Cold mountain; 100 poems by the Ta̓ng poet Han-shan.
(Book)

The poems cover a wide range of subjects : the conventional lament on the shortness of life, bitter complaints about poverty, avarice, and pride, accounts of the difficulty of official life under a bureaucratic system, attacks on the corrupt Buddhist clergy and the foolish attempts of the Taoists to achieve immortal life, incomparable descriptions of the natural world in the mountain retreat. When Han-shan speaks of Cold Mountain, he means himself, his home, and his state of mind; it is the conception of the "hidden treasure" of the Buddha who is to be sought within one's self, not somewhere outside. The poems are as much an allegory of spiritual quest and attainment as a record of the life of a ragged hermit who became one of the immortals.,Jacket flap

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