he found of interest on his mountain; Stonehouse delivered to them hundreds of poems and an admonition: "Do not try singing these poems. Only if you sit on them will they do you any good."  Translated by Red Pine (Bill Porter).

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