Books in the Translations from the Asian Classics series

Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers), also known as the story of the Forty-Six (or Forty-Seven) Ronin, is the most famous and perennially popular of all Japanese dramas. Written in the eighteenth century as a puppet play, it is now best known through Kabuki theater performances.This edition includes a new preface, introduction, and notes.

This translation of the 5th-century Indian epic love story of Kannaki and Kovalan follows the conventions of classical Tamil poetry and is told in three phases: the erotic, the mythic, and the heroic. The author provides an introduction to the poem.

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

The first anthology of Sung dynasty tz'u poems available in English, Beyond Spring provides a representative body of translations, 150 in all. Keeping true to the original music, Landau's faithful translations capture the phrasing and rhythms crucial to Tz'u.

The first introduction to the classical Chinese theater of Ming drama contains highlights from six of the best plays of the period and lively commentary on each, providing the context necessary for Western readers to grasp the scope of the genre.

This volume presents translations of over 200 poems by the master of The Way of Poetry, who is generally considered to be the last great poet of the classical uta form.

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.

This unique anthology is the first representative collection of Japanese literature from one of the most creative periods in Japanese culture, known variously as the Edo or the Tokugawa. It includes a wide range of fiction, poetry, and drama, and also essays, literary criticism, folk stories, and other noncanonical works with a number of new translations.

This is one of the most important works in Indian literature and a source of religious inspiration in both medieval and contemporary Vaishnavism.

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.

Two prominent translators present the first complete English-language edition of one of India's greatest works of classical literature: the Purananuru. This anthology of four hundred poems by more than 150 poets between the first and third centuries C.E. delves into living and dying, despair, love, poverty, and the changing nature of existence.

The first book in English to trace the resurrected skeleton, this text translates major adaptations while drawing parallels to Jesus's encounter with a skull and the European tradition of the Dance of Death.

Li Zhi's iconoclastic interpretations of history, religion, literature, and social relations have fascinated Chinese intellectuals for centuries. His approach synthesized Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist ethics and incorporated the Neo-Confucian idealism of such thinkers as Wang Yangming (1472-1529). The result was a series of heretical writings that caught fire among Li Zhi's contemporaries, despite an imperial ban on their publication, and intrigued Chinese audiences long after his death. Translated for the first time into English, Li Zhi's bold challenge to established doctrines will captivate anyone curious about the origins of such subtly transgressive works as the sixteenth-century play The Peony Pavilion or the eighteenth-century novel Dream of the Red Chamber. In A Book to Burn and a Book to Keep (Hidden), Li Zhi confronts accepted ideas about gender, questions the true identity of history's heroes and villains, and offers his own readings of Confucius, Laozi, and the Buddha. Fond of vivid sentiment and sharp expression, Li Zhi made no distinction between high and low literary genres in his literary analysis. He refused to support sanctioned ideas about morality and wrote stinging social critiques. Li Zhi praised scholars who risked everything to expose extortion and misrule. In this sophisticated translation, English-speaking readers encounter the best of this heterodox intellectual's vital contribution to Chinese thought and culture.

These fragments outline a rudimentary theory of political order modeled on the natural world that recognizes the role of human self-interest in maintaining stable rule. Casting the natural world as an independent, amoral system, Shen Dao situates the source of moral judgment firmly within the human sphere.

Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds is a collection of twenty-five medieval Japanese tales of border crossings and the fantastic, featuring demons, samurai, talking animals, amorous plants, and journeys to supernatural realms. With images from the original scroll paintings, it illuminates a rich world of literary, Buddhist, and visual culture.

Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds is a collection of twenty-five medieval Japanese tales of border crossings and the fantastic, featuring demons, samurai, talking animals, amorous plants, and journeys to supernatural realms. With images from the original scroll paintings, it illuminates a rich world of literary, Buddhist, and visual culture.

The Tale of Cho Ung is one of the most widely read and beloved stories of Choson Korea. The anonymously written tale recounts the adventures of protagonist Cho Ung as he overcomes obstacles and grows into a heroic young man. This first translation into English offers a glimpse into early modern Korean vernacular and popular literature.

Hidden and Visible Realms is one of the most significant medieval Chinese collections of stories of the fantastic and otherworldly phenomena, distinguished by its varied contents, elegant writing style, and Buddhist influence. This annotated first complete English translation explains the key themes and textual history of the work.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Tales of the Heike is one of the most influential works in Japanese literature and culture, remaining even today a crucial source for fiction, drama, and popular media. Originally written in the mid-thirteenth century, it features a cast of vivid characters and chronicles the epic Genpei war, a civil conflict that marked the end of the power of the Heike and changed the course of Japanese history. The Tales of the Heike focuses on the lives of both the samurai warriors who fought for two powerful twelfth-century Japanese clans-the Heike (Taira) and the Genji (Minamoto)-and the women with whom they were intimately connected.The Tales of the Heike provides a dramatic window onto the emerging world of the medieval samurai and recounts in absorbing detail the chaos of the battlefield, the intrigue of the imperial court, and the gradual loss of a courtly tradition. The book is also highly religious and Buddhist in its orientation, taking up such issues as impermanence, karmic retribution, attachment, and renunciation, which dominated the Japanese imagination in the medieval period.In this new, abridged translation, Burton Watson offers a gripping rendering of the work's most memorable episodes. Particular to this translation are the introduction by Haruo Shirane, the woodblock illustrations, a glossary of characters, and an extended bibliography.

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.