Poetry and Zen

Author: Cheng Yalin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-10-01
Features: This book attempts to explore the relationship between poetry and Zen within the broader system of Buddhism, Zhuangzi, Xuan, Chan, and poetry, following the insights of two great masters of aesthetics. It seeks to trace a conscious line of aesthetic consciousness formation and development by reducing Buddhism, Zhuangzi, Xuan, Chan, and poetry to universal psychological experiences. Here, there is the collision and integration of Indian Buddhist rational speculation, religious will with Zhuangzi's view of unity between heaven and humanity, and Xuan philosophy's life philosophy of finding meaning and resonance. There is also the elevation of the transcendent mindset in Chan, as well as the emergence and development of the poet's aesthetic consciousness and the construction of aesthetic understanding. Although literature and history are not as orderly as one might expect, they are certainly not chaotic. Because it always radiates and expands around the axis of pursuing human freedom under the constraints of specific social and historical conditions, we can grasp the basic outline of its development. Of course, undertaking this work brings both the confusion and melancholy of "frosty trees lean faintly beyond the distant sky, turbulent currents flicker in the setting sun" and the joy and relief of "wild scenery is uninterrupted by mountains, the sky's light flows directly into the water." It seems that culture can only and always playfully accompany those who think deeply about it.