China Books

I've happy to have finally found a definitive reference book on patents. The book is beautifully bound, and the layout is logical and easy to use. It includes essential information on the quality and efficacy of different companies' products, and puts an end to the confusion over patent names with handy cross-references.

The Encyclopedia of Chinese and U.S. Patent Herbal Medicines, written by Chongyun Liu, O.M.D., L.Ac. and Yong Deng, O.M.D. is a reference for practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The term "patent medicine" refers to classic Chinese medicinal formulas passed down through the centuries. Although the formulas were once kept secret, most are now known. Patent medicines are available over the counter. With the spread of TCM, practitioners in countries other than China now use the patent medicines. Liu and Deng note that "the increase in Chinese medicine in the United States has highlighted two significant problems with Chinese-produced patent medicines." The first problem is quality control, and the second involves the ingredients used. Many patent medicines are also now produced in the States, and have been given English names. Liu and Deng wrote their book as "an aid to students and practitioners in figuring out which U.S. product corresponds to which Chinese patent medicine, and how U.S. products correspond with each other." They start with a description of fifty-five medical conditions that practitioners most often encounter. The descriptions include both Western and TCM terminology, and encompass subtypes and symptoms. The descriptions are followed by tables listing the classical patent medicine formulas, and the U.S. equivalents. The second part of the book is a alphabetical cross-reference of Chinese formulas, and U.S. equivalents. The final section presents detailed information about the ingredients of U.S. formulas. All readers wishing information about using U.S.- made Chinese medicines will find the Encyclopedia of Chinese and U.S. Patent Herbal Medicines an invaluable reference. Novices will also find it useful in learning about TCM practices.

Sandra I. Smith, Reviewer

This is by far the best and most thorough book ever written (along with it companion texts) on Qigong and Qigong Therapy. This is a must have for any library thats includes Chinese medicine, Qigong or mysticism. There is a lifetime of information contained in these texts.

Ok, back in 1999/2000 I was all about trying to find books in the enlglish language that gave the reader step-by-step working techniques in Taoist Magick/Sorcery. Some unfamiliar with Zheng Yi Taoism pass off Taoism as just a "form of philosophy". They were never exposed to the Zheng Yi magickal side that involves registries of spirits and gods and demons, and techniques on how to command these celestial beings to command millions of spirits under their command. The paranormal side is something that Paul Dong covers in some of his books, but this series is THE best to put it ALL TOGETHER! This is actually one of the best metaphysical systems over all complete with healing, qigong, inner alchemy, yoga, psychic development, magical techniques, metaphysical understanding of the multi-verse, psychology, treatment and diagnosis of the whole spectrum disorders with Qigong medicine, energy work, energy anatomy and physiology, etc, etc, everything, EVERYTHING!!!!!

Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson has done us a favor by being the first to present such powerful information in the English Language at such a level. Before him, you would have had to speak Mandarin to learn such material.

He deserves over 5 stars. I hope that in the future, he will take me in as a personal apprentice!!!

If your into Oriental Medicine, Internal marial arts, qigong/yoga, Eastern Metaphysics and magick, then THIS ONE....THIS SERIES...THIS AUTHOR...IS...THE...RIGHT...ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We bought this book for our 9 year old son and he loved it.

I read the Eric Liddle story (Chariot's of Fire hero) and all the other books in this series this summer. I can't begin to tell you how inspirational the lives of these people are. The one on Gladys Allward is unbelievable. The things these people accomplished were amazing. The books are easy, quick reads and are great for read alouds to children. These authors also have a series of biographies of famous Americans (George Washington, Harriett Tubman, etc that are excellent. Good job Amazon for placing this book up on the web page.

Unless you have studied foreign languages since those college days, don't even try to actually learn Chinese before traveling to China. This concise and well laid-out book is all you need. It gives essential information on basic Chinese grammar and pronunciation and then breaks into various scenarios to provide words and phrases that you might need. For each word or phrase it gives English, pinyin, pronunciation and Chinese characters. The Chinese characters are convenient to have in case your pronunciation or tone (you'll learn about tone in the book) is a bit off. For example, after asking the maid several days in a row to leave three towels instead of two and her shaking her head in agreement but still left only two, I simply copied the Chinese characters from the book and taped the note to the towel rack; we got three towels from then on! The book also includes a brief (60 page) dictionary in the back and it is small in size, so it is easy to carry around with you. When I bought my copy the tape was not part of the package, but I am sure that it can only be an additional asset.

This is a handy reference to 2,000 common words and phrases in Chinese. As of this writing, February 2007, you could go to China Books and Periodicals website and download the audio in MP3 form for free. That's right, $0. I downloaded the MP3, and listen to it at home. It takes a little over an hour to get through the 2,000 words and phrases. The expression is first given in English, then a man speaks the equivalent slowly in Chinese, followed by a woman who repeats the phrase more rapidly in Chinese.

On the China Books and Periodicals website, on the left go to "Browse" > "Language Learning" > "MP3."

Good luck!

This is a very nice summary of materials on Han China. My only concern is that it is too brief.

The first section is an excellent, but brief (50 page), recap of Chinese history from Shang to foundation of the Han dynasty. The material takes something of a western narrative form. Some might argue that pre-Han China history cannot be understood in terms of European feudalism, but I think it will interest most western readers and that is the point of an introductory work.

The next section tries to cover an even grander topic: Han political science. Again, it is nothing if not brief, but does an excellent job of hitting the main points. The chapter makes the point that Han China represented a balance of 3 major philosophic trends: Confucianism, Taoism, and legalism. Though the material on each is entirely too brief, the reader will find the narrative easy to read. One of the interesting themes is a description of the Han government in terms of 3 branches: military, bureaucracy and 'censorate' (a spy agency that watched both for the emperor). A parallel power structure existed in the emperor's harem (inner-court). At times the eunuchs and women there could control the emperor enough to be effective masters of the government. The bibliography has many suggestions for additional reading.

The third section on Chinese industry and technology, with an emphasis comparing the relative states of European and Chinese arts during the Han era.

The rest of the book covers a broad set of topics which I would summarize as an extended and illustrated notes/bibliography. For example, one section is a set of about 50 extended quotes from Han and pre-Han documents.

China's Han Dynasty created a prosperous empire from 206 BCE to CE 221, promoting a less harsh society than that of their Quin predecessors and developing technological advancements from the water mill to stoneware and paper. From elements of social change in Han times to kingdom problems and issues, its role in world society and politics, and its importance in establishing centralized control in Asia, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HAN EMPIRE AND IMPERIAL CHINA is essential reading for any college-level scholar who would understand the importance of this developmental period.

Even though he never made it to Lhasa, which was off-limits to outsiders when this book was written, Secret Tibet is the most informative & insightful book on Tibet's history, culture & religions I have ever read, a rich & rewarding experience, the best of all books I've read on Tibet (& I believe I've read them all). Fosco Maraini was an exceptional human being, compassionate, highly intelligent, & he wrote with poetic elegance. He was a top ethnologist, a skilled photographer, an expert mountain climber and above all, an extraordinary human being with an amazing understanding of human behavior at all levels. All of his books should be in print & read. He wrote extraordinary books on Mountain Climbing, Pearl Divers in Japan, & above all, on Japan: Meeting With Japan, one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I recommend him to anyone & everyone. You'll never regret reading him.

I have read a lot of books about the old days in Tibet, and this is the best, despite the fact that Maraini never went to Lhasa, the holy grail of most adventurers in those days. But Mariani made no attempt to accompany his employer, the famous Tibetologist Giuseppi Tucci. Tucci claimed to be a Buddhist in order to be allowed to visit Lhasa, and Maraini wasn't a Buddhist (and suggests that Tucci wasn't either) and so chose not to try to trick or bully his way in to the capital. That alone makes him more admirable, in my book, than most of the arrogant Europeans who took it for granted that it was their God-given right to poke their noses into other people's cultures any way they could.

Maraini actually travelled in Tibet on two different occasions, 1939 and 1948, and telescopes both visits in this book, although most of it is based in the 1948 trip. As an Italian, and a highly cultured European, he has a somewhat more sympathetic view of Tibet than English and American writers. He compares Tibet not to Nebraska but to Florence, the Italian Alps, Italian Catholicism, and the Vatican. While Tibet was medieval, in many ways Catholicism in the 30s and 40s could also be called medieval. Maraini thinks like a man of science, but he knows the mind of Italian peasants as well, and an old woman repeating a mantra is not so different from an old woman in Italy saying her own rosary. So there is a lot of sympathy in his view.

He is also clear-sighted. He does not like dirt and smells, for example, and when he describes the Tibetans, he doesn't pretend not to notice the level of filth. He admires Buddhism, but not so much that he loses objectivity. Underground chapels which contain animal carcasses stuffed with straw and rotting away and artwork filled with skulls, human bones and bloody images horrify him, and he says so.

He also conveys a wonderful sense of the beauty, the air, the silence, the scale and scope of the Tibetan land. His book is about people and events, which he describes with piercing insight and analysis. He describes faces and bodies in terms of the character they reveal. He doesn't fill pages with descriptions of ornery porters and bad trails. Instead he takes the hardships of travel for granted and describes the personality and character of every person, mountain, monastery, dance, and meal. The fact that he was not hell-bent for Lhasa allows him to be present in each place that he visits.

Because he is along on the trip as a photographer, he observes the art intensely. His writing is vivid, poetic but not pretentious, and the translation from the Italian is flawless, at least as English style goes. You would never imagine that you are reading a translation.

Maraini also had another advantage that makes him the perfect travel companion--he lived and taught in Japan in the years between his first and second trips to Tibet (because WW2 had broken out and he got stranded there) so he can see Tibet not only as it appears to a European but also in the greater context of Asia.

The updates that contrast the Tibet he saw and the Tibet of 1998 are saddening but give even richer context to the story. He intersperses these at the end of each chapter, so you don't have to try remember which monastery or city he is talking about. The book is skillfully edited so that the three time periods involved flow smoothly into one fascinating narrative.

I am eager to read Maraini's other works, because he is a man of great insight, an open heart and a clear mind.

For centuries in China women tottered wearing tiny silk shoes. In "Every Step a Lotus," Dorothy Ko describes the obscure Chinese custom of footbinding. Every culture has different forms of unusual, sometimes unpleasant, rituals. In pre-1949 China petite feet symbolized beauty, status and honor. A woman's face and personality became secondary to tiny feet adorned with exquisite shoes.

Chinese women were revered for their textile artistry and took enormous pride in creating their own shoes, sitting together for days chatting and sewing decorative embroidery on ravishing silk. Lotus shoes told stories with intricate needlework reflecting hopes and dreams of a better life.

Ko's well-researched exposé and graceful prose details a custom that was the outcome of living in a male dominated Confucian culture. Ko includes over one hundred illustrations of exquisite antique lotus shoes from different regions during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Most of the spectacular shoes, from the collection of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, have never been exhibited before. Readers also get to see rare black and white photographs of women with bound feet.

Ko writes "As a historian who has studied footbinding and women's cultures for years, I do not claim to be neutral. I feel strongly that we should understand footbinding not as a senseless act of destruction but as a meaningful practice in the eyes of the women themselves." The author is a professor of history at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Ko's mission is refreshing and admirable. Passing judgment is hypocritical as every culture has idiosyncrasies. Footbinding is no different than plastic surgery, facelifts and silicon breast implants--modern examples of what people will endure for beauty and status. Let's not overlook Victorian era corsets that were dangerously tight, which reduced breathing capacity and jammed internal organs into hazardous positions.

Readers of "Every Step A Lotus" will gain appreciation for this unusual bygone Chinese custom. Why does footbinding continue to intrigue history enthusiasts and many others? Perhaps the answer lies in the author's words "Most of the bodies are gone; only the shoes remain."

By looking at these little silk treasures a world vastly different from ours is unveiled...we are given a glance of old China from 5,000 miles away.

Thank you Dorothy Ko for your expertise and writing this outstanding book. --M. Morrison, ...

This is another visually lovely book. I really enjoyed the breakdown and historical information presented. Very good resource for pics and data.

The author gives a poignant picture of the distressing everyday life in Mao's China under the Cultural Revolution.
There is a power struggle at the top of the CP. The Red Guards constitute their own rule. The political decisions are unpredictable (sometimes for then against the farmers or the intellectuals).
The result is that the population doesn't know anymore what to do and where they are (suicides or attempts). They are terrorized by suspicion, house searches, forced migrations and ... are terrorizing each other.

In the story 'Chin-Chin's Birthday' defy two children each other to insult chairman Mao. When their parents learn that other adults heard it, they are panic-stricken.
In 'The Guard' is theft a norm for the Red Guards.
In 'The Execution of Mayor Yin' is Yin a victim of his non proletarian origin. Although totally innocent, he is convicted and executed by the Red Guards.

Masterfully written stories which create a grim and depressing atmosphere. Not to be missed.
I recommend also the poignant book by Nien Cheng 'Life and Death in Shangai'.

Very few works of fiction have been written regarding the Cultural Revolution in China, especially by people, like Chen Jo-Hsi, who lived through it. There are some very good memoirs chronicling the events, but Chen Jo-Hsi's moving work of fiction gives the reader an excellent insight into one of the worst instances of censorship of the arts in the world's history. In addition, it brings to light in a very poignant way, how dichotmous and arbirtary the policies and reform movements during this period actually were. The book contains eight short stories that takes the reader from Nanking to the countryside and demonstrates the affects of the Cultural Revolution on different types of individuals from the professor to the laborer, sometimes with heart-breaking results.

I would like to add a confirmation here, as this is a very valuable book. In it are many scenes and experiences with relevance to the present, as well as in the longer term.

What is most impressive as I re-read it these days is the unusual clarity and point of view from each of these young men writing, officers inserted into complex duties in Japan, after the Pacific war.

Yes, there was something different about those times, and it shows here, as a form of moral clarity; also purpose. This capacity for personal insight reaches into the confused situations of culture and aftermath of a war, and each time pulls out both the valuable, and that which must for their present remain in question.

It is a very fine approach, and engages considerable personal warmth.

A further intrigue is in the writing included of Nisei, second generation Japanese-Americans, who as the same kinds of language and intelligence officers were on the same team.

Both their own commentary, and the special conversations they relate as coming due to their Asian appearance, are filled with substance which should be very enlightening in the conversations rampant today, about globality and individual culture.

Truly valuable voices from a recent past, highly recommended.

These are rare first-person accounts from Japan and Asia immediately after World War II - eyewitness reports by the first young Americans to set foot in that ruined region at a critical juncture in time when people were struggling to make sense of the past and piece together a new life.

The authors were U.S. servicemen, trained (and several raised) in the language and culture of their assignments. Their letters to one another are perceptive, provacative, sympathetic to the losing side, and frank - sometimes brutally frank. They record the dramatic events of the times: the fate of the Nazis and the Japanese military in Asia, the return of POW's to their defeated country, and the forging of a new role for the Japanese Emperor. And they reveal how the young, intelligent writers themselves became involved.

Reissued half a century after the war, this revised edition includes an updated forward by Otis Cary and a new afterword by Donald Keene - both now recognized authorities in the field of Japanese studies - reflecting on the intervening years and reassessing some of the assumptions made in the original edition.

Few other books on postwar Asia are as moving or interesting as this work, which speaks to us in the voices of those who were actually there and lived through those turbulent years.
--- form book's dustjacket

For the esoterical-interested, this is a good book. This book provides the reader with basic information to help with learning the ancient Chinese art of face reading. Along with the specific instructions telling what-means-what comes a nice storyline. Your teacher is an elderly Chinese woman, and she leads you through the learning process. For the more advanced face-reader, this may not be a particularly helpful book, however, this book was my introduction into the *mystical arts* and is a great choice for the beginner.

From the author of the excellent Do It Yourself Feng Shui, this is a brilliant sequel. Featuring the same character (a half Chinese boy) and a new magical mentor (Auntie Feng), it explains how face reading is about understanding what goes on UNDER the skin. A wonderful way to encourage children to look at the world around them with new, and critical eyes. Simply divine.