The Blue-Cliff Record

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A once-in-a-generation translation of the definitive Ch’an (Zen) koan collection from preeminent translator David Hinton.

The Blue-Cliff Record, 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 Blue-Cliff Record. Full of poetry, storytelling, and characters both zany and profound, Hinton’s translation unveils the earthy insights of Ch’an’s original wisdom.

Though it carries a reputation for impenetrable paradox, The Blue-Cliff Record was 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.“Another translation of The Blue-Cliff Record? The text has been admirably translated already, several times. But David Hinton adds something rare: a deeply informed and radically different take on Ch’an. As developed here and in earlier books, Hinton sees Ch’an not so much a school of Buddhism as a uniquely indigenous Taoist mysticism in which awakening is radical embeddedness in the natural world rather than transcendence of it—an important perspective in our time of planetary crisis. Readers familiar with The Blue-Cliff Record will be disoriented by the thoroughness of Hinton’s re-Englishing, which is, for me, the pleasure, the puzzle, and the wonder of this book.”
—Norman Fischer, Roshi, author of The World Could Be OtherwiseDAVID HINTON has published numerous books of poetry and essays and many translations of ancient Chinese poetry and philosophy. This widely acclaimed work has earned Hinton a Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous fellowships from NEA and NEH, and both of the major awards given for poetry translation in the United States: the Landon Translation Award (Academy of American Poets) and the PEN American Translation Award. Most recently, Hinton received a lifetime achievement award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His website is https://www.davidhinton.net/.US

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