Search results for ""Author John Minford""

The Best China, an expression traditionally used to refer to the finest crockery brought out when one is entertaining special guests, has been adapted here to mean the Best Chinese Tradition of free-thinking discursive prose. This anthology of essays from Hong Kong and the diaspora, ranging across the past hundred and seventy years, records the intellectual ferment that has always characterised the city since its founding in 1842, sometimes restless and questioning, sometimes meditative and lyrical, always civilised, and buoyed by an all-pervasive and indomitable spirit of freedom.

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A landmark new translation of the ancient Chinese oracle and book of wisdom, in a stunning Penguin Classics Deluxe EditionThe I Ching, or Book of Change, has been consulted through the ages, in both China and the West, for answers to fundamental questions about the world and our place in it. The oldest extant book of divination, it dates back three thousand years to ancient shamanistic practices involving the ritual preparation of the shoulder bones of oxen. From this early form of communication with the other world, it has become the Chinese spiritual book par excellence. An influence on such cultural icons as Bob Dylan, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Philip K. Dick, and Philip Pullman, the I Ching is turned to by millions around the world for insights on spiritual growth, business, medicine, genetics, game theory, strategic thinking, and leadership, and of course for the window it opens on China.This new translation, over a decade in the making, is informed by the latest archaeological discoveries and features a gorgeously rendered codex of divination signs-the I Ching's sixty-four Tarot-like hexagrams. It captures the majesty and mystery of this legendary work and charts an illuminating path to self-knowledge.

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Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.Offering ancient wisdom on how to use skill, cunning, tactics and discipline to outwit your opponent, this bestselling 2000-year-old military manual is still worshipped by soldiers on the battlefield and managers in the boardroom as the ultimate guide to winning.

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For more than 2,000 years, Sun Tzu's The Art of War has provided leaders with essential advice on battlefield tactics, managing troops and terrain, and employing cunning and deception. An elemental part of Chinese culture, it has also become a touchstone for the Western struggle for survival and success, whether in battle, in business or in relationships. Now, in this crisp, accessible new translation, John Minford brings this seminal work to life for today's readers. A lively, learned introduction, chronologies and suggested further reading are among the valuable apparatus included in this authoritative volume. Even those readers familiar with The Art of War will experience it anew, finding it more fascinating - and more chilling - than ever.Little is known about Sun Tzu (544-496 B.C.) and his life during the Warring States period after the decline of the Zhou dysnasty, but his classic, The Art of War, has been one of the central works of Chinese literature for 2500 years.John Minford studied Chinese at Oxford and at the Australian National University and has taught in China, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. He edited (with Geremie Barme) Seeds of Fire: Chinese Voices of Conscience and (with Joseph S. M. Lau) Chinese Classical Literature: An Anthology of Translations. He has translated numerous works from the Chinese, including the last two volumes of the Penguin Classics edition of Cao Xueqin's eighteenth-century novel The Story of the Stone and the martial-arts fiction of the contemporary Hong Kong novelist Louis Cha.

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The Strange Tales of Pu Songling (1640-1715) are exquisite and amusing miniatures that are regarded as the pinnacle of classical Chinese fiction. With their elegant prose, witty wordplay and subtle charm, the 104 stories in this selection reveal a world in which nothing is as it seems. Here a Taoist monk conjures up a magical pear tree, a scholar recounts his previous incarnations, a woman out-foxes the fox-spirit that possesses her, a child bride gives birth to a thimble-sized baby, a ghostly city appears out of nowhere and a heartless daughter-in-law is turned into a pig. In his tales of humans coupling with shape-shifting spirits, bizarre phenomena, haunted buildings and enchanted objects, Pu Songling pushes back the boundaries of human experience and enlightens as he entertains.

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Leung Ping?kwan is one of Hong Kong’s most acclaimed poets. His poems display a unique blend of the literary and the down?to?earth, the modern and the traditional, the serious and the humorous, the local and the universal. He wrote, ‘I want to write a kind of modern poetry that does not have to turn away from the world we live in, that rethinks the relationship between language and objects...’ This collection has been carefully curated, and is arranged under ten thematic sections: Lotus Leaves, Hong Kong, Macao, Foodscape, After the Book of Songs, Strange Tales: After Pu Songling, Clothink, Museum Pieces, Places and Friends, Bitter?Melon and Others. These translated poems, and the delight they bring, are a celebration of the continuing legacy of a remarkable Hong Kong poet.

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For more than two thousand years, Sun-tzu's The Art of War has provided leaders with essential advice on battlefield tactics, managing troops and terrain, and employing cunning and deception. An elemental part of Chinese culture, it has also become a touchstone for the Western struggle for survival and success, whether in battle, in business or in relationships. Now, in this crisp, accessible new translation, John Minford brings this seminal work to life for today's readers. Capturing the literary quality of The Art of War - its lucid, epigrammatic, almost poetic style - as well as its philosophical and strategic content, Minford present the core text in two different formats. First, the unadorned thirteen chapters allow readers to form their own first impressions of the ancient words of wisdom ascribed to Sun-tzu. Then the same text appears with extensive running commentary from the canon of traditional Chinese commentators and others, providing context and subtext to the work. A lively, learned introduction, chronologies, suggested readings, and other valuable apparatus round this authoritative volume. Even those readers familiar with The Art of War will experience it anew, finding it more fascinating - and more chilling - than ever.

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Sun Tzu's The Art of War is still one of the world's most influential treatises on strategic thought. Applicable everywhere from the boardroom to the bedroom, from the playing field to the battlefield, its wisdom has never been more highly regarded. Now available in its complete form, including the Chinese characters and English text, this essential examination of the art of decisive military strategy features extensive commentary and an insightful historical introduction written by Lionel Giles, its original translator. This new edition includes an all-new introduction by the scholar of ancient Chinese literature, John Minford.

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The summation of more than two thousand years of one of the world's most august literary traditions, this volume also represents the achievements of four hundred years of Western scholarship on China. The selections include poetry, drama, fiction, songs, biographies, and works of early Chinese philosophy and history rendered in English by the most renowned translators of classical Chinese literature: Arthur Waley, Ezra Pound, David Hawkes, James Legge, Burton Watson, Stephen Owen, Cyril Birch, A. C. Graham, Witter Bynner, Kenneth Rexroth, and others. Arranged chronologically and by genre, each chapter is introduced by definitive quotes and brief introductions chosen from classic Western sinological treatises. Beginning with discussions of the origins of the Chinese writing system and selections from the earliest "genre" of Chinese literature-the Oracle Bone inscriptions-the book then proceeds with selections from: * early myths and legends; * the earliest anthology of Chinese poetry, the Book of Songs; * early narrative and philosophy, including the I Ching, Tao-te Ching, and the Analects of Confucius; * rhapsodies, historical writings, magical biographies, ballads, poetry, and miscellaneous prose from the Han and Six Dynasties period; * the court poetry of the Southern Dynasties; * the finest gems of Tang poetry; and * lyrics, stories, and tales of the Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties eras. Special highlights include individual chapters covering each of the luminaries of Tang poetry: Wang Wei, Li Bo, Du Fu, and Bo Juyi; early literary criticism; women poets from the first to the tenth century C.E.; and the poetry of Zen and the Tao. Bibliographies, explanatory notes, copious illustrations, a chronology of major dynasties, and two-way romanization tables coordinating the Wade-Giles and pinyin transliteration systems provide helpful tools to aid students, teachers, and general readers in exploring this rich tradition of world literature.

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Leung Ping?kwan brought as much talent and inspiration to the writing of his short stories as he did to his poems. ‘I have drawn on magical realism to explore the absurdity of Hong Kong,’ he wrote of the story See Mun and the Dragon (1975) in which we find him using a simple, clipped style. The later story Drowned Souls (2007) was written in a more symbolic, lyrical and complex manner, influenced by the style of the traditional Chinese tales of the supernatural. Although the two stories are separated by over 30 years, dragons play a prominent part in both. The dragon has always been a fascinating creature, a complex embodiment of the timeless soul of China and a symbol of the creative energy and transformative possibilities of the Tao. Both of these enchanting stories are anchored in the author’s ideas of freedom and liberation.Through the keen eyes and curious mind of a young girl, Ying?tzu, we are given a glimpse into the adult world of Peking in the 1920s.

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"One of the great novels of world literature…to the Chinese as Proust is to the French or Karamazov to the Russians." —Anthony West, literary criticDream of the Red Chamber (also known as The Story of the Stone) is renowned for its epic scope, rich psychological characterizations and telling observations on family life and the role of women in Chinese society. One of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature, along with Journey to the West, The Water Margin, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms; Dream of the Red Chamber is widely regarded as the greatest Chinese classical novel, and one of the greatest works of world literature ever written. The "red chamber" refers to a sheltered area in wealthy households where daughters were confined until married—a veritable prison where dreams of true love wither. This sweeping tale tells of the rise and fall of rival branches of the wealthy Jia family, who live in lavish adjacent compounds surrounded by a lush, private garden.The story opens with the birth of Jia Baoyu, heir apparent and darling of the women in the Jia household. A free-thinker and idealist, Baoyu soon rebels against his stern father, who refuses to allow his son to pursue a romantic affair with Lin Daiyu—a headstrong and intelligent woman who shares his love of music and poetry. Baoyu is forced instead to marry Xue Baochai, an equally talented and beautiful woman but someone with whom he has no emotional connection. The fates of the star-crossed lovers and their families slowly unravel as this tragic story unfolds.Dream of the Red Chamber, although written by a man, is said to be one of the first great works of women's literature. The author, Cao Xueqin, is thought to have written the novel as a memorial to the inspiring women he knew in his youth.

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This is a most unusual book. For several decades Xi Xi has been widely known for her award?winning poetry and fiction. This time, she has chosen to write about the teddy bears she began making in 2005, after treatment for cancer, in order to improve the mobility of her right hand. She made the bears herself from scratch, choosing some of her favourite characters from history and legend such as the Taoist philosopher Master Zhuang, the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, and Beauty and the Beast. She also createexquisite items of clothing for them and wove a series of delightfully witty essays around them, giving her readers fascinating insights into Chinese culture, and into the ways in which Chinese clothing and fashion have evolved through the ages.

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