Mountain home : the wilderness poetry of ancient China

China's Tradition Of Rivers-and-mountains Poetry Stretches Across Millennia, Representing The Earliest And Most Extensive Literary Engagement With Wilderness In Human History. It Is A Plain-spoken Poetry Of Immediate Day-to-day Experience, And Yet Seems Most Akin To China's Grand Landscape Paintings. Although Its Wisdom Is Ancient, Rooted In Taoist And Ch'an (zen) Thought, This Work Feels Utterly Contemporary, Especially As Rendered Here In David Hinton's Wonderful And Accessible Translations. The Rivers-and-mountains Tradition Embraces A Remarkable Range Of Topics: Comic Domestic Scenes, Social Protest, Travelogue, And Sage Recluses Shaping Mountain Landscapes Into Forms Of Enlightenment. But Throughout That Range, These Poems Articulate The Experience Of Living As An Organic Part Of The Natural World. And In An Age Of Global Ecological Disruption And Mass Extinction, This Tradition Grows More Urgently And Universally Important By The Day. Mountain Home Begins With An Introduction, Which Explains China's Vision Of Wilderness As The Fundamental Cosmological Model Of Reality. The Poems Follow The Rivers-and-mountains Tradition From Its Origins In The 5th Century C.e. Through The Sung Dynasty (13th Century), The Period During Which It Opened All Of Its Possibilities. The Development Of This Tradition Is Traced In Concise Introductions To Each Of The Nineteen Poets Translated. As Wilderness Is The Heart Of Chinese Poetry, This Group Includes Virtually All Of Ancient China's Greatest Poets. Indeed, This May Well Be The Finest General Collection Of Ancient Chinese Poetry Available In English. These Breathtaking Translations Offer A New Poetry That Will Charm And Inform Not Just Readers Of Poetry, But Also The Large Communities Interested In Environmental Awareness Or Chinese Spirituality.--book Jacket. Beginnings (5th Century C.e.). T'ao Ch'ien (365-427) ; Hsieh Ling-yün (385-433) -- T'ang Dynasty (618-907). Meng Hao-jan (689-740) ; Wang Wei (701-761) ; Li Po (701-762) ; Tu Fu (712-770) ; Wei Ying-wu (c. 737-792) ; Cold Mountain (han Shan) (c. 7th-9th Centuries) ; Meng Chiao (751-814) ; Liu Tsung-yüan (773-819) ; Po Chü (772-846) ; Chia Tao (779-843) ; Tu Mu (803-853) -- Sung Dynasty (960-1279). Mei Yao-ch'en (1002-1060) ; Wang An-shih (1021-1086) ; Su Tung-p'o (1037-1101) ; Lu Yu (1125-1210) ; Fan Ch'eng-ta (1126-1193) ; Yang Wan-li (1127-1206). Selected And Translated By David Hinton. Originally Published: Washington, D.c. : Counterpoint, 2002. A New Directions Book. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 291-293) And Index. The earliest and most extensive literary engagement with wilderness in human history, Mountain Home is vital poetry that feels utterly contemporary. China's tradition of "rivers-and-mountains" poetry stretches across millennia. This is a plain-spoken poetry of immediate day-to-day experience, and yet seems most akin to China's grand landscape paintings. Although its wisdom is ancient, rooted in Taoist and Zen thought, the work feels utterly contemporary, especially as rendered here in Hinton's rich and accessible translations. Mountain Home collects poems from 5th- through 13th-century China and includes the poets Li Po, Po Chu-i and Tu Fu. The "rivers-and-mountains" tradition covers a remarkable range of topics: comic domestic scenes, social protest, travel, sage recluses, and mountain landscapes shaped into forms of enlightenment. And within this range, the poems articulate the experience of living as an organic part of the natural world and its processes. In an age of global ecological disruption and mass extinction, this tradition grows more urgently important every day. Mountain Home offers poems that will charm and inform not just readers of poetry, but also the large community of readers who are interested in environmental awareness.