Best of
China

1981

1587: A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline


Ray Huang - 1981
    First published by Yale University Press in 1981,[1] it examines how a number of seemingly insignificant events in 1587 might have caused the downfall of the Ming empire. The views expressed in the book follow the macro history perspective.

Spring Moon: A Novel of China


Bette Bao Lord - 1981
    in an ancient land of breathtaking beauty and exotic surprise ... a courageous woman triumphs over her world's ultimate tragedy.Behind the garden walls of the House of Chang, pampered daughter Spring Moon is born into luxury and privilege. But the tempests of change sweep her into a new world -- one of hardship, turmoil, and heartbreak, one that threatens to destroy her husband, her family, and her darkest secret love. Through a tumultuous lifetime, Spring Moon must cling to her honor, to the memory of a time gone by, and to a destiny, foretold at her birth, that has yet to be fulfilled.

The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese Aesthetics


Li Zehou - 1981
    The author, a noted philosopher and aesthetician, draws on examples of sculpture, painting, calligraphy, and poetry, among other sources, from throughout China's history to build a cogent and engaging argument concerning the nature of Chinese artistic values. While providing an historical overview of Chinese art from antiquity to modern times, he examines as well the evolution of the sociological, psychological, philosophical, and spiritual underpinnings of Chinese culture.

The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980


Jonathan D. Spence - 1981
    Fairbank)   In this masterful, highly original approach to modern Chinese history, Jonathan D. Spence shows us the Chinese revolution through the eyes of its most articulate participants—the writers, historians, philosophers, and insurrectionists who shaped and were shaped by the turbulent events of the twentieth century. By skillfully combining literary materials with more conventional sources of political and social history, Spence provides an unparalleled look at China and her people and offers valuable insight into the continuing conflict between the implacable power of the state and the strivings of China's artists, writers, and thinkers.

The Complete Stories of Lu Xun


Lu Xun - 1981
    His short stories are satiric, vivid, pungently realistic - as satisfying in structure as they are in tone and content. Lu Xun studied medicine in Japan, but soon exchanged his physician's scalpel for a literary one, which he wielded with a sure hand and an accurate eye to probe the sickness of a still-feudal Chinese society. This collection of Lu Xun's short stories is the most complete, accurate, and authoritative yet to appear. It includes the preface to his first book, CALL TO ARMS, in which Lu Xun explains how he came to be a writer.

The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T'Ang


Stephen Owen - 1981
    

Chinese Painting in Four Seasons: A Manual of Aesthetics & Techniques


Leslie Tseng-Tseng. Yu - 1981
    

Wushu! The Chinese Way to Family Health & Fitness


The People's Sports Publishing House - 1981
    Wushu! has been encouraged and developed by the People's government to promote national fitness. Wushu! (literally "martial art") is not the aggressive kung fu of the movies. Traditionally consisting of two schools - the "external," whose forms are hard and vigorous, involving leaping, kicking and somersaulting; and the "internal," emphasizing soft, graceful, fluid movements that resemble dancing rather than exercising - the wushu in this book has evolved from its ancient origings to its present form as a series of simple physical exercises practiced to promote health and fitness. In the process, it has also acquired a sense of joy. It really is fun to perform. Profusely illustrated with over 1,000 original two-color how-to drawings, Wushu! includes the classic 24 exercises of Taijiquan - a Chinese version of isometrics; a series of exercises for babies (aided by their parents) and childre; gentle forms of shadowboxing and sword play perfect for the elderly and sedentary; and a secion of special exercises to improve health, relieve pain and prevent disease. Now available in the West for the first time, the exercises in Wushu! are fun and a rewarding fitness program for everyone in the family which will enable them to strengthen and relax their bodies as millions of Chinese do every day.

Chinese Hells: The Peking Temple of Eighteen Hells and Chinese Conceptions of Hell


Anne Swann Goodrich - 1981
    Goodrich may be considered a sequel to The Peking Temple of the Eastern Peak. The Peking Temple of the Eighteen Hells, she deals with in the first part, was a much smaller Institution opposite the Temple of the Eastern Peak. The notes on which the descriptions of both sites are based were taken during frequent visits in the years 1931 and 1932, when she accompanied her husband, the late Professor L. Carrington Goodrich, on a study tour.The commentaries on both places, provided by Anne S. Goodrich's teacher and guide, Mr. Shih, a resident of the area, preserve much of the folk beliefs concerning the world of gods and ghosts. It is very fortunate that Mrs. Goodrich has been able to illustrate her description with numerous photographs generously supplied by Professor Robert des Rotours.In the second part of her book she traces the origins of the Chinese ideas of Hell and gives a survey of Chinese descriptions of Hell, particularly those contained in stories of visits to Hell, and of the influence which the belief in an afterlife and in otherworldly punishment had on the practical conduct of people.

Is This Your First Purge, Miss?


G.B. Trudeau - 1981
    

The Peacock Maiden: Folk Tales from China


Nicholas Van Rijn - 1981
    The King of the Pomegranate Tree The Peacock maiden The headman and the Magician The Piece of Zhuang Brocade The Golden Vase and the Monkeys The Frog who Became and Emperor The Clever Woman The Wise Ma Zai Under the Shade of the Mulberry Tree The Son of the Mountain Outwitting the Landlord

Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion


Holmes H. Welch - 1981
    

The Enticers


Natasha Peters - 1981
    And in this boiling ferment lived the Americans, born and bred in China, but destined to be outsiders in the end...ANNE FOX - a sensitive, passionate woman whose secret past bound her to this enigmatic land and stood between her and love forever...GILBERT LAWRENCE - Anne's husband, a doctor whose lust for his own wife's sister finally drove him to the sweet release of the East - opium...KIT - Anne's gorgeous sister, the queen of a razzle-dazzle social set, who rant from bed to bed savagely trying to fill an empty life...JAMES INNES - Kit's husband, whose money bought his fashionable wife, but could never pave his way into the high society he pretended to scorn...