Books in the Translations from the Asian Classics series

Only by inhabiting Dao (the Way of Nature) and dwelling in its unity can humankind achieve true happiness and freedom, in both life and death. This is Daoist philosophy's central tenet, espoused by the person-or group of people-known as Zhuangzi (369?-286? BCE) in a text by the same name. To be free, individuals must discard rigid distinctions between right and wrong, and follow a course of action not motivated by gain or striving. When one ceases to judge events as good or bad, man-made suffering disappears, and natural suffering is embraced as part of life.Zhuangzi elucidates this mystical philosophy through humor, parable, and anecdote, using non sequitur and even nonsense to illuminate truths beyond the boundaries of ordinary logic. Boldly imaginative and inventively written, the Zhuangzi floats free of its historical period and society, addressing the spiritual nourishment of all people across time. One of the most justly celebrated texts of the Chinese tradition, the Zhuangzi is read by thousands of English-language scholars each year, yet, until now, only in the Wade-Giles romanization. Burton Watson's conversion to pinyin in this book brings the text in line with how Chinese scholars, and an increasing number of other scholars, read it.

A translation of "The Lotus Sutra" which has been regarded as one of the illustrious scriptures in the Mahayana Buddhist canon.

The earliest and most influential commentary on the Zhuangzi is that of Guo Xiang (265-312). Richard John Lynn's translation of the Zhuangzi is the first to follow Guo's commentary in its interpretive choices. Its guiding principle is how Guo read the text, which allows for the full integration of the Zhuangzi with Guo's commentary.

Japan's oldest surviving narrative, the eighth-century Kojiki, chronicles the mythical origins of its islands and their ruling dynasty through a diverse array of genealogies, tales, and songs that have helped to shape the modern nation's views of its ancient past. Gustav Heldt's engaging new translation of this revered classic aims to make the Kojiki accessible to contemporary readers while staying true to the distinctively dramatic and evocative appeal of the original's language. It conveys the rhythms that structure the Kojiki's animated style of storytelling and translates the names of its many people and places to clarify their significance within the narrative. An introduction, glossaries, maps, and bibliographies offer a wealth of additional information about Japan's earliest extant record of its history, literature, and religion.

This translation presents the Analects in a revolutionary new format that, for the first time in any language, distinguishes the original words of the Master from the later sayings of his disciples and their followers, enabling readers to experience China's most influential philosophical work in its true historical, social, and political context.

This selection of poetry and prose by Ghalib provides an accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the preeminent Urdu poet of the nineteenth century. Ghalib's poems, especially his ghazals, remain beloved throughout South Asia for their arresting intelligence and lively wit. His letters-informal, humorous, and deeply personal-reveal the vigor of his prose style and the warmth of his friendships. These careful translations allow readers with little or no knowledge of Urdu to appreciate the wide range of Ghalib's poetry, from his gift for extreme simplicity to his taste for unresolvable complexities of structure.Beginning with a critical introduction for nonspecialists and specialists alike, Frances Pritchett and Owen Cornwall present a selection of Ghalib's works, carefully annotating details of poetic form. Their translation maintains line-for-line accuracy and thereby preserves complex poetic devices that play upon the tension between the two lines of each verse. The book includes whole ghazals, selected individual verses from other ghazals, poems in other genres, and letters. The book also includes a glossary, the Urdu text of the original poetry, and an appendix containing Ghalib's comments on his own verses.

Contains the translations of over 200 poems written by Saigyo (1118-1190), one of Japan's most influential traditional poets. The majority of the poetry is written in the 31-syllable "tanka" form, which was most favoured by the Japanese Royal Court.

Han Fei Tzu (280?-233 BC) was a prince of the ruling house of Han. A representative of the Fa-chia, or legalist, school of philosophy, he produced the final exposition of its theories. His handbook deals with the problem of preserving and strengthening the state.

Written for English-language readers, this Taoist book of religious and philosophical Chinese writings explores the centrality of Wang's commentaries in Chinese thought, the position of the Tao-te Ching in East Asian tradition, and Wang's short life and the era in which he lived.

Dating back to the eighth century C.E., the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch is a foundational text of Chan/Zen Buddhism that reveals much about the early evolution of Chinese Chan and the ideological origins of Japanese Zen and Korean Son. Purported to be the recorded words of the famed Huineng, who was understood to be the Sixth Patriarch of Chan and the father of all later Chan/Zen Buddhism, the Platform Sutra illuminates fundamental Chan Buddhist principles in an expressive sermon that describes how Huineng overcame great personal and ideological challenges to uphold the exalted lineage of the enlightened Chan patriarchs while realizing the ultimate Buddhist truth of the original, pure nature of all sentient beings.Huineng seems to reject meditation, the value of good karma, and the worship of the buddhas, conferring instead a set of "e;formless precepts"e; on his audience, marked by embedded notes in the text. In his central message, an inherent, perfect buddha nature stands as the original true condition of all sentient beings, which people of all backgrounds can experience for themselves. Philip Yampolsky's masterful translation contains extensive explanatory notes and an edited, amended version of the Chinese text. His introduction critically considers the background and historical setting of the work and locates Huineng's place within the history and legends of Chan Buddhism. This new edition features a foreword by Morten Schlutter further situating the Platform Sutra within recent historical research and textual evidence, and an updated glossary that includes the modern pinyin system of transcription.

The Buddhist priest Kenko clung to tradition, Buddhism, and the pleasures of solitude, and the themes he treats in his Essays, written sometime between 1330 and 1332, are all suffused with an unspoken acceptance of Buddhist beliefs.

One of the most influential commentaries on the Yijing (I Ching), or Scripture of Change, for the past thousand years has been that of Zhu Xi (1130-1200). Joseph A. Adler's translation of the Yijing includes for the first time in any Western language Zhu Xi's commentary in full.

Compiled in the early tenth century, the Kokinsh¿ is an anthology of some eleven hundred poems that became celebrated as the cornerstone of the Japanese vernacular poetic tradition. This book offers an inviting and immersive selection of roughly one-third of the anthology in English translation.

By 1816, Japan had recovered from the famines of the 1780s and moved beyond the political reforms of the 1790s. Despite persistent economic and social stresses, the country seemed to be approaching a new period of growth. The idea that the shogunate would not last forever was far from anyone's mind.Yet, in that year, an anonymous samurai author completed one of the most detailed critiques of Edo society known today. Writing as Buyo Inshi, "e;a retired gentleman of Edo,"e; he expresses a profound despair with the state of the realm and with people's behavior and attitudes. He sees decay wherever he turns and believes the world will soon descend into war.Buyo shows a familiarity with many corners of Edo life that one might not expect in a samurai. He describes the corruption of samurai officials; the suffering of the poor in villages and cities; the operation of brothels; the dealings of blind moneylenders; the selling and buying of temple abbotships; and the dubious strategies townspeople use in the law courts. Perhaps the frankness of his account, which contains a wealth of concrete information about Edo society, made him prefer to remain anonymous.This volume contains a full translation of Buyo's often-quoted but rarely studied work by a team of specialists on Edo society. Together with extensive annotation of the translation, the volume includes an introduction that situates the text culturally and historically.

The earliest and most influential commentary on the Zhuangzi is that of Guo Xiang (265-312). Richard John Lynn's translation of the Zhuangzi is the first to follow Guo's commentary in its interpretive choices. Its guiding principle is how Guo read the text, which allows for the full integration of the Zhuangzi with Guo's commentary.

In the early eighteenth century, the noblewoman Ogimachi Machiko composed a memoir of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, the powerful samurai she had served as a concubine for twenty years. Elegant, poetic, and revealing, In the Shelter of the Pine is the most significant work of literature by a woman of Japan's early modern era.

In the late eighteenth century, Muhammad Sadiq Kashghari wrote an account of religious and political conflicts in the Tarim Basin, part of present-day Xinjiang, on the eve of the Qing conquest. This volume presents the complete, long recension of In Remembrance of the Saints, translated for the first time into any language.

After a Choson faction realigned Korea with the Ming dynasty, the Manchu attacked in 1627 and again a decade later, forcing Korea to support the newly founded Qing dynasty. The Korean scholar-official Na Man'gap (1592-1642) recorded the second Manchu invasion in the only first-person account chronicling the dramatic Korean resistance.

In this Ming-era novel, historical narrative, raucous humor, and the supernatural are interwoven to tell the tale of an attempt to overthrow the Song dynasty. Quelling the Demons' Revolt is centered on the rebellion led by Wang Ze in 1047-48, warning of the vulnerability of a world plagued by demonic forces as well as mundane corruption.

A revolutionary archaeological discovery-considered by some to be as momentous as the revelation of the Dead Sea Scrolls-sheds fascinating new light on one of the most important texts of ancient Chinese civilization.

Top Graduate Zhang Xie is the first extant play in the Chinese southern dramatic tradition and a milestone in the history of Chinese literature. Dating from the early fifteenth century, but possibly composed earlier, it relates the story of a talented scholar who sets off for the capital to take the imperial exams.

Three archeological discoveries that reorient scholarship on early chinese civilization.

This volume presents two memoirs by famous men of letters, Reminiscences of the Plum Shadows Convent by Mao Xiang (1611-93) and Miscellaneous Records of Plank Bridge by Yu Huai (1616-96), that recall times spent with courtesans. They evoke the courtesan world in the final decades of the Ming dynasty and the aftermath of its collapse.

A Couple of Soles is a classic comedic romance by the seventeenth-century playwright Li Yu. The first major comedy from late imperial China to appear in English translation, it provides an unparalleled view of the theater in seventeenth-century China.

A thousand years ago, a young Japanese girl began a diary; from it, she skillfully created an autobiography later in life. This reader's edition streamlines Sonja Arntzen and Moriyuki Ito's acclaimed translation of the Sarashina Diary for general readers and classroom use, offering insight into the author's world and the diary's textual history.

The Book of Swindles, a seventeenth-century story collection, offers a panoramic guide to the art of deception. Ostensibly a manual for self-protection, it presents a tableau of criminal ingenuity in late Ming China. Each story comes with commentary by the author, who expounds a moral lesson while also speaking as a connoisseur of the swindle.

Qu Yuan was as important to the development of Chinese literature as Homer was to the development of Western literature. This translation attempts to replicate what the work might have meant to those for whom it was originally intended. It accounts for the new view of the state of Chu that recent discoveries have inspired.

One of our most acclaimed translators of Chinese drama and a specialist of Ming period literature translates one of the greatest Chinese tragedies of the first half of the seventeenth century, available for the first time in English.

Hanan has translated six of the twelve stories in the Sh'ier lou collection, which is the most famous individual collection of vernacular stories from pre-modern China. With Hanan's introduction and notes, and containing with Li Yu's emphasis marks, notes, and critiques, this volume will interest students of Chinese literature and general readers alike.