After Many Autumns (A Collection of Chinese Buddhist Literature)

After Many Autumns (A Collection of Chinese Buddhist Literature)

  • $45.00
    Precio unitario por 
Impuesto incluido. Los gastos de envío se calculan en la pantalla de pagos.


Book Specification

Item Code: NAJ868
Author: John Balcom
Publisher: Buddha Light Art and Living Pvt Ltd
Language: English
Edition: 2012
ISBN: 9789382017004
Pages: 414
Cover: Paperback
Other Details 8.5 inch X 5.5 inch
Weight 450 gm

Book Description

About the Book

Fifteen hundred years of Chinese Buddhist poetry and prose is brought together in After Many Autumns: collecting the voices of monastics, hermits, sages, and scholars as they share China’s Buddhist history in their lives and work. Representing a wide range of subject matters and styles, the collection hums with celebrations of meetings and partings, of lyrical longings for days gone by, of form and emptiness, all against the backdrop of nature’s infusing light and shadow on personal moments of enlightenment. Fluidly translated and annotated, and complete with biographical and historical notes, After Many Autumns is an ideal companion for lovers of impactful writing and spiritual wisdom.

Introduction

There have been few collections that attempt the goal of After Many Autumns, and none with its specific scope: to collect great works of Chinese Buddhist literature throughout the history of Buddhism in China. Inclusiveness was a guiding principle of the collection. Though much of the writing is drawn from the Chan School, other Buddhist traditions and lineages are included as well. Many of the selected authors are monks, though works by female monastics are also featured, in addition to the writings of rulers, scholars, merchants, and hermits. Poetry is the dominant genre, though several prose works are also included, with several poems realized in beautiful calligraphic script, itself its own separate art form.

What the selected works share is a heritage of Buddhist themes and imagery, in all its staggering variety. The level of Buddhist content of the works vary. Some are direct, doctrinal expositions, others deal with Buddhist concerns, and some are simply informed by a Buddhist aesthetic. What makes these works “Buddhist Literature” is less determined by an investigation into each work or author’s specific religious makeup, and more determined by the generations of Chinese Buddhist readers who have found wisdom and inspiration in the literature collected within.

The other feature that brings the many works included in After Many Autumns together is the Chinese language itself. Translation necessarily involves making decisions of interpretation, and the translation of After Many Autumns was necessarily complicated and multifaceted. The greatest Chinese poetry is often founded upon its ability to offer poignant ambiguity, and to invest depth of meaning into few characters. Additionally, Chinese Buddhist literature often contends with translation itself, and can be awash in Indic concepts and transliteration. Making decisions regarding how to unpack these ambiguities can be difficult, and the editors of this collection have attempted to follow a moderate path: the goal has been to make the translations sensible to an English reader, while preserving moments of mystery and litheness. When an ambiguous passage can be interpreted in a Buddhist fashion or as plain language, the Buddhist interpretation has prevailed, and explanatory notes provided to explain its significance.

Origins of Buddhism in China

The origins of Buddhism in China are more complex than what is allowed by a single defining moment. Though historical accounts necessarily omit the gradual cultural dissemination of neighboring peoples, the textual accounts of Buddhism’s journey to China have a profound impact on Chinese Buddhism’s self-conception, and most importantly, upon the evolution of Chinese Buddhist literature.

The most popular narrative account of the introduction of Buddhism into China occurs in the Book of the Later Han. The text mentions a dream of Emperor Ming of the Han dynasty in which he sees a vision of a tall golden man. The following morning the emperor asks his ministers if they know of such a man, and is told that to the west, in India, they worship a figure named Buddha that matches such a description. The emperor dispatches an envoy to India in 64 CE to learn more, and his men return with the monks Kasyapa-matanga and Dharmaraksha along with a host of Buddhist relics and texts. These two monks go on to complete the first Chinese translations of the Buddhist sutras, of which only the Sutra in Forty- Two Sections survives today.

Aside from this story there is textual evidence of Buddhists in and around China even earlier. The Records of the Three Kingdoms mentions that by 2 BCE Buddhism was already present in the Bactrian Kingdom to the north, in what is modern-day Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, and that it was gradually spreading towards the Han capital in Luoyang. A Brief Account of the Wei Dynasty’ mentions that a scholar named Jing Lu was taught the Buddhist teachings by the Bactrian envoy Yicun in 130 BCE. This account also mentions various names that Buddhists use to refer to themselves, including Chinese translations of upasaka, sramana, and sravaka, indicating that the Chinese adoption of Buddhist language predated the wholesale translation of the sutras.

Following the arrival of Kasyapa-Matanga and Dharmaraksha, more Buddhist monastics came to China and began the work of translation, creating the earliest Chinese Buddhist literature. Many of these early translations are no longer extant, but notable sutras from this period include the earliest Chinese Dharmapada, translated by Vighna in 224 CE, and the first Chinese Amitabha Sutra, translated by Zhiqian in 228 CEo.

Though not the earliest translator, by far the most significant and celebrated is the fourth century monk Kumarajiva (344-413 CE). Born in the Kucha kingdom, now within modem-day Xinjiang, China, Kumarajiva gained notoriety for his intelligence and scholarship and was eventually brought to China by the Buddhist Emperor Yao Xing to set up a translation center in Changan. As a translator, Kumarajiva was both skillful and prolific, creating translations of the Diamond Sutra, Prajnaparamita Sutra, Vimalakirti Sutra, Lotus Sutra, Amitabha Sutra, and Nagarjuna’s Treatise on the Middle Way, among many others. Kumarajiva’s translations are known for their clear, natural writing, and as such are often still read and chanted today, even if they have been supplanted by later, more precise translations.

Kumarajiva’s translations allowed Chinese Buddhism to grow and diversify, and lead to the founding of Buddhist “schools” or teaching traditions centered around specific texts. For example, Kumarajiva’s translations of the Treatise on the Middle Way, the Treatise in a Hundred Verses, and the Treatise of the Twelve Aspects were introduced to Southern China by Daosheng, leading to Jizang’s founding of the Three Treatise School in the sixth century. Kumarajiva’s translation of the Lotus Sutra became the basis for Zhiyi to found the Tiantai School in the sixth century as well. The importance of Kumarajiva’s translations in creating uniquely Buddhist Chinese idioms and their impact on the aesthetic of later Chinese Buddhist literature cannot be overstated.

CONTENTS
Introduction xvii
I. PRE-TANG DYNASTY
1 The True Nature of Equality 4
2 Poems on the Four States 5
3 Ten Admonishments 7
4 Faith in Mind 11
5 Do Not Talk of Some one's Shortcomings 18
6 It Is Not Easy to Know People 20
7 Text of One Thousand Characters 22
II. TANG DYNASTY
1 To Free Oneself from Affliction Is Not Easy 28
2 One Strike and I Forgot All I Knew 30
3 Formless Gatha 32
4 Song of Enlightenment 35
5 Visiting Xiangji Temple 52
6 Thought While Traveling at Night 54
7 Returning at Night to Mount Lumen 56
8 Climbing Mount Xian with Some Friends 57
9 This Ravaged Old Tree Leans in the Cold Forest 59
10 Seeing Off Master Lingche 61
11 All Sentient Beings Gather from the Ten Directions 63
12 Liberation Comes from Not Arguing about True or False 65
13 The Water Is Clear and Limpid 67
14 Eliminating Lowly Words 69
15 The Flower Is Not a Flower. 71
16 A Poem on Swallows to Show Old Man Liu 72
17 Wine Shared Together 74
18 The Spring of White Clouds 75
19 Contemplating the Illusory 76
20 Flowers in a Monastic Courtyard 77
21 Pity the Farmers 79
22 Viewing Mountains with Master Haochu 81
23 Spring South of the Yangze River 83
24 Visiting Chan Master Yaoshan 85
25 Ode to the Wooden Fish and Drum 87
26 Gatha on Transmitting Mind 89
27 Admonishments upon Sending My Son to Leave the Home Life 91
28 Letter of Farewell to My Mother 94
29 Do Not Seek Outside 99
30 Amazing! Amazing! 100
31 The Fragrance of the Lotuses Have Faded, the Green Leaves Have Withered 102
32 How Can We Escape the Sorrows and Regrets of Life? 104
33 For Forty Years My Home and Country 105
34 The Rain Rattles beyond the Curtain 106
35 The Flowers of the Forest Lose Their Spring Red 107
36 Silently, I Climb the Western Tower Alone 108
37 Poem on Condescending to Instruct 110
38 Self Nature 112
39 Inscribed in Nan Zhuang, Outside the Capital 114
40 Unwilling to Leave Through the Empty Door 116
41 Searching for a Sword for Thirty Years 118
42 The Whole Day Spent Looking for Spring but Not Seeing Spring 120
43 Those Who Study the Way Do Not Recognize the Truth 122
44 Living in the Mountains 124
III. SONG DYNASTY
1 Autumn Thoughts 128
2 Recalling Minchi with My Brother Ziyou 130
3 Written on a Wall in Xilin Temple 131
4 Misty Rain on Mount Lu 132
5 Gatha for Donglin Temple on Mount Lu 133
6 Seeing Off Wang Zili with Water from Bodhisattva Springs in Wuchang 134
7 Recollections of the Red Cliffs 135
8 Composed While Residing at Dinghui Monastery in Huangzhou 137
9 When Does the Bright Moon Appear? 138
10 Listen Not to the Pitter-Patter of the Rain on the Leaves 139
11 Ten Long Years Obscure the Living from the Dead 140
12 Climbing Feilai Peak 142
13 Yi and Lu Were Two Old Men 143
14 Where Has Spring Gone? 145
15 All the Generals Talked about Obtaining High Rank 146
16 Deep, Deep Is the Courtyard. How Deep? 148
17 Song of Right and Wrong 150
18 Poem in Praise of Coming from the West 152
19 Of the Fallow Field before the Mountain 154
20 Ruiyan Always Said, "Master, Are You Awake?" 156
21 Family Teachings 158
22 Devote Your Mind to Heaven and Earth 160
23 Concerning the One Hundred Foot Pole, I Have Made Progress 162
24 For Love I Seek the Light by Pouring over Books 163
25 At Rest from a Myriad Affairs, Foolishness Takes Over 165
26 When I Practice at Ease 167
27 A Mandarin Duck upon a Pillow, Splendid Curtains 169
28 In the Daodao Forest, the Birds Sing 171
29 When Chuanzi Went Home That Year 173
30 Liberation While Sitting or Dying While Standing 174
31 I Only Travel to Old Places I Have Been 176
32 Undergoing Ten Thousand Things Cannot Compare to One Who Retreats 177
33 Watching the Sky All Day without Lifting One's Head 179
34 Old Juzhi Loved to Teach with One Finger 181
35 Encouraging Cultivation 183
36 I Have a Single Bright Pearl 185
37 A Slip of a Boat on Boundless Waters 187
38 Poems on the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures 189
39 Worldly Affairs Are Short as a Spring Dream 193
40 The Revelry Has Ended, Fragrance Washed Away 195
41 Green Mountains Enjoy Talking with Noblemen 197
42 Night Walk on Yellow Sand Road 198
43 When I Was Young, I Never Tasted Worry 199
44 Too Much! I'm Getting Old! 200
45 To Show My Sons 203
46 Dream Record Sent to Shi Bohun 204
47 The Spring Moon at Night-a Frog Croaks 206
48 Thoughts on Reading 208
49 Passing Dongting 210
50 The Way Is Not in Language 213
51 Where Has the Character for "Worries" Come From? 215
52 Crossing Lingding Sea 217
53 Crossing Wujiang by Boat 219
54 Listening to the Falling Rain 220
IV. YUAN DYNASTY
1 Epiphany from Cultivation 224
2 Sewing Poem 226
3 On the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity 228
4 Xizhai Pure Land Poems 230
V. MING DYNASTY
1 Advice for the World 246
2 FourVows 248
3 On the Kitchen 252
4 There Is Water in the Cauldron 255
5 Seven Strokes Across 257
6 Reverent Acts of the Monastics 261
7 The Base Man Projects His Faults on Others 272
8 Treatise on the King of Treasures Samadhi 274
9 Song of a Life 277
10 Rolling, Rolling the Yangze Flows East 279
11 Foundations: Some Admonitions 281
12 Grieve for the Falling Leaves 284
VI. QING DYNASTY
1 In Praise of Monastics 288
2 Avoiding Meaningless Words 292
3 Baiyun Temple in Minquan County 294
4 Such Thoughts Which Are Unwholesome, Do Not Think of Them 296
5 Aphorisms on Running a Household 298
6 Do Not Say That One Can Deceive with a Single Thought 300
7 Written on Bamboo and Rock 302
8 One Filled with Pride Is Easy to Damage 303
9 When Someone Speaks of Me 305
10 Exposition on Wealth, Rank, Poverty, and Humility 307
11 Lines Describing Huiju Temple 309
VII. REPUBLIC OF CHINA
1 True Friendship 314
2 I Do Not Know What It Means to Be a Gentleman 315
3 Thoughts on My Fiftieth Birthday 317
4 Study Is Valuable for Knowing What Is Important. 319
5 Humble Table, Wise Fare 321
6 The Cup Falls to the Ground 328
7 Though Others Do Not Return the Good I Do 330
8 A Letter to Tiaozheng 332
9 Posthumous Admonitions 334
10 Speaking the Dharma, the Blue Lotus of Nine Platforms 336
11 Dharma Words 338
12 VIII. TEMPLE COUPLETS
1 Temple Couplets 341
List of Authors and Calligraphers 357
List of Titles and First Lines 360
Glossary 369













También recomendamos