Tony Blishen Books

In Chinese Zen, author Prof. Yansheng shows how Zen, with its universal concern for the human condition, can help the individual achieve happiness and spiritual stability through a "eureka moment" of enlightenment that liberates the mind from its world of competing interests. By drawing on the vast literature of Chinese Zen Buddhism, Prof. Yansheng presents traditional Buddhist sayings, stories and dialogues that illustrate the way historical masters of Zen sought to induce their pupils to reduced inner conflict. In so doing, he allows the reader a panoramic view of the origins and development of Zen Buddhism in China and demonstrates its influence on literature in particular.

Originally published: Shanghai, China: Shanghai Press and Publishing Development Company, c2016.

The Art of Self Cultivation, contains hundreds of individual quotations drawn from over 2,000 years of Chinese history. The Art of Self Cultivation comprises quotations that are concerned with what in Chinese is termed xiushen-which translates roughly as "self cultivation". One Chinese encyclopedia defines it as "the nurture of body and mind in order to strengthen and raise the level of one's sense of morality". This book addresses individual behavior and conduct from the essentials of character such as morality, through activities like the acquisition of knowledge and the techniques of learning to the norms of correct social behavior. Sources range from early philosophers such as Confucius and the Daoist philosopher Li Er, to early historians like Ban Gu and Sima Qian, through the poets and officials of the brilliant Tang and Song dynasties and on to the writers that flourished in the 17th to 19th centuries.