{"title":"Books by David Hinton","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781611804379","title":"No-Gate Gateway","description":"\u003cb\u003eA new translation of one of the great \u003ci\u003ekoan\u003c\/i\u003e collections--by the premier translator of the Chinese classics--that reveals it to be a literary and philosophical masterwork beyond its association with Chan\/Zen.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA monk asked: “A dog too has Buddha-nature, no?” And with the master’s enigmatic one-word response begins the great \u003ci\u003eNo-Gate Gateway\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eWu-Men Kuan\u003c\/i\u003e), ancient China’s classic foray into the inexpressible nature of mind and reality. For nearly eight hundred years, this text (also known by its Japanese name, \u003ci\u003eMumonkan\u003c\/i\u003e) has been the most widely used \u003ci\u003ekoan\u003c\/i\u003e collection in Zen Buddhism—and with its comic storytelling and wild poetry, it is also a remarkably compelling literary masterwork. In his radical new translation, David Hinton places this classic for the first time in the philosophical framework of its native China, in doing so revealing a new way of understanding Zen—in which generic “Zen perplexity” is transformed into a more approachable and earthy mystery. With the poetic abilities he has honed in his many translations, Hinton brilliantly conveys the book’s literary power, making it an irresistible reading experience capable of surprising readers into a sudden awakening that is beyond logic and explanation.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301789217141,"sku":"9781611804379","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781611804379_f5cf3bb6-e96c-41fc-93b4-4821d99054f5.jpg?v=1786023478"},{"product_id":"9781645471479","title":"Wild Mind, Wild Earth","description":"\u003cb\u003eExploring the confluence of ancient Chinese spirituality and modern Western environmental thought, \u003ci\u003eWild Mind, Wild Earth\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the unrecognized kinship of mind and nature that must be reanimated if we are to end our destruction of the planet.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEarth is embroiled in its sixth major extinction event—this time caused not by asteroids or volcanos, but by us. At bottom, preventing this sixth extinction is a spiritual\/philosophical problem, for it is the assumptions defining us and our relation to earth that are driving the devastation. Those assumptions insist on a fundamental separation of human and earth that devalues earth and enables our exploitative relation to it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eWild Mind, Wild Earth\u003c\/i\u003e, David Hinton explores modes of seeing and being that could save the planet by reestablishing a deep kinship between human and earth: the insights of primal cultures and the Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism of ancient China. He also shows how these insights have become well-established in the West over the last two hundred years, through the work of poets and philosophers and scientists. This offers marvelous hope and beauty—but like so many of us, Hinton recognizes the sixth extinction is now an inexorable and perhaps unstoppable tragedy. And he reveals how those primal\/Zen insights enable us to inhabit even the unfurling catastrophe as a profound kind of liberation. \u003ci\u003eWild Mind, Wild Earth\u003c\/i\u003e is a remarkable and revitalizing journey.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302162018677,"sku":"9781645471479","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781645471479_05003e83-701d-4b3d-bb01-0cf2c27834a1.jpg?v=1786024209"},{"product_id":"9781645472759","title":"Orient","description":"\u003cb\u003eJoin renowned author David Hinton on two walks into the wild beauty and archaeological ruins of the desert Southwest, where he maps the edges of consciousness and our place in the Cosmos.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWalks in the desert and journeys through Ch’an (Zen) enlightenment. Meditations on the nature of perception and on the nature of ruins. Topographies of mind and of space-time. Poetry and prose. This talismanic book is all of these and more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this poetic odyssey of nature writing that blurs the line between observer and landscape, Hinton’s project is nothing less than to map our place in the cosmos and awaken to our interconnectedness with the wild spontaneity of the natural world. It is the culmination of Hinton’s philosophical adventure, deeply informed by his nearly forty years of translating and contemplating China’s ancient poets, Taoist sages, and Ch’an masters. Like Henry David Thoreau and other great literary walkers, Hinton joins philosophical meditations with a keen eye for the slightest of nature’s details. In following these walks, we journey into wondrous and even ecstatic clarities about the nature of mind and existence itself.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302162477429,"sku":"9781645472759","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781645472759_85e5735c-5165-44a3-9b58-3385cc9e14b0.jpg?v=1786024252"},{"product_id":"9781611800166","title":"Hunger Mountain","description":"Come along with David Hinton on a series of walks through the wild beauty of Hunger Mountain, near his home in Vermont—excursions informed by the worldview he’s imbibed from his many years translating the classics of Chinese poetry and philosophy. His broad-ranging discussion offers insight on everything from the mountain landscape to the origins of consciousness and the Cosmos, from geology to Chinese landscape painting, from parenting to pictographic oracle-bone script, to a family chutney recipe. It’s a spiritual ecology that is profoundly ancient and at the same time resoundingly contemporary. Your view of the landscape—and of your place in it—may never be the same.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304576790901,"sku":"9781611800166","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781611800166_259e9dce-c20f-4449-be38-45f3b3e00237.jpg?v=1786023428"},{"product_id":"9781611809237","title":"The Way of Ch'an","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 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 \u003ci\u003eThe Way of Ch’an \u003c\/i\u003ebuild 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: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eI Ching (c. 12th century BCE)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLao Tzu (c. 6th century BCE\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBodhidharma (active c. 500-550 CE)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSixth Patriarch Prajna-Able (Hui Neng, 638-713)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCold Mountain (Han Shan: c. 8th-9th centuries)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYellow-Bitterroot Mountain (Huang Po, d. 850)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBlue-Cliff Record (c. 1040)                                                                 \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003eThrough 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.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304582033781,"sku":"9781611809237","price":27.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781611809237.jpg?v=1786023605"},{"product_id":"9781645472711","title":"The Carefree-Ease Record","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this radical new translation of a classic Ch’an (Zen) koan collection, David Hinton illuminates the Taoist dimensions of “carefree-ease,” the effortless joy of the enlightened mind in harmony with earth and cosmos.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst collected by the Ch’an master Wisdom-Expanse (Hung-Chih) in the twelfth century, this collection of one hundred \u003ci\u003ekung-ans\u003c\/i\u003e, or koans, is an essential text for students of Ch’an and Zen. These miniature masterpieces of Chinese philosophy and literature offer a unique way of penetrating directly into the essence of Ch’an teaching, and in this new translation, Hinton affords readers an opportunity to experience these koans in English like never before. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eParing away the later commentaries that are usually presented with these koans, Hinton lets the original stories stand on their own, revealing themselves as nothing less than poetic expressions of the awakened mind. A far cry from the transcendence of life-and-death that typifies the traditional Buddhist goal of nirvana, this awakening is distinctly earthy and grounded in the rhythms of nature, shaped by the centuries of Taoist tradition that preceded Ch’an. “Carefree ease,” writes Hinton, “is to move through life with the profound tranquility of the Cosmos itself as it unfurls through its perennial transformations.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFollowing his translation of \u003ci\u003eNo-Gate Gateway\u003c\/i\u003e (2018) and \u003ci\u003eBlue-Cliff Record\u003c\/i\u003e (2024), this volume marks the completion of Hinton’s project to translate all three of the classic koan collections.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305201414517,"sku":"9781645472711","price":26.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781645472711_c4cc3a8f-ad49-40a5-9879-3f6086b5c04c.jpg?v=1786024249"},{"product_id":"9781645472704","title":"The Blue-Cliff Record","description":"\u003cb\u003eA once-in-a-generation translation of the definitive Ch’an (Zen) koan collection from preeminent translator David Hinton.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Blue-Cliff Record\u003c\/i\u003e, a collection of Ch’an (Zen) koans stemming from the eleventh century, is a remarkable masterwork of classical Chinese literature, a philosophical text of profound power, and an active practice guide in use by Ch’an and Zen Buddhists all over the world. Rendered with his trademark lyricism and philosophical rigor, this new edition from renowned translator David Hinton presents a whole new \u003ci\u003eBlue-Cliff Record\u003c\/i\u003e. Full of poetry, storytelling, and characters both zany and profound, Hinton’s translation unveils the earthy insights of Ch’an’s original wisdom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough it carries a reputation for impenetrable paradox, \u003ci\u003eThe Blue-Cliff Record \u003c\/i\u003ewas not meant to be a teaching tool understood only through long instruction from Zen masters. Rather, it is a finely crafted text intended to create a direct and immediate experience of awakening, a text that insists on the need to trust oneself rather than teachers for insight. Embracing this, Hinton’s translation presents only the original koans and poems, free of the commentaries that usually shroud it. In doing so, he rekindles the provocative and illuminating fire of these one hundred classic koans.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305201807733,"sku":"9781645472704","price":26.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781645472704_6822be92-ee7d-4692-b9b0-7f86c03773c4.jpg?v=1786024248"},{"product_id":"9781611807424","title":"Awakened Cosmos","description":"\u003cb\u003eA deep and radically original exploration of Taoist and Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist wisdom through the lens of the life and work of Tu Fu, widely considered China's greatest classical poet.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat is consciousness but the Cosmos awakened to itself? \u003c\/b\u003eThis question is fundamental to the Taoist and Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist worldview that shapes classical Chinese poetry. A uniquely conceived biography, \u003ci\u003eAwakened Cosmos\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates that worldview through the life and work of Tu Fu (712-770 C.E.), China's greatest classical poet. Tu Fu's writing traces his life from periods of relative normalcy to years spent as an impoverished refugee amid the devastation of civil war. Exploring key poems to guide the reader through Tu Fu's dramatic life, \u003ci\u003eAwakened Cosmos\u003c\/i\u003e reveals Taoist\/Ch'an insight deeply lived across the full range of human experience.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEach chapter presents a poem in three stages: first, the original Chinese; then, an English translation in Hinton's masterful style; and finally, a lyrical essay that discusses the untranslatable philosophical dimensions of the poem. The result is nothing short of remarkable: a biography of the Cosmos awakened to itself in the form of a magisterial poet alive in T'ang Dynasty China.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThirty years ago, David Hinton published America's first full-length translation of Tu Fu's work. \u003ci\u003eAwakened Cosmos\u003c\/i\u003e is published simultaneously with a newly translated and substantially expanded version of that landmark translation: \u003ci\u003eThe Selected Poems of Tu Fu: Expanded and Newly Translated\u003c\/i\u003e (New Directions).","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312654791029,"sku":"9781611807424","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781611807424_660df33e-049a-4cef-8aa4-d3da9b27bda0.jpg?v=1786023549"},{"product_id":"the-four-chinese-classics","title":"The Four Chinese Classics","description":"\u003cb\u003eDiscover 4 seminal masterworks of Chinese thought—Lao Tzu’s \u003ci\u003eTao Te Ching\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eAnalects \u003c\/i\u003eof Confucius, the \u003ci\u003eChuang Tzu\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eMencius\u003c\/i\u003e—presented in one volume for the first time in nearly 2 centuries\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward-winning translator David Hinton offers fresh insights on the most influential texts on Taoism, Zen Buddhism, Chinese philosophy, and more\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHinton’s award–winning experience translating a wide range of ancient Chinese poets makes these books sing in English as never before. But these new versions are not only inviting and immensely readable—they also apply much-needed consistency to key philosophical terms in these texts, lending structural links and philosophical rigor heretofore unavailable in English. Breathing new life into these classics, Hinton’s new translations will stand as the definitive texts for our era.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps the most broadly influential spiritual text in human history, Lao Tzu’s \u003ci\u003eTao Te Ching\u003c\/i\u003e is the source of Taoist philosophy, which eventually developed into Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism. Equally influential in the social sphere, Confucius’ \u003ci\u003eAnalects\u003c\/i\u003e is the source of social wisdom in China. The \u003ci\u003eChuang Tzu\u003c\/i\u003e is the wild and wacky prose complement to the \u003ci\u003eTao Te Ching\u003c\/i\u003e. And with its philosophical storytelling, the \u003ci\u003eMencius\u003c\/i\u003e adds depth and complexity to Confucius’ vision.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484104794485,"sku":"9781619028340","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781619028340.jpg?v=1786266137"},{"product_id":"the-selected-poems-of-yang-wan-li","title":"The Selected Poems of Yang Wan-li","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn expansive selection of poems from the last giant of classical Chinese poetry’s golden age, Yang Wan-li (1127–1206 c.e.), masterfully translated by David Hinton.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA typical Yang Wan-li poem attends to immediate experience with profound clarity, and this attention usually leads to a moment of sudden awakening: a startling image or turn of thought, a surprising imaginative gesture, a twist of humor. As a government official, Yang undertook many long and arduous journeys that exposed him to both breathtaking landscapes and hardships of hunger, exhaustion, bitter weather, and dangerous rapids in stark gorges. It is in this crucible of tranquil beauty and existential danger that he forged a poetry of self-realization deeply informed by Ch’an (Zen) Buddhist insight. With nothing more than a crystalline attention to the present moment, Yang’s poems find enlightenment everywhere: in a fly, for instance, sunning on a windowsill. Hinton’s translations give a remarkably modern voice to Yang’s journeys through the perennial mysteries of consciousness, revealing for a new generation why his poetry has captivated readers for nearly a millennium.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487855681909,"sku":"9781645475002","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781645475002.jpg?v=1786355078"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-david-hinton.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}