On Cold Mountain

"It's a fascinating book that's a pleasure to read for both specialist and general readers."

"Readers and writers of English and American literature can find some kind of enlightenment in On Cold Mountain’s presentation of the processes of poetic transmission and Buddhist poetics in its earlier contexts."

"Paul Rouzer’s new monograph is a welcome contribution to the field, a shaft of light illuminating the brillance of one jewel in a vast, neglected mine. . . . It is a pioneering work, an essential guide for anyone who would wish to make the journey across the strange landscape of Hanshan."

"In this first major study of Hanshan, Paul Rouzer adds new dimensions to our understanding of the poet and proposes inventive methodological directions in reading Hanshan from a Buddhist perspective and by formulating a study that is at once scholarly and popularly accessible."

"A refreshing look at a text that has been known as a sort of 'Buddhist Poetry' in East Asia for centuries but has only recently been seen anew via its unexpectedly large readership in the now-cosmopolitan Chan/Zen world. Rouzer reexamines what is Buddhist, and what is poetic, about the Cold Mountain poems with intriguing insights and close reading."

"A well-documented analysis and distinctive interpretation of the Buddhist implications of the ever intriguing poetry attributed to a figure known as Hanshan."

"Brings the techniques of advanced literary interpretation to this corpus in a book that gives a broad readership close acquaintance with the details of language, style, and background."