China Books

This is a fascinating (and fictional) account of the greatest Chinese Emperess~ Empress Wu. Ms.Motley has done a superb job in her research and portrayal of the times. There is little written about this incredible Empress who held the Mandate of Heaven as no other Emperor ever did. I highly recomend it!

I'd actually had this novel recommended to me by several reliable sources before but had only gotten around to reading recently it because I'd never really been into reading fiction set in Asia. Lately though, I needed a change and this seemed perfect. Still I had my worries. All the fiction I'd read about China had seemed impossibly foreign to me-I just couldn't relate to it. The culture was too different; the way the books were written was too different. But in this book I found a good compromise, a story about Asian history told in a western fashion. And it is fantastic.

"Green Dragon, White Tiger" tells the story of Black Jade, a Chinese girl who is of the minor nobility who lived in the 7th century. When she was very young, around 2, an astrologer made a prediction that she would be the first woman to rule the empire of China as empress in her own right. Her father was an influential general in helping the current emperor win his throne and is good friends with the ruler. When the emperor comes to visit he is enchanted by the beauty of 13 year old Jade and makes arrangements for her to come and be his concubine when she is older. The death of her father and the subsequent mistreatment of Jade at the hands of her half-brothers pushes this date up some years. Soon she is the emperor's favorite concubine, not only for her beauty, but her keen political brain. When he dies he asks her to advise his unsure son and help him rule. Eventually she marries the son and becomes empress.

What I liked best was that Jade never really schemes to be in power-she is genuinely a hard worker who understands the problems of government and applies her self to fix them. As for becoming the favorite concubine of two emperors-the first was true love, the second was not really her choice at all. She was likeable, never a power hunger scheming, behind the scenes type, which some many women-in-power in historical fiction turn out to be.

Like I said, this book tells the story almost from a western viewpoint. The dialog, terms of use, general language and just the common feel of things comes off as rather, well, western. I was also surprised by the amount of freedom Jade and the other concubines seemed to have in the imperial harem (they could even have young men in under certain circumstances) and some things, like the wedding ceremony, were almost identical to that of middle ages Europe (especially the bedding of the bride.) I don't know if that's because there really were that many similarities between the east and the west or because the author wanted this book to be approachable to people like me and made it familiar feeling for them. I did get the sense this was well researched though and it was certainly very well written. I loved this book. Highly recommended.

Five stars. I liked this so much I bought all the author's other books,

Green Mountain, White Cloud by Francois Cheng adds a stunning novel to Cheng's growing body of truly great work. He has now been translated into English covering Chinese poetics, the written/painting arts of China, the relationship between calligraphy and poetry, friendship, totalitarianism, and now love -- love beyond understanding.

One constant in his work are the conflicts between tradition and modernism and the working out of healing through art and love.
The binding of tradition and the chaos of modernism interact like Yin and Yang.

Green Mountain, White Cloud is a brief novel set in the late days of Ming China just before its collapse and the disaster of colonial control of China lasting until the 1900s.

The title of this book comes from the core concepts of Chinese art -- mountains and waters (clouds are a special mysterious form of water). Mountains standing for the Yang energy -- men and their constant strength and clouds for the Ying power of the water and feminine. Water in all its forms has the power of the river and the ocean to flow and change. Mountains give birth the the water and water gives birth the mountains.

Possibly the greatest philosophical statment of the Eastern worldview is Dogen's Mountains and Rivers Sutra playing out the the entirety of multidimensional existence in short talk/essay on Buddhist teaching. The import and context of Cheng's novel can be viewed, at a distance, through Dogen's lens. It is a reflection on the teaching process that Cheng follows: to read this Chinese novel written in French and translated into English we must study an obscure text from the Japanese Middle Ages.

The story can be read, like the other Cheng novel in English, The River Below -- at several levels. In this book we have:
good and evil, loss and gain, masculine and feminine, gradual and transcending enlighment, the Oxhearing stages of the path to enlighenment, Zen koans, human love, Buddhist pure intent, traditional Chinese healing, and Christian love.

An interesting part of the novel is the Buddhist/Taoist/Confucian world crossing paths with the Christian mission. Buddhist concerns for other beings, taoist concepts of dialetics, and Confucian concerns with human character are displayed against the mysterious faith of a couple of Christians and their concern with the Father in Heaven and love for the Son of God.

At bottom this is a book about pure love and its great power.

Green Mountain, White Cloud by Francois Cheng adds a stunning novel to Cheng's growing body of truly great work. He has now been translated into English addressing Chinese poetics, the written/painting arts of China, the relationship between calligraphy and poetry, friendship, totalitarianism, and now love -- love beyond understanding.

One constant in his work are the conflicts between tradition and modernism and the working out of healing through art and love.
The binding of tradition and the chaos of modernism interact like Yin and Yang.

Green Mountain, White Cloud is a brief novel, of about 200 pages, set in the late days of Ming China just before its collapse and a time where the Chinese were aliens in thier own land.

The title of this book comes from the core concepts of Chinese art -- mountains and waters (clouds are a special mysterious form of water). Mountains standing for the Yang energy -- men and their constant strength and clouds for the Ying power of the water and feminine. Water in all its forms has the power of the river and the ocean to flow and change. Mountains give birth the the water and water gives birth the mountains.

Possibly the greatest philosophical statment of the Eastern worldview is Dogen's Mountains and Rivers Sutra playing out the the entirety of multidimensional existence in short talk/essay on Buddhist teaching. The import and context of Cheng's novel can be viewed, at a distance, through Dogen's lens. It is a reflection on the teaching process that Cheng follows: to read this Chinese novel written in French and translated into English we must study an obscure text from the Japanese Middle Ages.

The story can be read, like the other Cheng novel in English, The River Below -- at several levels. In this book we have:
good and evil, loss and gain, masculine and feminine, gradual and transcending enlighment, the Oxhearing stages of the path to enlighenment, Zen koans, human love, Buddhist pure intent, traditional Chinese healing, and Christian love.

An interesting part of the novel is the Eastern world crossing paths with the Christian mission. Buddhist concerns for other beings, taoist concepts of dialetics, and Confucian concerns with human character are displayed against the mysterious faith of a couple of Christians and their concern with the Father in Heaven and love for the Son of God.

At bottom this is a book about pure love and its great power.

This is one of the best field guides I have ever seen. The plates (61 plates)are beautifully illustrated and very accurate. Even though it will be a few years before I visit China, I wanted to purchase this field guide to become familiar with their mammals and where to find them. Besides wonderful illustrations of the mammals, the text is filled with great information. Each species account is accompanied with a range map showing the distribution of that mammal. Under the mammal's name is included the Chinese script of the mammal and an English translation of what that script sounds like. This is an ingenious inclusion, because for travelers looking for specific mammals, they only need to point to the script and people can help them. The text also includes taxonomic keys to assist in identifying mammals that are closely related. About the only thing that I didn't like was the fact that it only comes in hardcover. This is a personal thing because all of my other field guides are paperback, which makes them lighter to carry while traveling. But even with the hardcover, this field guide is a wonderful resource and learning tool for the mammals of China.

The introduction to this excellent guide indicates its importance to anyone interested in animals, and in particular mammals:

"The topography of China ranges from the highest elevation on Earth (Mt. Everest or Chomolung ma; 8,850 m) to one of the lowest (Turpan Pendi; 154 m below sea level). Chinese environments include some of Earth's most extensive and driest deserts (the Taklimakan and Gobi) and its highest plateau (the Tibetan Plateau or "Roof of the World"). Habitats range from tropical to boreal forest, and from extensive grasslands to desert. This wide variety of habitats has contributed greatly to the richness of China's mammal fauna. Additionally, the geographic location of China, at the suture zone between the Palaearctic and Indo-Malayan biogeographic regions , further contributes to the country's mammal diversity. Overall, more than 10 percent (556) of the world's species of mammal live in China .... In their analysis of megadiversity countries, Mittermeier et al. (1997) consider China to have the third highest diversity of mammals among all countries (following Brazil and Indonesia)."

The Introduction continues with a very interesting history of mammals and the study of mammals in China over the centuries. There is also an excellent bibliography.

The production values of this book are excellent, consistent with those in Princeton's recently released A Guide to the Mammals of Southeast Asia.

Every species is described in detail with key identification features, ecology, habitat, distribution, and status. There are 83 high-quality color plates and 572 very good distribution maps. The name of each animal appears in Chinese, with a phonetic translation.

This is a wonderful book for exploring mammals either in China itself or at home in your study.


Robert C. Ross 2008

In the highly competitive appliance industry, Haier has had remarkable results over the past 20 years starting from the position of a small and almost bankrupt firm.

To achieve these results, Haier has successfully employed a mixture of leading edge manufacturing and management schools any Western company would be proud of and combined them with a set of "Confucian" and other deeply rooted values unique to Chinese culture.

The story of Haier is well presented and easy as well as compelling to read. It should be required reading for any student of management. Unlike many difficult books to follow dealing with improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma, the authors of The Haier Way do an outstanding job discussing all of the factors including the "invisible" cultural evolution that have allowed this company to become a leading world brand with over US $8 billion in revenues. This is all the more remarkable given the capital market limitations faced by Chinese companies.

As an appliance industry executive that was sent to China to help teach the Chinese how to manufacture high-quality goods, I have now learned a great deal from Haier and the Chinese authors of this book.

Charles L. Green

In the highly competitive appliance industry, Haier has had remarkable results over the past 20 years starting from the position of a small and almost bankrupt firm.

To achieve these results, Haier has successfully employed a mixture of leading edge manufacturing and management schools any Western company would be proud of and combined them with a set of "Confucian" and other deeply rooted values unique to Chinese culture.

The story of Haier is well presented and easy as well as compelling to read. It should be required reading for any student of management. Unlike many difficult books to follow dealing with improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma, the authors of The Haier Way do an outstanding job discussing all of the factors including the "invisible" cultural evolution that have allowed this company to become a leading world brand with over US $8 billion in revenues. This is all the more remarkable given the capital market limitations faced by Chinese companies.

As an appliance industry executive who was sent to China to help teach the Chinese how to manufacture high-quality goods, I have now learned a great deal from Haier and the Chinese authors of this book.

Charles L. Green

A rich source of inspiration for a painter on porcelain, a pleasure for an art lover!

As a collector of fine antique porcelains, I was eager to own this book, and delighted when it was finally delivered! The artistry of painting on porcelains has been presented before in other publications, but "Hand Painted Porcelain Plates: Nineteenth Century to the Present" provides a new benchmark in terms of both text information and illustration.

With superb photographic technique, each image captures the magnificent color, form and art and the captions describing the age, area of origin and artist are very well done.

The plate chapters are arranged by country. German, Austrian and Bohemian plates include a history of manufacture, and makers like Richard Klemm, Ambrosius Lamm and other notable producers of Dresden porcelain, as well as portrait specimens produced by KPM and the artists of Vienna are included in this important chapter.

World class English porcelains are well-represented, with stunning and rare Worcester examples, as well as outstanding painted plates from Coalport, Davenport, Minton and Wedgwood. I enjoyed the recognition afforded to the venerable firm of John Aynsley, and the painted scenic view plates are generally missed by other publications on antique and collectible porcelains.

Many French porcelain makers set the decorating standard for others, and the chapter devoted to the makers from France, including Limoges and Sevres, are alone, well worth the price of the book!

With important information on marks, as well as fake and reproduction plates, Richard Rendall presents a clear and comprehensive text, and the examples from Elise Abram's collection are clearly representative of the most luxurious porcelain on the planet!

Recommended to both new and advanced collectors, you will not be dissappointed! This book is truly a feast for the eyes!

With so many phony TCM practitioners going around cheating uninitiated Westerners with their exotic claims and theories, it's good to have books like this which only provides the facts.

This small book manages not only to list but even provide some details on each commonly used Chinese herb. The herb's energy, taste and organs affected are all mentioned. It's definitely a good buy for anyone interested in learning more about one aspect of TCM as it is.

Don't let the small size of this book (328 pages in a paperback format) fool you; this book is absolutely packed with information on the healing herbs used in TCM --traditional Chinese medicine.

Author Reid has written a number of books on TCM. This herbal reference is well-written because it includes: the common Western name of the herb, the Latin name, the romanized Chinese name and the name in Chinese characters.

Packages of Chinese herbs may be labeled with any of the above, so this is really helpful. There is also a wonderful section on the principles of Chinese medicine and how the traditional herbal preparations are made. Some of the common combinations of Chinese herbs are included along with how to prepare them. There is a resource reference in the back. Highly recommended to anyone wanting to learn more about traditional Chinese medicine.

Here is even more proof that the differences in exotic cultures have already been conquered and eliminated by globalization -- at least in three large cities on three different continents. Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom has documented the sameness of fashion and trends and every-day urban living in 21st century Paris, New York, and Shanghai. This superb photo book is more about cool book design, and obsessive anthropological-sociological typologies, than it is about great photography. But it is a gem.

The brilliant design of the book folds out to reveal three connected books with identical sequences of near-identical subject-matter: opened and stretched out on your reading desk you have three books side-by-side. It then becomes natural to turn the pages of all three books simultaneously as you proceed. With delight, we are presented with, for instance, photographs of French, American, and Chinese men all wearing camouflage clothes as fashion statements in all three cities -- lots of men, lots of camouflage, in cities!

This pattern continues to an amazing degree with all sorts of typologies to compare and contrast: huge public sculptures, people wheeling luggage and boxes through city streets, traffic jams, urban places to relax, and even an hilarious triple spread of women sporting Louis Vuitton look-alike handbags.

Tony Godfrey writes this in his introductory essay:

"For a book of art photographs, there is an extraordinary array of images. Having opened it, I turn the pages of each volume simultaneously: I can see sixty photographs of men in striped shirts; turn again, and I see an army of seventy-two men in suits marching to work; turn again, and a panorama of empty civic spaces. What are we being told? That this is a small world after all? Is this a Family of Man on a minimal grid?"

This book forces those questions, and more. And though no single image is a stellar, stand-alone photograph, there is generous volume of photographs here -- 1,256 color images to be exact.

-- Jim Casper

One personal caveat, I don't normally purchase books of photography but this book was recomended. As someone who is a fan of big cities after I excaped my small town chilhood, this book sounded worth getting. This book does, with its repetitions of similar events in the three cities show in vivid display that we are all the same across the world in ways that are posigive and negative. On the postitive side Eijkelboom shows us parents holding babies, boyfriends and girlfriends in such a powerful way that that brought tears to my eyes. There is an almost impressionistic look to his photos of nature that take your breath away.
On the negative side in all cities are the homeless. Here he uses realistic style that breaks your heart. But globalization is the main evil in the potographers sight. We all own the same types of product and there is no real individuality across the word. From camoflage clothing to omnipresent advertising and the presece of mainly American products.
There is a great indroduction and an essay by a scholar that helped me appreciate thi s book to the fulest. Highly recommended.
Please excuse typos I have a neurologic disease.

People have been drinking tea for hundreds of years. Sylvia Schneider not only provides numerous tea recipes from China, Japan, India, Tibet, Arabia, the Americas, and Europe, she also includes the history and traditions of tea, as well as tea recipes for a wide range of ailments.

The popularity of tea combined with the popularity of herbs as medicine makes this title not only an interesting and informative book, but a practical one as well. The reader will enjoy learning about the history of these teas and the ingredients from which they are made. Preparing and drinking these teas, which can improve health and well-being, will also be an enjoyable experience.

This book is a jewel. A good friend gave it to me as a "hope you feel better gift" the last time I was down with a bad cold. You don't have to be sick, however, to learn about the ancient history and healing power of teas and infusions.

Sylvia Schneider is a freelance writer and medical and scientific editor who works as a medical journalist. In this book she explores the history, traditions, ingredients and recipes for tea from China, Japan, India, Tibet, Latin America, Aboriginal America, and Europe. There is also information about the use of exotic herbs and spices.

This beautiful volume is illustrated with more than 50 color photographs and includes many recipes to improve the overall state of health and well-being. Makes an excellent gift. I know firsthand!
JANA

This book proves beyond doubt the class of Chogyam Trungpa as a real master of the noble lineage of Karma Kagyu tradition.There are two chapters which require an in-depth reading: 1)The four foundations of mindfulness, and 2)Sacred outlook. The chapter titled sacred outlook contains the heart of the tantra tradition. Understanding the Vajrayogini principle so very clearly explained in this text will clear up all confusion in the minds of the students of the Dharma regarding the total absence of connection between sex and the Buddhist tantra. For those who question the ritual aspects of the Tibetan Buddhism, the answer lies in the explanation given by Chogyam Trungpa of the symbolism of the iconography of the Vajrayogini. I would like to share with all the following nuggets embedded in this chapter: "Experiencing the vajra mind of Vajrayogini is so deep and vast that if thoughts arise, they do not become highlights: they are small fish in a huge ocean of space" "All the dharmas comprising grasping and fixation become empty. From within emptiness.....arises the triangular source of dharmas....On that is the nature of my consciousness....Like a fish leaping from water, I arise in the body of Jetsun Vajrayogini" "The best translation of yidam that I have found is "personal deity". I strongly recommend this book for all students of Buddhism.

This collection of fifteen essays and talks offers an excellent introduction to the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa (1940-1987) as they relate to daily life. Trained in Tibetan Buddhism, Trungpa Rinpoche put aside his monastic robes when he came to the United States, believing that Buddhism needed to be taught "free from cultural trappings and religious fascination" (pp. 241-42). He criticized the materialistic and commercialized "spiritual supermarket" he encountered in the West, and encouraged his students to simply practice sitting meditation so that "it becomes an actual part of life" cutting through to the heart of the spiritual journey (pp. 34; 242). He introduced profound Buddhist teachings to the West in "a thoroughly contemporary way" (p. 243) and, for instance, there are teachings included in this 260-page book applicable to relationships, money, raising children, and drinking alcohol.

Our spiritual journey is a solitary one. The Buddha encouraged us to work out our own salvation with diligence, and "in some sense," Trungpa Rinpoche writes, "Buddhism can be described as a do-it-yourself process" (p. 69). THE HEART OF THE BUDDHA is organized into three parts. In the "Personal Journey" part of this book (pp. 1-82), Trungpa encourages us to confront ourselves directly through meditation practice. Rather than struggling to escape our pain, he writes, we must make it our path (p. 64). In the second part, "Stages of the Path" (pp. 83-170), Trungpa discusses the hinayana, mahayana, and vajrayana stages of the Buddhist path, which ultimately take us from our own inner self to facing life fearlessly. In the last part of the book, "Working with Others" (pp. 171-216), he demonstrates how meditation practice reveals the sacred quality of our everyday experience. This book delivers exactly what its title promises--teachings that cut straight to the heart of Tibetan Buddhism.

G. Merritt

This book is a collection of centuries-old herbal secrets. Some of these secrets my mother has only heard whispered but never learned. I am sure that my own tight-lipped doctor uses them, because he is in his seventies, yet his skin has the texture of a thirty-year-old.
These formulae work. They restore health, youth, and vigor - the qualities that the Chinese doctors call "beautiful." The speed at which the restoration takes place is only inhibited by the initial state at which the user begins.

I'm amazed that these ancient formulas are so useful and work so well even today. Maybe it's because they have been used for so many generations. The ancient stories and backgrounds behind these formulas are very interesting, e.g., how some recipes were used by Emperor Guangxu and Empress Cixi. I recommended some hair rinse formulas to my friends and they really liked those recipes! Those mouthwash recipes are very helpful too. The recipes are easy to follow, with detailed ingredients, amounts, and preparation methods described. The explanations in Chinese medicine and scientific research are easy to understand. The book gives detailed references that are very convincing. It's a good resource about traditional Chinese culture too, such as those aromatics bags that were very popular in ancient China. It's almost unbelievable that ancient Chinese had developed so many comprehensive methods for beauty.