The Essential Chuang Tzu

by Sam Hamill

Book Overview

The Chuang Tzu has been translated into English numerous times, but never with the freshness, accessibility, and accuracy of this remarkable rendering. Here the immediacy of Chuang Tzu's language is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570624577
• ISBN13: 9781570624575
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Shambhala
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

"All ten thousand things are one horse."

It has been said that if we want to know "the force that keeps the sky blue, the stars burning, the mountains high and still, the rivers running and the oceans flowing," then we must "remove the veil" that stands between us and the Tao (Deng Ming-Dao, 365 TAO, p. 146). Helpful in that respect, the CHUANG TZU is an anthology of Chinese wisdom stories attributed to Chuang-Chou (369-286 B.C.). Along with Lao Tzu's TAO TE CHING, the CHUANG TZU provides the core teachings of Taoism. Like the TAO TE CHING, the CHUANG TZU is can be read in a single sitting, but offers its reader the challenge of a lifetime to understand. Hamill's translation into colloquial English conveys all the subtlety, paradox, and wisdom of the original. These stories encourage us to first listen with the heart and mind, rather than the ear, and then to stop listening with the heart and mind, and listen with the ch'i, that is, the very energy of our being, instead (p. 25). This book is essential for anyone interested in Taoism.G. Merritt

If you thought you loved Thomas Merton's condensation...

My, my this is beautiful. For me it lights up everything else I've read in Taoism and Zen. The translators have made careful decisions about how to say certain phrases that come up often. It's as poetic and faithful as Stephen Mitchell's Tao de Ching, but so much more fleshed-out, of course. It's so practical. You need this book!