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"China Description and travel."
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A Chinese Bestiary
A Chinese Bestiary presents a fascinating pageant of
mythical creatures from a unique and enduring cosmography written
in ancient China. The Guideways through Mountains and
Seas, compiled between the fourth and first centuries b.c.e.,
contains descriptions of hundreds of fantastic denizens of
mountains, rivers, islands, and seas, along with minerals, flora,
and medicine. The text also represents a wide range of beliefs held
by the ancient Chinese. Richard Strassberg brings the
Guideways to life for modern readers by weaving together
translations from the work itself with information from other texts
and recent archaeological finds to create a lavishly illustrated
guide to the imaginative world of early China. Unlike the
bestiaries of the late medieval period in Europe, the
Guideways was not interpreted allegorically; the strange
creatures described in it were regarded as actual entities found
throughout the landscape. The work was originally used as a sacred
geography, as a guidebook for travelers, and as a book of omens.
Today, it is regarded as the richest repository of ancient Chinese
mythology and shamanistic wisdom. The Guideways may have
been illustrated from the start, but the earliest surviving
illustrations are woodblock engravings from a rare 1597 edition.
Seventy-six of those plates are reproduced here for the first time,
and they provide a fine example of the Chinese engraver's art
during the late Ming dynasty. This beautiful volume, compiled by a
well-known specialist in the field, provides a fascinating window
on the thoughts and beliefs of an ancient people, and will delight
specialists and general readers alike.
eBook
Re-Orienting China
The ongoing global migration of peoples raises urgent questions about home and abroad, and self and other. By approaching travel writing as a process that makes the foreign relatable, and home unfamiliar, Leilei Chen translates the New China for us, offering a fresh understanding of difference.
eBook
Discover China : top sights, authentic experiences
Lonely Planet Discover China is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Explore the Forbidden City in Beijing, marvel at the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, or wander around the pagodas and lilting willows of Hangzhou's West Lake; all with your trusted travel companion. Discover the best of China and begin your journey now!
Book
The paper road
This exhilarating book interweaves the stories of two early twentieth-century botanists to explore the collaborative relationships each formed with Yunnan villagers in gathering botanical specimens from the borderlands between China, Tibet, and Burma. Erik Mueggler introduces Scottish botanist George Forrest, who employed Naxi adventurers in his fieldwork from 1906 until his death in 1932. We also meet American Joseph Francis Charles Rock, who, in 1924, undertook a dangerous expedition to Gansu and Tibet with the sons and nephews of Forrest's workers. Mueggler describes how the Naxi workers and their Western employers rendered the earth into specimens, notes, maps, diaries, letters, books, photographs, and ritual manuscripts. Drawing on an ancient metaphor of the earth as a book, Mueggler provides a sustained meditation on what can be copied, translated, and revised and what can be folded back into the earth.
eBook
The Emperor far away : travels at the edge of China
The author describes his trip to the remotest parts of the country far away from the capital, including the Islamic area of Xinjiang province, the forbidden zone of Tibet, and Route 219, which borders India.
Book
Jewish wayfarers in modern China
Jewish Wayfarers in Modern China focuses on the many extraordinary contacts between East and West in China during the 20th century. Through a collection of short biographies situated in the context of Chinese and Western history, it offers a panoramic view of China as experienced by many different persons of Jewish origins during their sojourn in the Middle Kingdom. The book offers a journey across vast reaches of space and back through time. Our impressions of visits to China have often been biased by sensational journalism, Hollywood films and literary entertainment that have distorted the reality of this vast country. Jewish Wayfarers in Modern China offers the reality of life in twentieth century China through the carefully-researched biographies of a variety of typical and less typical Western visitors to the Middle Kingdom.
eBook