The essential works of a key Chinese poet of the Sung Dynasty, Yang Wan-Li—masterfully translated by David Hinton.
Considered one of the four great poets of the Sung Dynasty, Yang Wan-li is in many ways the quintessential Chinese landscape poet. His poems, born out of his intense and often lengthy excursions as a traveling government official, reveal the harsh difficulties of belonging in the natural world—the existential exposure to difficult weather and unknown places, the dangers of river gorges and rapids, the risks of hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. And yet they also acknowledge, with startlingly simple visual depictions, the breathtaking beauty of nature and the basic pleasures of life’s quiet moments.
It is in this crucible of danger and peaceful beauty that Yang Wan-li forges a poetry of self-cultivation deeply informed by Ch’an (Zen) Buddhist insight. In finding a language to capture the pure perception at the heart of human experience, Yang Wan-li’s poems embody the Ch’an experience of the meditative mind emptied of all conceptual structures. In these original translations of over two hundred of Yang Wan-li’s most vital works, David Hinton takes readers on a journey through the simple beauty of nature and the perennial mystery of consciousness. Hinton’s translation breathes fresh life into Yang’s contemplative verse, revealing why Yang’s poetry has captivated minds and hearts for nearly a millennium.
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