The Road to Heaven – Encounters with Chinese Hermits
By Bill Porter
Porter, a Hong Kong-based writer whose previous books were published under the pen name Red Pine (The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma ), lived in a Taiwanese monastery for three years in the 1970s and later translated works of some Chinese hermits long admired for their virtue. When travel to China opened up in the late 1980s, Porter began to search for hermits who might have survived under years of communism. His story is unusual, but his "encounters"--actually, brief interviews--produce not subtle observations but statements of gnomic profundity.
The Author
"Throughout Chinese history, there have always been people who preferred to spend their lives in the mountains, getting by on less, sleeping under thatch, wearing old clothes, working the higher slopes, not talking much, writing even less-maybe a few poems, a recipe or two"
So begins Bill Porter's fascinating travelogue of his 1989 search for hermits in contemporary China: Taoist and Buddhist, invariably, the latter Pure Land, Chan, or Tantric. What makes his exploration so enjoyable is that we have such a capable and amiable guide. Porter had long been a student of Chinese thought, a voracious reader and fine translator, and here he shows his great empathy for his favorite land and personalities.
Porter offers quick, relevant, and interesting historical and biographical anecdotes to give his readers context in every chapter and locale he visits. His see-saw progress through China coaxing reluctant officials and state-sponsored monks and abbots gives the narrative a wonderful authenticity.
The book is enhanced by a couple of useful maps. A special treat are the many black and white photographs by the author and by photographer and traveling companion Steven R. Johnson. The wonderfully candid photos of hermits and their stark landscape are as valuable as the text. With an empathetic guide on a unique journey, this book is a solid popular introduction to Chinese hermits and, indeed, to what it means to be a hermit.
