Le Livre du vide médian

by François Cheng

Poèmes.

Selon la juste vision du Tao, le Vide médian intervient chaque fois que le Yin et le Yang sont en présence. Drainant la meilleure part des deux, il est ce troisième souffle qui élève l'un et l'autre vers une transformation créatrice et leur permet de se dépasser - tant il est vrai que l'accomplissement de chacun n'est point en soi, mais en avant de soi. En plus de cent poèmes nourris de son expérience humaine de douleur et de félicité, François Cheng nous invite à scruter les innombrables entre qui ont lieu à tout instant sous nos yeux. Ils nous éveillent à la réalité du Vide médian qui, fait d'inattendus et d'inespérés, donc toujours neuf, transfigure les vivants.

240 pages, Pocket Book

First published November 12, 2009

About the author

François Cheng is a French academician, writer, poet and calligrapher. He is the author of essays, novels, collections of poetry and books on art written in the French language, and the translator of some of the great French poets into Chinese.

Born in China and taking French citizenship in 1973, he was elected to the Académie française in 2002, and was the first person of Asian origin to be a member of the Academy. He was the winner of the 1998 Prix Femina for Le Dit de Tianyi ("The saying of Tianyi")

When Cheng arrived in France in 1948, on a study grant, he did not speak a word of the language. He subsequently adapted quickly and profoundly. In his speech to the Académie française, he explained, "I became a Frenchman in law, mind and heart more than thirty years ago [...] especially from that moment when I resolutely went over to the French language, making it the weapon, or the soul, of my creative work. This language, how can I say everything that I owe to it? It is so intimately bound up with the way I live and my inner life that it has proved to be the emblem of my destiny." It took many years before he became a novelist. His first works were on Chinese poetry and painting. Later he began to write works of poetry himself, before finally turning to the writing of novels.