Chung Books

This is a great book and an excellent presentation of Stability Theory for those working in the pharmaceutical industry. It is a great reference book on applied statistical methods that all professionals working in this field should have on hand. It is by far the best book on stability theory, validations, process controls,(and applied statistics in general) that I have read.

The book is a good write-up on latest development of symbolic analysis. The approaches in the book can be easily integrated into commercial EDA tools.

I love Penguin Classics, and have since I was a teenager. Their translations of the Greek and Roman classics are my most prized books. So it was frustrating when I began learning about ancient China and realized all the great works out there that were just dying to be given the same treatment as Livy, Plato, etc.

So they've finally gotten to this most basic of texts, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean. Together with the Analects and Mencius, these make up the 4 books that were a main part of the civil service exams in imperial China (along with the 5 Classics: the Books of Documents, Odes, Changes, Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals).

One thing that should be changed about this translation is the use of Wade-Giles transcription instead of Pinyin. To me, Wade-Giles has always looked like a ridiculous attempt at phonetization - "Teng Hsiao-p'ing" instead of "Deng Xiaoping" Plus it is often misleading - the former Chinese leader's name starts with a "d" sound, not a "t" sound. I think Penguin needs to make it official policy to go to Pinyin, which is the standard usage in China and probably will be the VHS to Wade-Giles' Beta.

I also hope Penguin will produce more of the Chinese works that are kicking around out there. So far, Oxford World Classics have been beating them in the Asian classics category (only barely, though). Penguin could do a lot to introduce some classics to Westerners, and erase the myth that there aren't as many ancient works from China as there are from Greece and Rome.

I suggest Penguin publish the Book of Odes, Book of Documents, the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Tso Chuan, The Intrigue of the Warring States, the Conversations of the States, the Records of the Grand Historian, and Histories of the Former and Latter Han, all histories except the Book of Odes. These works would surely appeal to readers of Livy, Plutarch, Suetonius, Herodotus, and Thucydides. All it would take is a few footnotes and some maps to explain names and places a little. We shall see - but this book is a small step in the right direction.

This book covers fields of analogue integrated circuit synthesis, IC physical design and constrained optimization. It collects major contributions of UC Berkeley Analog Group for about last 10 years. It brings field of analogue design into a totally new main stream and is still leading the trend. It comprehensively presents the whole developed methodology of mixed-signal circuit design to considerably detail level. For electronic engineer, it is an excellent reference book informing you the current progress in this field and for postgraduate engineering students, it is a very valuable text book. It is so far the best book in this field that collects latest inventions based on those widely published papers.

This book is for those who believe that we are more spirit then matter. From a spirit guide, it gives valuable advice on how to See and live in this time, space universe. From getting a mate to getting money, the book is well worth the read.
Congratulations to the editor.

A real sightseeing about consulting. Definately, this book will help you to decide joining consulting.

This book contains an incredible amount of information. It is well-written, concise, and well-organized. Books written on such technical topics are usually impossible for the average person to understand. This book, however, does a fantastic job of explaining things and is very useful in my opinion.

Three Kingdoms is a action packed novel that deserves to be calle a classic. Nevertheless all the Chinese names and the repetitive battle scenes could easly lose the novice reader after the first thousand pages or so. If you buy this be prepared to read the footnotes throughly and become a student of Chinese culture.

This is the unabridged version and truly a masterpiece. I was familiar with a very small portion of the history during this time period before I read it, so that encouraged me to try it out. If you love epic stories, this is a great one. Guanzhong based his novel on solid historical facts while adding some fictional elements in order to bring out the characters and events for the reader. I've heard it said, and I agree with it, that it is 70% history and 30% fiction. Addtionally, this is a must read for any fans of the Dynasty Warriors gaming series. My recommendation is that if you have any interest in this period of Chinese history or stories of heroics and loyalty-to-the-death, buy it, and I guarantee that you wont regret it.

I'll be perfectly honest: I've never been one to actually sit down and read a book unless it's been marked required reading. In fact, my only fantastic literary claim up to this point was conquering the Harry Potter series. Then, I picked up these volumes. I was absolutely enthralled.

I picked up this book because I'm a big of the Dynasty Warriors series. In fact, I just recently discovered that the games themselves were based entirely off of this collection. From then on, I had a blast both playing through the games and reading the books, trying to pick out scenarios and information the game had changed (or in some instances, just completely left out). In the process, I learned something new about ancient Chinese culture and managed to have a fantastic time doing so.

I highly recommend this book. And as many others have said, do NOT buy the abridged version. Spend a little extra and get the four volume set. You'll get a lot more out of the reading.

Whether you've been there or not, "Three Kingdoms" will provide you deep insite into Chinese History and Culture. Encapsulated in a Swashbuckler worthy of Hollywood, it is a roadmap to over 2000 years of a culture the West generally knows so little about. Much as the tales of King Arthur, portray Romanized Britain during the disintegration of Rome, Knightly Brothers strive to preserve the Han Empire or carve kingdoms amidst battles, plots, counter plots, seduction, and betrayal. These are stories that, even in English translation, show us as much about Chinese thought, in the way place, time, and events are portrayed, as can be gleaned from actual dialog. Annotated, Three Kingdoms can read on many levels from light entertainment to historic cultural education.

It fits its hype of being one of the four Chinese classics. It takes you back in time and shows the culture, drama, and situation of China around 190 to 220 AD. You will find yourself reading the first chapter and not wanting to stop. The epic book does well by hooking the reader in.
However, there are many characters in which to remember. Luckily the characters themselves, can at many times, be distinguish from each other.

Very good book indeed!

In 1966, this book was an epic. A doorstop-sized compilation of Chinese cuisine written by a Westerner, this book remains a staple of used bookstores. For what it is, it's not bad -- it's dated, but the recipes are generally pretty tasty. Overall it's got roughly the same feel as a typical Chinese restaurant menu, and it is, as a general rule, a classic. However, I've tackled the issue of anachronistic books before, and the results usually aren't that pretty.

I have to say right up front that this book suffers from one massive and nearly unforgiveable fault -- the near total lack of Chinese names for dishes and ingredients. Even if the recipe for a favorite dish is in here, you won't be able to find it by its Chinese name unless its name was already well-established when the book was written. (Incidentally, there is no recipe in here for chop suey; Miller evidently felt very strongly about keeping authentically Chinese.)

That said, your mileage may vary. Some of the reviews from when it was published indicate that it was quite popular among Chinese-Americans in the 1960s, and the recipes do seem largely authentic, if a bit unadventurous at times. But the language issue is a huge stumbling block that would probably destroy a book written now. Buy it used if you can't get a good deal on it, but make sure to get a more recent book to complement it.

I have always enjoyed good Chinese cuisine. Recently, I've developed a far greater interest in cooking it for myself -- I've moved from the SF Bay Area to the wilds of northern Massachusetts, and good Chinese restaurants and takeout places around these parts are few and far between. So, I decided to learn how to cook those fabulous dishes I always enjoyed.

At the bookstore, I was taken in by the glowing reviews on this book's cover, but I didn't take the opportunity to truly browse through it. In retrospect, I wish that I had. Although this book does contain a broad variety of recipes, and does introduce a novice into the mystique of experimenting with Chinese cooking, it lacks in more or less all of what many would consider key recipes.

Kung pao chicken? Nowhere to be found. Mongolian beef? Nada. Orange chicken? Nope. Peking spareribs? Zero. Spicy Szechuan chicken? Not a chance. Fresh bao, or dumplings, or shu mai? Can't find it anywhere. Ginger chicken? Nary a one. Cashew chicken? A solitary recipe.

What it does have, on the other hand, are ten pages of recipes to do with chicken livers and gizzards prepared in various manners. Sure, there's the few recipes that look as though they might be worth trying, but to find them you have to thumb through the hundreds of pages of dross looking for those few pieces of gold.

In all, an impressively weighty work, but hardly containing a great deal in the way of useful reference to someone whose life doesn't entirely revolve around trying out new and questionably useful recipes.

The book is excellent, with a wide variety of recipes and detailed explanations about chinese cooking.

I've had this book for many years and always go back to it. The recipes are very basic and like the ones my mom cooked but never documented. Who ever wrote down family recipes to pass on? How do you measure when the recipe is in the cook's head? This year I purchased a copy for each one my children to have. They are all grown and out of the house. This way they have a starting point and can embellish on the recipes. Unfortunately, it doesn't contain photos, but I know the dishes just by the topic, descriptive receipe name and the ingredients.

Have owned this book for about 20 years now, and have replaced my paperback with a hard covered book because I used it so much that my first book is now in two peices.

It is such a wonderful, uniquely written, simply to understand book that informs those who really want to understand cooking. I don't think it is written to impress professional chefs but to work with regular people who love to eat Chinese.

My best friend (who is Chinese) and I used to cook all the time, and I have lots of experience making Chinese food
and this book added to my knowledge and is still adding to my knowledge years later. The only Chinese cookbook I would own.

This is definitely worth owning!!!!
You will love this book!

Overview: Outlaws of the Marsh is an entertaining novel chronicling the lives of 108 men and women forced into brigandry by injustice.

Setting: The story takes place in China during the Song Dynasty.

Theme: While many criticize it for the brutal justice which the outlaws enact, one ought to acknowledge that Song China was a different place at a different time and thus the opinion on what is due to someone differs from the common view of the average English reader. With this acknowleged, one can view the book as an interesting way of learning the culture, beliefs, and character of both Song China and the China of when the book was created. While this novel (very lightly) touches on Buddhist and Taoist transcendental philosophy, it primarily praises justice, loyalty, and honor.

Characters: Although the novel has 108 protagonists, only about fifteen need to be remembered. Each of the main characters is wonderfully developed and his or her personality is learned through their speech and action rather than a tersely put paragraph about their personality and claim to fame. The author stays within bounds of making the badguys only as bad as they need to be.

Plot: With many interlocking plots, some are good, some are bad. The deepest vein of plot, that of leader Song Jiang, coincidentally follows the standard Nietzschean conflict of a man striving for excellence hated by those who envy and fear him, something which will endear the Western reader to this hero. At times, the author uses the deux-ex-machina excessively, replacing heroes deeds with the favors of gods. Some incidences are far fetched but comical and ought to be read that way. It could most easily be read as a light-hearted, sometimes farcical Robin Hood-esque tale. Nonetheless, it has the standard ending to a Chinese novel.

Style and Language: The language is relatively simple, probably about the level of a newspaper. This makes it accessible to a non-academic audience (including those unversed in Chinese traditions). The translator avoids excessive technical terms and those that he does use he explains in notes.

Recommended?: The novel is violent, but those with an interest in martial arts or military will find it exciting. Because of its importance to Chinese culture, it is worth the read.

This book was a lot of fun to read. Having also read Three Kingdoms I have to say I enjoyed that book more but this one was still great. It's full of adventure and colorful characters. Sometimes the events building up to a new dramatic event are too drawn out but for the most part this book has hard to put down.

I must confess that I read this book hoping for another Romance of the Three Kingdoms. While Outlaws of the Marsh starts strongly, following a number of interesting characters as they attempt to escape from misfortune, I lost interest about half way through. The last 20 or so chapters (excluding the final chapter) were very boring and difficult to read and nothing exciting really happens. By the end of the 2000 odd pages it is easy to forget that the first half was so exciting and fast-paced.

As for the translation itself, it is not too bad. Some translations make the characters out to be villains whereas Shapiro's translation takes a more neutral approach. The printing is on very thin, delicate paper with lots of typing errors and as such is a bit disappointing. There are also some paintings reproduced in the text but these are of very low quality.

I'm only in the middle of the second book (out of 4), so take my review with that in mind.

The biggest problem I have is that the English translaction is extremely poor. It is not the content I'm complaining about, but the writing. It is so lousy that it will take away from your enjoyment of the story.

The story is compelling but there is a few things that bothered me about it:

1) whenever the main character (of the moment) gets in big trouble, his predicament is always bailed out by some incredible coincidence that his assailant (or antagonist at the moment) is actually a friend or knows a friend of his. It is ALWAYS like that, throughout the book.

2) the characters in the book, whether they are righteous or unrighteous, always get lauded as heroes. You can have a despicable character and yet he is respected among his peers...why? Maybe it is a cultural phenomena that I am not aware of.

anyways, I'm going to finish the entire series and see what happens.

I couldn't believe this story was written in the 13th century! The structure read like a modern novel. You won't be disappointed with the adventures that these characters get into. It is also a nice insight into ancient Chinese thought about political legitimacy and virtue. While very gory at times, this book really shows you how the ancient chinese thought. The morals are also applicable to today.