Ling-yun, Hsieh

The Mountain Poems of Hsieh Ling-Yun

ISBN: 0811214893
New York, NY: New Directions Books, 2001. First Edition. Softcover. "During the last decade of his life, living as a recluse high in the mountains of southeast China, Hsieh Ling-yun (385-433 C.E.) initiated a tradition of "rivers-and-mountains" (shan-shui) poetry that stretches across millennia in China and beyond, a tradition that represents the earliest and most extensive literary engagement with wilderness in human history. Hsieh's work, all but unknown in the West, chronicles nothing less than the aesthetic and spiritual discovery of wilderness, reading like dispatches reporting back to the human world. These poems were extremely popular in Hsieh's own time, and established him as one of the most innovative and influential poets in the history of Chinese poetry, as well as a precursor of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism." (from back cover) A collection of the all-important Mountain Poems by the great ancient Chinese poet Hsieh Ling-yun, translated into English & with an introduction by the prolific & respected scholar David Hinton. With map, notes & glossary of terms. Trade-format softcover original, first edition, a production of the venerable New Directions imprint. It is not at all far-fetched to consider Hsieh a direct albeit very distant precursor to the poets of the Beat Generation, particularly Gary Snyder, whose bond with the natural world is embodied in his title-phrase "Rivers and Mountains Without End," a clear echo of the type of poetry that Hsieh founded. The publication of this volume by New Directions is therefore particularly appropriate. An essential, foundational literary collectible in very fine condition with only the slightest rubbing & a bit of light scratching to front, back covers & spine; a bit of wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same; light, sparse spotting to edges of text block. Interior very fine with only tiny bumps at corners of a few page leaves. Very Fine. [Item #3949]

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