Description Books on the Far East often mention a sect of Buddhism called Zen.
Starting in the 1910s and continuing steadily almost until his death in 1966, these translations started with poetry, such as A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918) and Japanese Poetry: The Uta (1919), then an equally wide range of novels, such as The Tale of Genji (1925-26), an 11th-century Japanese work, and Monkey, from 16th-century China..
He chose not to be a specialist but to translate a wide and personal range of classical literature.
Although highly learned, Waley avoided academic posts and most often wrote for a general audience.
About the Author Arthur David Waley CH CBE (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 1889 - 27 June 1966) was an English Orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry.
The present paper makes no attempt at profundity, but it is based on the study of original texts and furnishes, I hope, some information not hitherto accessible.
The reason of this is that very little of the native literature which deals with Zen has yet been translated, perhaps because it is written in early Chinese colloquial, a language the study of which has been almost wholly neglected by Europeans and also (to judge by some of their attempts to translate it) by the Japanese themselves.
They say that it was a "school of abstract meditation" and that it exercised a profound influence upon art and literature; but they tell us very little about what Zen actually was, about its Relation to ordinary Buddhism, its history, or the exact nature of its influence upon the arts.
Description Books on the Far East often mention a sect of Buddhism called Zen
