On Cold Mountain
A Buddhist Reading of the Hanshan Poems
Published on 1. August 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
280 pages
978-0-295-74268-7 (ISBN)
Description
In this first serious study of Hanshan ("Cold Mountain"), Paul Rouzer discusses some seventy poems of the iconic Chinese poet who lived sometime during the Tang dynasty (618-907). Hanshan's poems gained a large readership in English-speaking countries following the publication of Jack Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums (1958) and Gary Snyder's translations (which began to appear that same year), and they have been translated into English more than any other body of Chinese verse.
Rouzer investigates how Buddhism defined the way that believers may have read Hanshan in premodern times. He proposes a Buddhist poetics as a counter-model to the Confucian assumptions of Chinese literary thought and examines how texts by Kerouac, Snyder, and Jane Hirshfield respond to the East Asian Buddhist tradition.
Rouzer investigates how Buddhism defined the way that believers may have read Hanshan in premodern times. He proposes a Buddhist poetics as a counter-model to the Confucian assumptions of Chinese literary thought and examines how texts by Kerouac, Snyder, and Jane Hirshfield respond to the East Asian Buddhist tradition.
Reviews / Votes
"It's a fascinating book that's a pleasure to read for both specialist and general readers."- Carla Nappi (New Books Network) "Readers and writers of English and American literature can find some kind of enlightenment in On Cold Mountain's presentation of the processes of poetic transmission and Buddhist poetics in its earlier contexts."
- Lucas Klein (Tang Studies) "Paul Rouzer's new monograph is a welcome contribution to the field, a shaft of light illuminating the brillance of one jewel in a vast, neglected mine. . . . It is a pioneering work, an essential guide for anyone who would wish to make the journey across the strange landscape of Hanshan."
- Thomas J. Mazanec (Journal of the American Oriental Society (JAOS)) "In this first major study of Hanshan, Paul Rouzer adds new dimensions to our understanding of the poet and proposes inventive methodological directions in reading Hanshan from a Buddhist perspective and by formulating a study that is at once scholarly and popularly accessible."
- Christopher Byrne (Journal of Chinese Religions)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Seattle
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
360 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-295-74268-7 (9780295742687)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Paul Rouzer is professor of Asian languages and literatures at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese and Articulated Ladies: Gender and the Male Community in Early Chinese Texts.
Content
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction Who Gets to Climb Cold Mountain?
Part One The Poet
1. Who Was Hanshan?
2. Who Was Hanshan, Again?
Part Two The Poems
3. Juxtapositions
4. At Home and Abroad
5. Tropes
6. Satire
Part Three Reading Buddhists
7. Who Gets to Climb the Matterhorn?
Afterword
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Introduction Who Gets to Climb Cold Mountain?
Part One The Poet
1. Who Was Hanshan?
2. Who Was Hanshan, Again?
Part Two The Poems
3. Juxtapositions
4. At Home and Abroad
5. Tropes
6. Satire
Part Three Reading Buddhists
7. Who Gets to Climb the Matterhorn?
Afterword
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index