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Title: Road to Heaven: Encounters With Chinese Hermits by Bill Porter, Steven R. Johnson ISBN: 1-56279-041-2 Publisher: Mercury House Pub. Date: June, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.21 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Trail of the Tao
Comment: What a great book! An American expatriate living at a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan takes advantage of the lifting of travel restrictions to see if China's legendary tradition of hermits still endures. He arrives in 1989, during the student demonstrations in Tienanmen Square. The officials assure him that the decadent hermits have been completely wiped out long ago. In spite of this, the scholar presses inland to the heart of China. He finds himself drawn to the Chungnan mountains- the mighty spine of the dragon, the bones of China itself, dividing the Yangtze country in the south from the Yellow river country to the north. He doesn't realize that this is where shamanism first arose in China, if not in the human world. This was where the Immortals lived. This was where Lao-tzu wrote the Tao te Ching. Here, he finds his hermits, Buddhist and Taoist, young and old, male and female. I think that the best part in the entire book was when one ancient hermit, who had been living in the mountains since 1939, asked the author, "Who is this "Mao" that you speak of?"
After his initial contact with Chungnan hermits (he would return) the author heads back down into modern China. He finds that the Tienanmen Massacre has occurred.
Upon reading this book I got a sense that the true bones of China were untouched by Communism, as they will no doubt be left untouched by Corporatism. I found this book to be inspiring- you could not invent a piece of fiction this good. However, I also found myself wishing that the author had brought that ancient hermit back with him to face down the butchers of Tienanmen.
One man centered in the Tao can do much....
Rating: 5
Summary: Startling and hopeful
Comment: Bill Porter,a.k.a. Red Pine is a wonderful tranlator of poetry. His collected songs of Cold mOuntain and Stone House are cherished companions. When I came upon this book, it intrigued me: hermits STILL living in China? Well Red Pine and his friend Steven Johnson go forth into some extraordinary parts of China{including a heavily fortified area near the main nuclear works of China} to find some astonishing people. Some of the temples were still functioning,most had been decimated by Maos cadres during the Cultural revolution. Still the air of hope is there. Old Taoists' lving alone for years upon years,almost completely disassocaited from the turbulence of the past 50 years. Mostly it is a remarkable story of hope,of faith and belief held together through some of the most horrific suffering ever inflicted on a civilization. The cover Photograph , of an aged nun praying is haunting and quite beautiful, as are most of the photos which accompany the text. Bill Porter lets these remakable people do the talking, and does not posture or place himself unduly into the stories{which is refreshing in and of itself} Highly recommneded!
Rating: 3
Summary: Travellogue to China
Comment: I was pleased at the start of this book, to have some geographical descriptions but it became more of a travel diary of where to go and what not to do. It is understandable that such an elusive prey as solitary hermits requires determined searching and physical effort, but less of the travellogue and more of the interviews may be useful. If you want to follow in some of Porter and Johnson's footsteps, be sure to have real time stamina and energy. This appears to be an exhaustive examination of the roads to travel. Little here to gain from insight and spiritual discovery, though there are a few gems hidden in the very wordy treatise. Not recommended for impatient travellers.
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Title: The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain by Hanshan, Red Pine, John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld ISBN: 1556591403 Publisher: Copper Canyon Press Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Clouds Should Know Me by Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China by Red Pine, Mike O'Connor, Andrew Schelling ISBN: 0861711432 Publisher: Wisdom Publications Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Zen Works of Stonehouse: Poems and Talks of a Fourteenth-Century Chinese Hermit by Qinggong, Ch'Ing-Hung, Red Pine, Stonehouse, Bill Porter ISBN: 156279101X Publisher: Mercury House Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Lao-Tzu's Taoteching: With Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years by Lao-Tzu, Red Pine, Lao Tzu ISBN: 1562790854 Publisher: Mercury House Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Poems of the Masters : China's Classic Anthology of T'ang and Sung Dynasty Verse by Red Pine, Wang Wei, Li Bai, Tu Fu, Wang Po, Ou-yang Hsiu, Su Shi ISBN: 1556591950 Publisher: Copper Canyon Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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