I have read the other translations. Red Pine not only got it right, he also got all the hidden messages. He went to the cave. This book is the Cold Mountain book. For readers that bought any other of these books, get this. I wish this book was a NY Times best seller. Reads well and is complete

It seems inevitable that something will always be lost in translation. At least I thought this was true until I purchased this volume. Not only does Red Pine stay true to the beauty of Han-Shan's verse, but the underlying Zen essence comes through loud and clear. I have heard it said of the Tao Te Ching that you can spend a day reading the entire work and a lifetime trying to truly understand it. This is also true for these poems. Short verses of simple construction that manage to capture something so vast. No, not capture. Illustrate. In several lines the universe is displayed before us, if only we pause to look. This edition is as much a must for any seek to understand Asian religion as it is for those who love Asian poetry.

Twelve hundred years ago, Chinese recluse-poet Han Shan ("Cold Mountain") "fled to the woods to dwell and gaze in freedom" (poem 26), where he also wrote the 307 poems collected here "on trees and rocks and walls" (p. 9) around the cave where he lived. In 1974, while living in a Taipei monastery as a Buddhist monk, Bill Porter (a.k.a. "Red Pine") began translating Cold Mountain's poems.

Red Pine breathes new life into Cold Mountain. "I enjoy the simple life," Cold Mountain writes in poem 224, "between dark vines and mountain caves/ the wilderness has room to roam/ with white clouds for companions/ there's a road but not to town." It is easy to appreciate Cold Mountain's verse not only for its "spiritual honesty, poignancy, and humor" (p. 15), as Red Pine observes, but also for its rich, natural imagery. White clouds cling to dark rocks (poem 1), and old pines cling to crags (poem 256). Cicadas sing (poem 300). Yellow leaves fall (poem 300). "My mind is like the autumn moon/ clear and bright in a pool of jade" (poem 5).

In a recent interview, Red Pine compares Chinese hermits to "a mountain spring that brings fresh water down into town" (Tricycle, Winter 2000, p. 69). Cold Mountain is a good teacher, and his poems offer insightful lessons. He writes: "Trust your own true nature" (poem 2). "Rock sugar and clarified butter/ mean nothing when you're dead" (poem 8). "The moon is the hub of the mind" (poem 10). "Silence thoughts and the spirit becomes clear/ focus on emptiness and the world grows still" (poem 82). "Drop a ball of mud in water/ and behold the thoughtless mind" (poem 86). "Retiring to my hut I accept white hair" (poem 122). "The world is full of busy people/ well-versed in countless views/ blind to their true natures" (poem 132). "People who wander among clouds/ don't have to buy the hills" (poem 219).

Red Pine's collection will become an well-travelled path on your bookshelf to contemplative, Cold Mountain. (It is easy to understand why Jack Kerouac dedicated his DHARMA BUMS to Cold Mountain in 1958.) For those interested in meeting other Chinese hermits, I recommend Porter's ROAD TO HEAVEN: ENCOUNTERS WITH CHINESE HERMITS (1993). For some contemporary poetry reminiscent of Cold Mountain, I recommend David Budbill's recent MOMENT TO MOMENT (2000).

G. Merritt

Includes history, poems and treatises about tea, tea houses, ceremonies, brewing, cups and vessels, varieties, and the effect that tea has on the physical health and psyche. Everything you need to know about Chinese teas is contained in this book. A very welcome addition to anyone's culinary library!

Great in-depth overview of the varieties of tea and drinking vessels! You need this book.

This man, though not Chinese, truly knows his subject and loves it. It shows all through the book. its a masterpiece! a simply MUST HAVE for all admirers of tea or the Chinese culture/ppl/way. Perhaps in a way it is fitting that the author is not Chinese. It shows that even a barbarian [foreigner] can learn something so different when he has enough love and time and determination.

If the name John Blofeld means anything to you, you've probably been consulting the I Ching. Blofeld wrote a popular translation to the Chinese oracle at a time when the only other version available in English was Richard Wilhelm's groundbreaking but somewhat turgid text.

"City of Lingering Splendor" is an autobiographical travelogue, one of the best ever written. Dedicated to ' the hermits, scholars, youths and courtesans who inspired these pages ' it's a love letter to Peking and the breathtaking greatness of an ancient civilisation at its twilight, about to be extinguished.

While remote jungles still offer anthropologists the chance to chew the fat with stone age peoples, the romantics among us are simply out of luck. Until someone invents a working time machine, Ancient Egypt is gone forever along with Homer's Greece and Imperial Rome.

But in 1934 it was still possible to travel back in time. Back to Old China, to a culture that had remained virtually untouched for thousands of years---and chew Peking Duck with Taoist sages. . .

Wonderful reading.

I had no idea when I picked up this book that I had such a pleasant experience in store for me. Beginning in 1934, a young man in his twenties spends "three exquisitely happy years" in a China at the edge of the abyss. Japan had already invaded Manchuria and made no secrets of its intentions of further conquest. The shaky Chinese Republic was ruled out of Nanking; and Peking was still full of memories of the old Dowager Empress, the last of her line.

The streets of Peking were full of Confucian scholars, aging palace eunuchs, adepts of Taoism and Buddhism, starving White Russian refugees, 14-year-old opium addicts, and gentle courtesans and flute girls. Blofeld threw himself headfirst into this world which was on the point of being snuffed out forever. Most memorable are the White Russian hermaphrodite Shura and the Rasputin-like Father Vassily; the decorous Buddhist scholar Dr Chang; Yang Taoshih, the Taoist sage, and his friend known only as the Peach Garden Hermit; the lovely courtesan Jade Flute; and the mysterious Pao, who elopes with a young girl intended for a Japanese colonel.

After Blofeld leaves for a trip to England, the Japanese finally invade. There are two bittersweet chapters at the end where Blofeld revisits the scenes of his youth after 1945. His fragile Peking of the 1930s is now poised between a growingly thuggish Kuomintang secret police and the great unknown of Mao Tse-tung's Eighth Route Army.

Blofeld's Dr Chang says it all: "Decay is inherent in all things, as Shakyamuni Buddha bade us always remember. Death swallows all that has been born; rebirth or re-creation follow in their turn, as spring follows winter. Things rise and wane in unceasing flux."

CITY OF LINGERING SPLENDOUR is recommended to all sentient beings who were ever young once and are now faced with a confused welter of possibilities, none of which seem particularly appetizing.

This is the most sensitive, respectful and intelligent book I have read on traditional Chinese culture. The writing is terrific, on a par with Peter Fleming's, though more from the heart.

It records the author's love affair with the city before WW2 (and includes a return to Beijing after it). While meeting many of its remaining Daoist, Confucianist, Bhuddist and literary leaders and exploring its temples, nightlife and food, we get a last sympathetic, philosophical, tragic glimpse of the splendour decaying under the Republic. Before it vanished under the Maoists.

If you thought there was little more to pre-War China than footbinding, Dowager Empresses, opium and Shanghain greed and degeneracy, this book will even the score a little.

I mirror the first rating. I reflect that sometimes it is first impression/best impression. In the long run it really doesn't matter. I am speaking about Blofeld's direct experience of Tibetan Buddhism...in Tibet. This was before the CHANGE. Inter-resting to think how buddhism has evolved into west.

I'm surprised noone has reviewed this book as it has been around for years and is still, in my view, the best first book to read for a westerner interested in Tibetan Buddhism. Blofeld was a dedicated practitioner who shares his insights, his failures, and his transcendent experiences. This was not his favorite book and he was always surprised by its success. While there are many more profound books now available by recognized Tibetan spiritual leaders, none of them have written a simple manual for getting started that is as good as Blofeld sharing his experiences.

for those interested in the history of west meets east via Buddhism, this book will fascinate. reveals much lived detail of a lost culture of privilege and excess in pre-mao China. Kind of a 'Six Chapters of a Floating Life' from a westerner, before his florescence into a Buddhist scholar. Blofeld's other bio 'The Wheel of Life' takes up that story.

This book is one of my favorite books by John Blofeld. His devotion to Kuan Yin, excellent story telling ability, and lucid philosophical explanations make this a very readable book about Kuan Yin, Tara and Avalokiteshvara.

Topics covered include: Kuan Yin meditations / visualizations, history of Kuan Yin, Buddhist ontology of Kuan Yin (plus Tara and Avalokiteshvara), and many well written stories of Kuan Yin, Tara and her followers. Also, contains several pages of b/w pictures of buddhist statues and icons of these bodhisattvas. The pictures are of average quality technically, but otherwise are excellent examples of Kuan Yin and Tara. Many of the pictures I have not seen elsewhere.

John Blofeld strikes the perfect balance between philosophy, reason, mysticism and devotion. His understanding of Chinese language and culture and his life long study of Buddhism makes for a very informative and sincere book.

This was one of the first books I read on Taoism which described the Taoist life as it actually was lived. Although a scholarly work at heart, like all of Blofeld'd books, it never ceases to delight with wonderful anecdotes and descriptions. Blofeld has a gift for taking what seems at times to be dry, esoteric stuff, breathing life into it and making it shine.

This record of the teachings of Ch'an Master Hui Hai is one of the classics of Zen from ancient China. It is a very small book, and should not cost more that $12, even if published using the highest standards. It is sad that this text is not now available in an affordable edition. Also, it is very unfortunate that Amazon has erred in categorizing The Zen Teachings of Instantaneous Awakening as a New Age book. It is not. It is a classic of Zen.

The best book on Kwan-Yin I have read.If you think of a better one let me know.John Blofeld has a very heart felt way of expressing his affection for the Bodhisattva.I was touched and learned alot.Take Care....

If the rest of us "foreign devils", as Blofeld's friends refer to him, manage to inbibe even half the wisdom offered in this book, we'll be better off. His gentle, academically bumbling, tireless search for the origin and nature of Kuan Yin is something many of we rational Westerners can appreciate. I especially enjoyed the point that lesser path and greater path Buddhism are equal; one is not more "real" than the other. Kuan Yin is real as is the keyboard on which I type, as long as we remember that void & non-void are the same. The Chinese make no distinction...why should we?

This is perhaps my favorite book by John Blofeld. The stories of Kuan Yin are well told, diverse and moving. He strikes an excellent balance between philosophy, history, story telling, Kuan Yin meditation techniques, and personal devotion.

There are a few pages of b/w photos, of Kuan Yin, Tara and Avalokiteshvara, the pictures vary in quality. However, many of them I have never seen before and a few definitely inspire devotion.

The fact that John Blofeld lived and traveled in China, his joyous devotion to Kuan Yin, and his knowledge of the Chinese language and culture adds immensely to the book and puts it in a class by itself.

This little book has a lot of wisdom. Sometimes it's a bit hard to grasp at first but it's nothing a little zazen wont fix. It's well worth the read if you're interested in Chan especially from the Rinzai sect as Huang Po was Lin-chi's (Rinzai)teacher.

There may be no way to "say" the unsayable, and Huang Po's most celebrated student went on to not say it masterfully, beginning what became the Rinzai school. But if you want to experience perhaps the clearest, most accessible attempt at saying it, try John Blofield and Huang Po. The book is so disarmingly clear that one may believe one has "gotten it." Maybe it was just this (misleading) clarity that pushed Lin Chi into his famous antics.

The definitive Chan (Zen) book. If I had to choose a book to carry with me to a desert island, I would choose this. Huang Po words are clear and powerful, they will dispel your doubts about the Way. Thank you Master Huang Po, thank you Mr. Blofeld. If you are interested in Zen (Chan), you must read it.