Chinese Books

The "Lover's I Ching" and "Symbols of Love" both by Stephen Karcher are amazing wonderful clear and revealing books. I especially like finding out when you have a moment that is a focus-type (my word. the review mentions "22 models of relationships") of relationship, a more powerful time.
Stephen Karcher's I Ching translation (the big one) has supplanted other versions I have used in my (since 1967) history of using the I Ching for my life. One thing to notice is he extracts the reality whivhis the positivism out of the time. And he links you to the original Chinese. This helps me to see when one hexagram is using the same concept, the same word, as another hexagram.

I have a question. Are these books the same? What is the difference? I haven't seen the black fuzzy one for years.(Lover's I Ching, Hardcover. PUBLISHERS: it should come in a box. imho)

To add to the editorial review of this one, he has had some people who work with relationships add interesting material to this book (Symbols of Love), to help you think through the issues of the time, pictured in the hexagram and echoed by what you cast.

As I have recently taken up learning I Ching I found this book a great edition to my new collection.This book is all about guidance in regards to relationships.If you are single,or,in a relationship,married,etc you will find this book a great guide.

This book shows how I Ching can help with relationships/matters of the heart and in detail too.This is a very accurate book.
I'm amazed at the guidance I'm getting from this book.

Each hexagram is covered in great detail.About 4 pages to each one.Thats a good thing.(The author's book "Total I Ching" has 4-6 long pages).

This is the first and only book I found on I Ching that specifically caters to relationships and its a great book.

There are similarities between this book and the author's book,"Total I Ching" but this one focuses on relationships matters but "Total I Ching" covers other matters and both are indepth books.

If you have other books by this author you might like this book too.

I also recommend these books:
1)I Ching:a new interpretation for modern times.By Sam Reifler.
2)Practical guidance to the I Ching.By Kim-Anh Lim.

I actually never knew this book existed. I First began to study Taiji from Erle Montaigue a couple weeks ago by video instruction. But Yang Cheng Fu's Taiji form is a moving Qigong (Chi Kung). So breathing in and out with/during each individual flowing movement is important or its useless. Just as if you had the breathing down perfect and you're postures were wrong it would be useless. I can see on the excerpt pages that he tells you when to breath in or out. He tells you these things in the video but more time is spent describing the postures and movements.
And I can tell you it's the original Taiji. If you get Erle Montaigue's book "Encyclopedia of Dim Mak ,Volume 1" He will go into the history of Taiji. See his instructional videos at " Taichiworld.com".

This book contains a wealth of information for serious Tai Chi practitioners. It may feel a little difficult to learn the complete long form from this book alone , but it can act as an useful companion to the author's beginner's tape on Taijiquan (MTG1). Tai Chi is being constantly abused by con masters many of whom happen to come from the land of its origin and as a result myriad short forms are being devoloped to make it easy and accessible. But, there is no substitute for hard work. As someone who had been practicing the complete long form for sometime now and greatly benefited from it, my advise to beginners would be to learn from authentic materials such as this. Begin slowly. After one learns the 'opening form' and 'grasping sparrow's tail', even repeating these two forms perhaps a dozen times on both sides would give one actual tangible benefit. And, don't rush to the next until you truely master the previous form. May you realize the Tao.

Involved with Tai Chi classes, this book covers the 24 form. Aside from an error in foot naming for one of the movements, the book is very visual and explanatory, however, footwork drawings can appear confusing when trying to follow by yourself. In order for true benefit, one should enroll in classes with a knowledgable instructor.

This book is clearly and concisely written for 24-movement TaiChi Short Form (Simplified TaiChi form). With very clear and step-by-step detailed photos/illustrations, this excellent book is the ultimate introduction to the world of TaiChi.

Enhanced with 190 color illustrations and 50 b/w photographs, Asian art expert Stephen Little's Taoism And The Arts Of China is an impressive, erudite compendium of art from one of China's most ancient and influential philosophical and religious traditions. This scholarly and informative historical artwork survey begins with the Zhou dynasty (fifth to third century B.C.E.) down to the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). With insightful essays by Kristofer Shipper, Wu Hung, Patricia Ebrey, and Nancy Steinhardt, Taoism And The Arts Of China is a core addition to any personal, academic, or community library art history, Asian Studies, or Taoism reference collection. This superbly presented art history is also available in hardcover (0-520-22784-0).

The book Taoism and the Arts of China was compiled to accompany the first major exhibit of Taoist art, which I saw at the Art Institute of Chicago. These centuries-old works are astonishing. I couldn't get enough of the exhibit, and now I can't get enough of the book. Considerable scholarship went into both.

The curators begin with the sage Laozi and his cognition of an unmanifest source of creation, which is called the Tao, or "way." As the collection progresses, the viewer sees the universal principle of the Tao enter the weave of Chinese culture. The teaching becomes visibly more elaborate and eventually the Way becomes a religion, acquiring deities, priests, rituals, and magic elixirs. Like an alchemist in reverse, the cycle of time takes a transcendent reality and turns it into the denser element of doctrine, right before our very eyes.

Some say the artists that served Taoism mixed potent elixirs into the paints they used. Whether or not this is true, I couldn't stop looking at their work. I wish the printed page could capture the exquisite detail, color and charisma of the originals. Still, Taoism and the Arts of China achieves its purpose. I showed the book to friends at a dinner party. They huddled over it a while, then resolved to drive off that very night to reach Chicago by morning, the last day of the exhibit. It was the right idea. This art should not be missed.

The methods taught in Master Da Liu's book are incredible. They have afforded me health and strength in a simple regimen, a great adjunct to the practice of Taiji and qigong.

This really works. These exercises have stood the test of time, as in "several thousand years". I won't lend it to anyone and I need at least half a dozen copies to give as presents; please reprint!

A fine book of rare tales from ancient China. Pu Sung Ling a Chinese Edgar Allen Poe, speaking to the average Chinese in a literate voice without the rigidity of traditional Chinese Literature.

A fine book of rare tales from ancient China. The stories of Pu Sung Ling collected from traditional folktales makes him unique in Chinese literature; a writer who speaks to the average Chinese in a literate voice without the rigidity and standardized language of traditional "exam" Chinese. Until Pu Sung Ling literature could not be written or published by any except those who passed the Emperor's exams required of the educated class. His tales are a heritage from ancient China that would probably of been lost except for him.
A book well worth reading for any one interested in Asian literature or folktales.

I love this book! The recipes are simple and easy to make. I lived in Thailand and love Thai food. This isn't authentic Thai but close and includes ingredients that can easily be obtained in an American grocery store. The essential ingredients in Thai food that can't be replicated is fish sauce and thai chilies. Those can't be replaced easily. Some vegetarian restaurants would use soy sauce instead of fish sauce and chilies could be omitted but don't taste the same. I have to laugh at the photos of the Thai food containing spaghetti or linguine. I understand that they can be used but it's funny to see. Still I like that everyday ingredients can be used for Thai food.
There are other foods here. They come from Korea and Japan and what the author states as Pan-Asian food. It is all presented very attractively here and I love the photos. I use the book not only for cooking but for my classroom. Many of my students come from China, Japan and Korea so they like to see their foods presented and can show them to me while discussing their foods. I can also show them Thai food and discuss my time in Thailand.

We love Thai food, but so many cookbooks are filled with recipes using ingredients you probably have to get from Thailand. I adore this book. Lots of creative dishes with true Thai flavor using ingredients I can get at most supermarkets. And best of all, lots of beautiful color pictures so I can see what it should look like when I'm done...or entice me to make them when I'm looking for ideas for dinner!

this culture of ours: intellectual transitions in t'ang and sung china by peter k.bol(stanford: standford university press, 1992)

This is a dense, rigorous, and illuminating study of the political and intellectual changes from the Tang to the Song dynasties. The author is considered one of the leading Western intellectual historians writing on China today, and it is this monograph which has made his reputation.

Amy was my Grandmother and I learned so much about my family history from Sasha's book. I loved the exploration of the truth between the stories that we heard growing up and Sasha's extensive research on the reality of the stories. I loved Sasha's book and consider it an important part of my roots.

Professor Welland proves that extensive research and good storytelling are not mutually exclusive, which does not hold true for many of the academic books I have read. This book is unmistakably academic, with Welland adding a scholarly and critical perspective to the events she describes, but that is certainly not a bad thing. Layered with incredible detail, her graceful writing style made the stories of both her ancestors, and the search to reconcile their differences, extremely engaging. Certainly a worthwhile read for anyone interested in Chinese history.

I value this book on "Three Elegies of Ch'u" as a rare example (in English) of how educated Chinese traditionally approached their heritage of poetry. Waters gives a political / moral explication of a group of poems which modern scholarship has treated as fairly direct literary adaptations of popular (or regional) religious texts. His exposition incorporates the basic Chinese commentaries (in translation); which I find extremely valuable in itself. And Waters gives them an impressive interpretation / application.

The poems in question come from a sequence known as "The Nine Songs" (actually a group of eleven; the title is variously explained) in a collection known as "Ch'u Tz'u (in the old Wade-Giles system for rendering Chinese. All or portions of the sequence have been rendered many times; and there is a complete translation of the whole collection, which contains both Warring States and Han Dynasty texts, by David Hawkes. (I have reviewed the revised edition of his "Songs of the South," where I give more details of the problems, and various translations; unfortunately, Penguin has allowed it to go out of print.)

As it happens, I think that Waters underestimates the amount of traditional religion active in the poems, and that the highly specific interpretations he gives are an over-reading. The poems can successfully be read as literary imitations or adaptations of rituals invoking spirits, and considering this a mere cover for a more dignified setting seems to me almost a mirror-image of the Christian reading of one of Virgil's poems as religious instead of political.

Of course, I do not claim any independent value for my judgment, but the readings proposed by Arthur Waley, David Hawkes, and Edward Schafer, among others, seem to me to make excellent sense, and do not require assuming that Han Dynasty critical methods were current so early. Or that all Chinese men of letters of the Warring States period had assimilated Confucian readings of the "Shih Ching," or "Book of Songs," into their habits of composition.

However, Waters has a couple of millennia of astute native readers on his side, many of whom did write poetry with this type of reading in mind. Whether or not the shamanistic reading of the poems in question continues to be the standard model, or the court-politics interpretation re-assumes its primacy, "Three Elegies of Ch'u" has a value of its own, as an intelligent and sympathetic presentation of traditional Chinese literary culture.

(Reposted from my "anonymous" review of September 10, 2003.)

[I rate it five because I am the author.] I don't recall seeing much else on the Nine Elegies - or for that matter, any of the Chu Ci sections - since this was published. There will be no second edition. If there were, I'd fix a few things, but I think the study still holds up: both the content and the method.