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- Shussan Shaka (Japanese: 出山釈迦 shussan shaka; Chinese: 出山釋迦 chūshān shìjiā; English: Śākyamuni Descending from the Mountain) is a subject in East Asian Buddhist art and poetry, in which Śākyamuni Buddha returns from six years of asceticism in the mountains, having realized that ascetic practice is not the path to enlightenment. The story of Shussan Shaka is an important subject in painting from both China and Japan, but rarely or never found in Buddhist art outside of East Asia, where a mountain retreat is not part of the story of this part of the Buddha's life. According to the story, Śākyamuni, after leaving his palace, retreated into the mountains to seek enlightenment. Accompanied by five other ascetics, he meditated and fasted to a severe extent, his body becoming thin and emaciated. After six years, Sujata, a young girl, gave Śākyamuni a quantity of milk rice, which he ate. Once he made this decision to end his fast, the five people practicing asceticism with him were disappointed and left him. So, a solitary Śākyamuni descended the mountain, left the life of extreme austerity behind him, and traveled instead to Gaya, the city that would become known as the famous site of his enlightenment under the bodhi tree. As a subject in art, Shussan Shaka is distinctive in its emphasis on the humanity of the historical Buddha, who in this and some other East Asian subjects is often given a beard, and a realistic, rather thin and dishevelled appearance, in contrast to traditional depictions of the Buddha in art. Key interpretive debates about paintings on this theme pivot on the question of whether the artist portrays Śākyamuni as enlightened or not. (en)
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- He forcibly spoke of the six years as the time of completing his way. (en)
- With the beauty of a dragon and the air of a phoenix. (en)
- "I see that all living [creatures] are completed into Buddhas since some time. (en)
- After having a twinkling of revelation with impassioned eyes (en)
- Huanzhu Mingben salutes with respectfully folded hands. (en)
- At midnight he passed over the city wall (en)
- At midnight he saw the morning star. (en)
- Before his feet emerged from the mountains (en)
- Frosty cold over the snow, (en)
- He got loose from foolery and let go silliness. (en)
- If one calls him "You" (en)
- In the mountains his cold words had increased. (en)
- It still is not he. (en)
- Since entering the mountain, too dried out and emaciated (en)
- That is originally You. (en)
- The day he came out of the mountains [because] he (en)
- The venerable master Shijia comes. (en)
- These words were running through the world: (en)
- Why then do you want to come back to the world? (en)
- could no [longer] bear hunger and cold, (en)
- [But] the Honorable [Śākyamuni] was not aware of it. (en)
- Ha, ha, ha...! He glances over ten million miles of billows. (en)
- He who emerges from the mountains and has entered the mountains: (en)
- There is only You, old fellow, who is still lacking complete Enlightenment. (en)
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