Here is a graphic novel portrait of the wild antics and legendary poetry of two of China’s greatest poets. Han Shan (known as "Cold Mountain") and Shih Te lived during the Tang dynasty (618–906 C.E.) and were critics of authority (both secular and religious) and champions of social justice. They left their poetry on tree trunks and rocks, and they were also reportedly monastics, drunks, cave dwellers, immortals, and many other unconventional and wondrous things. There is much delightful uncertainty about this "Laughing Pair"—including whether or not they actually even existed. What is known is that the poetry attributed to them was hugely influential in both China and Japan, and to the Beat writers in the United States during the 1950s and ’60s. Acclaimed manga creator Sean Michael Wilson, along with illustrator Akiko Shimojima and expert translator J. P. Seaton, brings these renegade poets to life, revealing their humor and wackiness and also their penetrating insights into the human condition.

The International Million Copy Bestseller 'A beautiful book, written in exquisite prose' Kate Atkinson 'Magnificent' Observer **** A soldier wounded in the Civil War, Inman turns his back on the carnage of the battlefield and begins the treacherous journey home to Cold Mountain, and to Ada, the woman he loved before the war began. As Inman attempts to make his way across the mountains, through the devastated landscape of a soon-to-be-defeated South, Ada struggles to make a living from the land her once-wealthy father left when he died. Neither knows if the other is still alive. From the bestselling author of Nightwoods, this novel inspired the Oscar-winning film directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, and Renee Zellweger.

The incomparable poetry of Han Shan (Cold Mountain) and his sidekick Shih Te, the rebel poets who became icons of Chinese poetry and Zen, has long captured the imagination of poetry lovers and Zen aficionados. Popularized in the West by Beat Generation writers Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac, these legendary T’ang era (618–907) figures are portrayed as the laughing, ragged pair who left their poetry on stones, trees, farmhouses, and the walls of the monasteries they visited. Their poetry expressed in the simplest verse but in a completely new tone, the voice of ordinary people. Here premier translator J. P. Seaton takes a fresh look at these captivating poets, along with Wang Fan-chih, another "outsider" poet who lived a couple centuries later and who captured the poverty and gritty day-to-day reality of the common people of his time. Seaton’s comprehensive introduction and notes throughout give a fascinating context to this vibrant collection.

This book unveils the legendary life and the mystic poems of the iconic Chinese Tang poet Han-shan (known by his pen name “Cold Mountain”) and investigates the dissemination and reception of the Cold Mountain Poems (CMPs) attributed to him. Han-shan and the CMPs are amongst the most legendary literary landscapes and cultural memories in the history of world scholarly exchange. The maniac poet recluse hidden in the Cold Mountains, the delicate poetic realms of Confucianism, Buddhism, Zen and Taoism contained in the Cold Mountain Poems, and the incredible pervasiveness of its text travel and canon construction worldwide, as well as the profound impact of CMPs on comparative literature, world literature and Chinese studies, provide the perfect lens to learn about Chinese language, literature, culture and society. This book is thus intended to investigate CMPs in a coherent global context. Considering the vertical studies of the Chinese literature polysystem, it highlights the horizontal influence of CMPs, literarily or non-literarily. Furthermore, it addresses the making and developing of the Han-shan phenomenon and its implications for translation studies, travel writing, canon construction and literary historiography. This book is for scholars, researchers and students in literary history and East Asian Studies focusing on Chinese literature and culture and those interested in the history of poetry in general.

Renowned composer Jennifer Higdon is best known for her symphonic pieces blue cathedral, Concerto for Orchestra, City Scape, Concerto 4-3 and Violin Concerto (2010 Pulitzer Prize). These compositions illustrate her breadth of style and avant-garde technique. The author examines these works--with commentary by Higdon--as well as the music of her first opera, with a focus on compositional history, musical characteristics, formal analysis and critical reception.

A collection of dharma talks, Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains explores the life of passionate commitment that lies at the heart of the formal practice of Zen meditation. Reb Anderson draws on over thirty years of experience as a Zen priest, exploring Buddhist yoga and psychology and the relationship of wisdom and compassion to the personal, social, and ecological crises of our time. At once inspirational and practical, he bows to an ancient tradition as he helps us to forge a modern-day Buddhism that urges us "to sit still in the middle of all living beings."

This sweeping collection of new translations paints a brilliant picture of the development of Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, China’s most radical philosophical and meditative tradition. In this landmark anthology of some two dozen translations, celebrated translator David Hinton shows how Ch'an (Japanese: Zen)—too long considered a perplexing school of Chinese Buddhism—was in truth a Buddhist-inflected form of Taoism, China's native system of spiritual philosophy. The texts in The Way of Ch’an build from seminal Taoism through the “Dark-Enigma Learning” literature and on to the most important pieces from all stages of the classical Ch’an tradition. Guided by Hinton’s accessible introductions, readers will encounter texts and authors including: I Ching (c. 12th century BCE) Lao Tzu (c. 6th century BCE Bodhidharma (active c. 500-550 CE) Sixth Patriarch Prajna-Able (Hui Neng, 638-713) Cold Mountain (Han Shan: c. 8th-9th centuries) Yellow-Bitterroot Mountain (Huang Po, d. 850) Blue-Cliff Record (c. 1040) Through this steadily deepening and transformative reading experience, readers will see the profound and intricate connections between native Chinese philosophy, Taoism, and Ch’an. Contemporary Zen students and practitioners will never see their tradition in the same way again.

This comprehensive and enlightening collection—the first of its kind—features storyboard art from the last 100 years, covering more than 50 classic, cult, and popular films. Much of the artwork included here has never been published, including early drawings from such great artists as William Cameron Menzies (Gone With the Wind), Mentor Huebner (North by Northwest, Ben-Hur), Salvador Dali (Spellbound), and Saul Bass (Psycho, Spartacus), plus work from contemporary artists such as Jane Clark (the Harry Potter series). Augmented throughout with insights from the designers, directors, and artists who share some of their secrets and tips from behind the scenes, Movie Storyboards is an essential collection for any film student or true fan.

“A magisterial book” of nearly five hundred poems from some of history’s greatest Chinese poets, translated and edited by a renowned poet and scholar (New Republic). The Chinese poetic tradition is the largest and longest continuous tradition in world literature. This rich and far-reaching anthology of nearly five hundred poems provides a comprehensive account of its first three millennia (1500 BCE to 1200 CE), the period during which virtually all its landmark developments took place. Unlike earlier anthologies of Chinese poetry, Hinton’s book focuses on a relatively small number of poets, providing selections that are large enough to re-create each as a fully realized and unique voice. New introductions to each poet’s work provide a readable history, told for the first time as a series of poetic innovations forged by a series of master poets. “David Hinton has . . . lured into English a new manner of hearing the great poets of that long glory of China’s classical age. His achievement is another echo of the original, and a gift to our language.” —W. S. Merwin