Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. "In 1312, Stonehouse left Hangchou and moved to the northernmost peak of the Tienmu Mountains. It was only twenty kilometers south of Taochang Temple, where he earlier served as deputy abbot. Its pagoda would have been visible on a clear day�and it still is. Just below the 450-meter summit of Hsiamushan, Stonehouse built a hut and lived there for twenty years. Despite his relative isolation, Stonehouse attracted students, and eventually they convinced him to come down the mountain. In 1331, he was invited to become abbot of Fuyuan Monastery. It was in Tanghu over a hundred kilometers to the east, but he reluctantly agreed. Finally, after eight years, he decided he had had enough of monastic life. He returned to Hsiamushan and lived there until his death in 1352. A few years before he died, he was asked to write down his impressions of mountain life. The result was a collection he called Mountain Poems. Around the same time, his disciple Chih-jou put together a second volume. These were poems Stonehouse wrote for visitors, mostly Zen monks seeking instruction. I published translations of both collections in The Zen Works of Stonehouse over twenty years ago, but that book has long been out of print. I've since released the MOUNTAIN POEMS of STONEHOUSE (Copper Canyon Press, 2014) as a separate volume, and I'm glad to be doing the same now with his STONEHOUSE'S POEMS FOR ZEN MONKS (Empty Bowl, 2019). It goes without saying, poems like these aren't for everyone. But even if you're not a Zen monk, why not give them a try? After all, we all have the buddha nature, except, of course, for Chao-chou's dog."�Red Pine

One of the classic texts of Zen, essential for anyone interested in Zen practice and tradition. Stonehouse has been called "the greatest of all Zen monks who made poetry their medium of instruction." Until now his works have rarely been available in English. Now all of the hermit monk's poetry, including the major poetic works, "Mountain Poems" and "Gathas," as well as his most illuminating instructional talks, can be read in Pine's superb translations. According to Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker in The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, "The ancient Taoist themes of simplicity, naturalness, and ease resound in Shih-wu's [Stonehouse's] writing, ringing out clearly within the Ch'an [Zen] setting. Everything in his mountain life that might seem a hardship to others-very plain food, crude and cramped quarters, dearth of human contact-Shih-wu celebrates as an outright virtue or at least preferable to what a city dweller can know.... Shih-wu packed his verses with practice pointers and encouragements, enticements and goads, allusions to sutras and Ch'an stories." With Red Pine's personal discovery in 1991 of the site of Stonehouse's former hut, this edition provides rare first-hand understanding of the spiritual and physical realm of Stonehouse's era. "Every Zen student will wish to own a copy."-Jim Harrison "An admirable achievement!"-Burton Watson Red Pine is the pen name of Bill Porter. Translator of numerous classical Chinese texts, he lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

"The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse [is] a tough-spirited book of enlightened free verse."—Kyoto Journal The Zen master and mountain hermit Stonehouse—considered one of the greatest Chinese Buddhist poets—used poetry as his medium of instruction. 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 to try singing these poems. Only if you sit on them will they do you any good." Newly revised, with the Chinese originals and Red Pine's abundant commentary and notes, The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse is an essential volume for Zen students, readers of Asian literature, and all who love the outdoors. After eating I dust off a boulder and sleep and after sleeping I go for a walk on a cloudy late summer day an oriole sings from a sapling briefly enjoying the season joyfully singing out its heart true happiness is right here why chase an empty name Stonehouse was born in 1272 in Changshu, China, and took his name from a cave at the edge of town. He became a highly respected dharma master in the Zen Buddhist tradition. Red Pine is one of the world's leading translators of Chinese poetry. "Every time I translate a book of poems," he writes, "I learn a new way of dancing. And the music has to be Chinese." He lives near Seattle, Washington.

A bilingual Chinese-English volume of mountain poems from a Zen master.

In 1989, Bill Porter, having spent much of his life studying and translating Chinese religious and philosophical texts, began to wonder if the Buddhist hermit tradition still existed in China. At the time, it was believed that the Cultural Revolution had dealt a lethal blow to all religions in China, destroying countless temples and shrines, and forcibly returning thousands of monks and nuns to a lay life. But when Porter travels to the Chungnan mountains — the historical refuge of ancient hermits — he discovers that the hermit tradition is very much alive, as dozens of monks and nuns continue to lead solitary lives in quiet contemplation of their faith deep in the mountains. Part travelogue, part history, part sociology, and part religious study, this record of extraordinary journeys to an unknown China sheds light on a phenomenon unparalleled in the West. Porter's discovery is more than a revelation, and uncovers the glimmer of hope for the future of religion in China.

In the spring of 2006, Bill Porter traveled through the heart of China, from Beijing to Hong Kong, on a pilgrimage to sites associated with the first six patriarchs of Zen. Zen Baggage is an account of that journey. He weaves together historical background, interviews with Zen masters, and translations of the earliest known records of Zen, along with personal vignettes. Porter's account captures the transformations taking place at religious centers in China but also the abiding legacy they have somehow managed to preserve. Porter brings wisdom and humor to every situation, whether visiting ancient caves containing the most complete collection of Buddhist texts ever uncovered, enduring a six–hour Buddhist ceremony, searching in vain for the ghost in his room, waking up the monk in charge of martial arts at Shaolin Temple, or meeting the abbess of China's first Zen nunnery. Porter's previously published Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits has become recommended reading at Zen centers and universities throughout America and even in China (in its Chinese translation), and Zen Baggage is sure to follow suit.

A wonderfully diverse collection of Zen poetry from China and Japan—including works by Lao Tzu and Han Shan—presented by two of America’s premier poet-translators A Zen poem is nothing other than an expression of the enlightened mind, a handful of simple words that disappear beneath the moment of insight to which it bears witness. Poetry has been an essential aid to Zen Buddhist practice from the dawn of Zen—and Zen has also had a profound influence on the secular poetry of the countries in which it has flourished. Here, two of America’s most renowned poets and translators provide an overview of Zen poetry from China and Japan in all its rich variety, from the earliest days to the twentieth century. Included are works by Lao Tzu, Han Shan, Li Po, Dogen Kigen, Saigyo, Basho, Chiao Jan, Yuan Mei, Ryokan, and many others. Hamill and Seaton provide illuminating introductions to the Chinese and Japanese sections that set the poets and their work in historical and philosophical context. Short biographies of the poets are also included.

Bill Porter is the ideal travel companion. His depth of knowledge of Chinese history and culture is unparalleled. His wit is ever-present. And his keen eye for the telling detail consistently reminds us that China is not what you think it is. Yellow River Odyssey, already a best-seller in China, reveals a complex, fascinating, contradictory culture like never before.

In 1953, Gary Snyder returned to the Bay Area and, at age 23, enrolled in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, to study Asian languages and culture. He intensified his study of Chinese and Japanese, and taking up the challenge of one of his professors, Chen Shih–hsiang, he began to work on translating a largely unknown poet by the name of Han Shan, a writer with whom the professor thought Snyder might feel a special affinity. The results were magical. As Patrick Murphy noted, "These poems are something more than translations precisely because Snyder renders them as a melding of Han Shan's Chinese Ch'an Buddhist mountain spirit trickster mentality and Snyder's own mountain wilderness meditation and labor activities." The suite of 24 poems was published in the 1958 issue of The Evergreen Review, and the career of one of America's greatest poets was launched. In 1972, Press–22 issued a beautiful edition of these poems written out by hand in italic by Michael McPherson. We are doing a new augments edition based on the old, with a new design, a preface by Lu Ch'iu–yin, and an afterword by Mr. Snyder where he discusses how he came to this work and what it meant to his development as a writer and Buddhist. On May 11, 2012, for the Stronach Memorial Lecture at The University of California, more than fifty years after his days there as a student, Snyder offered a public lecture reflecting on Chinese poetry, Han Shan, and his continuing work as a poet and Translated by. This remarkable occasion was recorded and we are including a CD of it in our edition, making this the most definitive edition of Cold Mountain Poems ever published.