China Books

I haven't read this book, but I just wanted to mention that "Sources of Chinese Tradition" compiled by deBary and Bloom has a chapter of about twenty pages by Keightley discussing the oracle bone inscriptions. It might serve as an introduction for those with only a slight interest--especially as "The Ancestral Landscape" becomes harder to buy--and is usually available for pretty cheap. (I have the second edition, so double check to make sure the first edition has this chapter too!)

Thanks

Keightley, one of the top Western scholars in this field, has produced a must-read with this exploration of everything the oracle bone divination contents can tell us about the lives and environment of the Shang world, including agriculture, time and the calendar, the Shang territory, capital and its environs, foreign relations, and religious life. On each topic, Keightley presents phrases found in the oracle bone inscriptions, directly translated graph for graph into modern Chinese characters, then presents his translation into English, and a discussion. His style is lucid, his scholarship keen. There are eight figures with rubbings of actual oracle bones in the rear, but other than this, all the contents of the divinations are presented only in modern, traditional graphs, which is a bit disappointing for those like me who would very much like to see the oracle bone versions of the graphs for each phrase. Nevertheless, highly recommended.

For those who like figure painting in oriental style, this book is a must, for it contains a well-selected array of wonderful painting, which should appeal both to the connoisseur as well as new comers to the art form. The layout and printing, which is so important for a book of this type, are exmplary.

Highly recommended.

This can be an excellent gift for people who admires Chinese Art. It's a very well produced book with wonderful photos and appropriate explanations.

This is an outstanding work for anyone interested in the Warring States period at any level. Beginners will find the translation straight-forward, readable, even engaging from time to time. For those a little more advanced, the Preface and Introduction will prove to be extremely helpful (as the library reviews indicate). For advanced students, the translators have included the literary Chinese based on the critical edition--in traditional characters, in an easily readable script. One can only wish that we could have scholarly works like this (i.e., accessible even by beginners) for other Warring States texts, particularly the Zhang Guo Ce, XunZi, MoZi, etc.

Lu is of the most intelligent guys I've ever known. It's a surprise that I found this book. If I had more money, I would buy more this kind of book.

Lu Bu Wei rocks

I found some new information in this book... In situation when the topic like this (arms trade) is not so popular and very hard to find an information about arms transfers at the beginning of this century, this book looks very useful and informative... While there are some mistakes anyway book looks very fine and mistakes not so important... I'd like to recommend for those peoples who interested in military and politic history...

Very interesting and useful for researchers and historians... I found some new information in this book... In situation when the topic like this (arms trade) is not so popular and very hard to find an information about arms transfers at the beginning of this century, this book looks very useful and informative... While there are some mistakes anyway book looks very fine and mistakes not so important... I'd like to recommend for those peoples who interested in military and politic history...

I love this book and I have several books on Chinese brush painting. (I'd not part with any of them.) What I like is that she gives you a sense of porportion and she teaches you how to not just draw the figures but how to add to the subject and balance the picture. Chinese painting is about simplicity and doing it has taught me how to do more with my other works. This is a bit pedantic for intermediate artists but everyone can learn from it.

I painted some of the pictures as she directed, and I wasn't exactly skilled as she and yet the results were so charming people like them enough to hang them on the wall. She teaches technique, and its wonderful. :>

THIS BOOK IS FOR LEARNING HOW TO PAIN

The author gives the basics as well as very good illustrations and describes techniques clearly.

Art Myth and Ritual sets out an elegant yet convincing theory regarding the nature of the early Chinese state and the technological, ideological and social foundations on which it rested. By combining archaeology, classical studies and anthropology, Prof. Chang (who is regarded as the international dean of Chinese archaeology by scholars on both sides of the Taiwan strait as well as in Europe and North America) provides his readers with a dynamic view of ancient Chinese statecraft and the religious ideas that made it possible.

This book remains the single most concise statement of Chang's theoretical contribution to the archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age. It is also simply written, well-illustrated and an excellent beginning point for the serious student of Chinese archaeology.

With Chang's magnum opus: "The Archaeology of Ancient China" sadly out of print (at time of writing), readers must make do with this volume to get a sense of his scope of vision, analytical depth and anthropological insight.

As one of K.C.s final generation of students, I must admit to a certain bias. However, it is my professional and personal opinion that this book is still one of the best works on Chinese archaeology in any language.

This is the most succinct statement of the late K.C. Chang's views of early Chinese civilization. Many of his opinions are controversial--for example, his view of shamanism in ancient China and his interpretation of the characteristic decorations on bronze vessels--but they are creative, original, and have influenced an entire generation of historians. Once you read his brief and incisive discussion of the resources necessary to produce a bronze vessel, from mining the ore to casting the piece, your appreciation of these artifacts will never be the same again. This kind of book is rare and admirable: concise, well written, and brimming with provocative ideas.

An eminently readable, entertaining, and fascinating look at a premier text of ancient Chinese science. Cullen provides an excellent analysis of this important document, including its history, authorship, and meaning. The diagrams are clear and crisp, the writing cogent and witty. You can't go wrong with this one.

Don't let the title fool you. This is not just about China, this is about the human condition. Someone with an imagination should have worked on the title and given it a bit more excitement. I almost skipped reading the book because the title seemed so dry.

I read this book twice and will probably read it, again. The author's presentation is simply masterful. Step by step, he recreates the setting and background for the book's creation and utilization. In fact, he walks the reader through about 2000 years of 'uses' that people found for the book. According to Cullen, this classic was probably a gift to a Chinese emperor and then dumped in a back room for 200 years. It was only when political circumstances changed and an 'old' book might be valuable that it was 'rediscovered' and rendered useful.

For anyone interested in the practice of ancient astronomy, Cullen goes into great detail on the tools and practice of Chinese astronomers from about 3000 BC to the arrival of Jesuits in 1600. For anyone interested in Chinese political history, Cullen explores imperial Chinese history in a way that simply makes one want to read much, much more. For anyone interested in ancient Chinese record keeping, Cullen offers practical advice on what to make of the 'documents' we moderns discover.

I hope they make this a paperback so that it can get wider circulation. What is commonly called 'the history of math' is often embarrassingly western (ethno-centric). This book offers a means of correcting that unfortunate state of affairs.

A great book that impresses you with the life of a siddha.After reading the book, your faith to your guru will be aroused so much!All the bodhisattva acts of the 1st Jamgon rinpoche should be rememebered by the practitioners of all lineages.He's a good example for ALL.

From the foreword by ven. Ringu Tulku: "If one wants to get a complete picture of Tibetan Buddhism as a whole, especially from an inner perspective, I think there is no book more important to read than The Autobiography of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great. This is the autobiography of a yogi who studied, practiced, and found the essence of each and every spiritual path in Tibet. Jamgön Kongtrul was a true saint, a great scholar, an exemplary teacher, a renowned physician, a peacemaker, and one of the most prolific writers of Tibet. The Five Great Treasuries of Kongtrul, which comprise over one hundred volumes of a thousand pages each, enshrine all the wisdom of Tibet. It is so very easy to see that if he did not compile, transmit, and publish these teachings, most of them would have been lost during the recent turmoil in Tibet.
"Jamgön Kongtrul's greatest contribution, though, is seen as being the Ri-mé movement that he and Jamyang Kyentsé Wangpo revived, a movement that is actually the essence of the Buddhist approach. (...)"

In the introduction to "Creation and Completion; Essential Points of Tantric Meditation" the enormity of Kongtrul's contribution is aptly expressed by the following quotation from the late Dudjom Rinpoche: "So if we examine Jamgön Kongtrul's career (...) it is as if he spent his whole life as an author. None the less, if one thinks of his teaching and propagation of the empowerments, guidance, esoteric instructions, recitational transmissions, and so forth (...) it is as if he spent his whole life teaching and propagating. And, if one investigates how (...) he experientially cultivated the stages of creation and perfection associated with inconceivable myriads of mandalas, it seems as if he passed the length of his life in a retreat house sealed up with mud. Likewise, if one considers (...) his legacy in connection with the ten modes of doctrinal conduct, it is as if he passed his whole life diligently engaged in the sphere of work and activity. In these ways [his career] was inconceivable, within only the reach of those who are truly sublime."

This book is set in an alley in a poor sections of London and allows you to become part of the lives of it's inhabitants. All of the residents come from different races, colors and creeds and how they share their lives through joy, pain, politics, society and WWII.

This is the story of Tim an Irish labourer, his slow friend Dandy and their wifes and families living in a gaslit cobbled alley at the beggining of 1900. Read about Maud, Dandies loud American wife her beloved son, who goes off to fight in the first world war and tearaway daughter Colleen. Discover the dark secret the Brown twins accross the alley share, and their strange sister Ellen. This is an excellent book if you like to get the feel of old London and life before the Great War.