Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty
10 best books like Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty (Sima Qian): The Peony Pavilion: Mudan ting, The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei: Vol. One: The Gathering, Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276, Journey to the West, Selected Stories, The Death of Woman Wang, The Debt of Tears, Family, Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems, Mencius
The Peony Pavilion: Mudan ting
| Author | Tang Xianzu |
| ISBN | 0253215277 |
The celebrated English translation of this classic work of Chinese literature is now available in an updated paperback edition. Written in 1598 by Tang Xianzu, The Peony Pavilion is one of literature's most memorable love stories and a masterpiece of Ming drama. It's heroine, Bridal Du, is a cloistered...
| Author | Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng |
| ISBN | 0691016143 |
This first of five planned volumes begins David Roy's long-awaited complete and annotated translation of an anonymous sixteenth-century Chinese novel, the famous Chin P'ing Mei. A work known primarily for its erotic realism, the Chin P'ing Mei is also a landmark in the development of narrative art...
Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276
| Author | Jacques Gernet |
| ISBN | 0804707200 |
This is one of my earliest and most valuable finds, an excellent resource for the study and/or reenactment of the period. The first several chapters detail city life, social classes, housing, cooking and personal grooming. The later chapters cover the broader subjects of life cycle (birth, marriage...
| Author | Wu Cheng'en |
| ISBN | 7119016636 |
First published in 1952, The Journey to the West, volume I, comprises the first twenty-five chapters of Anthony C. Yu's four-volume translation of Hsi-yu Chi, one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature. The fantastic tale recounts the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Hsüan-tsang...
| Author | Xun Lu |
| ISBN | 0393008487 |
"When I was young I, too, had many dreams. Most of them came to be forgotten, but I see nothing in this to regret. For although recalling the past may make you happy, it may sometimes also make you lonely, and there is no point in clinging in spirit to lonely bygone days. However, my trouble is that I cannot...
Drawing on local Chinese histories, the memoirs of scholars, and other contemporary writings, Chinese historian Jonathan Spence reconstructs an extraordinary tale of rural tragedy in a remote corner of Shantung province in 17th-century China. Life in the county of T'an-ch'eng emerges as an endless...
| Author | Xueqin Cao |
| ISBN | 0140443711 |
"The Story of the Stone" (c. 1760), also known by the title of "The Dream of the Red Chamber", is the great novel of manners in Chinese literature. Divided into five volumes, of which "The Debt of Tears" is the fourth, it charts the glory and decline of the illustrious Jia family (a story which closely accords...
| Author | Ba Jin |
| ISBN | 0881333735 |
An essential work for anyone interested in the society and history of modern China! The first half of the twentieth century was a period of great turmoil in China. Family, one of the most popular Chinese novels of that time, vividly reflects that turmoil and serves as a basis for understanding what followed....
| Author | Li Bai |
| ISBN | 0140442723 |
Li Po (AD 701-62) and Tu Fu (AD 712-70) were devoted friends who are traditionally considered to be among China's greatest poets. Li Po, a legendary carouser, was an itinerant poet whose writing, often dream poems or spirit-journeys, soars to sublime heights in its descriptions of natural scenes and...
Mencius was one of the great philosophers of ancient China, second only in influence to Confucius, whose teachings he defended and expanded. The Mencius, in which he recounts his dialogues with kings, dukes and military men, as well as other philosophers, is one of the Four Books that make up the essential...
| Author | Arthur Waley |
| ISBN | 0802134777 |
One of the five Confucian classics, The Book of Songs (Shijing) is the oldest collection of poetry in world literature and the finest treasure of traditional songs left from antiquity. Where the other Confucian classics treat “outward things: deeds, moral precepts, the way the world works,”...
| Author | Kong Shangren |
| ISBN | 1590178769 |
A tale of battling armies, political intrigue, star-crossed romance, and historical cataclysm, The Peach Blossom Fan is one of the masterpieces of Chinese literature, a vast dramatic composition that combines the range and depth of a great novel with the swift intensity of film.
In the mid-1640s,...
| Author | Mu Xin |
| ISBN | 0811219224 |
An Empty Room is the first book by the celebrated Chinese writer Mu Xin to appear in English. A cycle of thirteen tenderly evocative stories written while Mu Xin was living in exile, this collection is reminiscent of the structural beauty of Hemingway’s In Our Time and the imagistic power of Kawabata’s...
| Author | Wang Wei |
| ISBN | 0811216187 |
Wang Wei (701-761 C.E.) is often spoken of, with his contemporaries Li Po and Tu Fu, as one of the three greatest poets in China's 3,000-year poetic tradition. Of the three, Wang was the consummate master of the short imagistic landscape poem that came to typify classical Chinese poetry. He developed...
| Author | Red Pine |
| ISBN | 1556591950 |
Bilingual: Chinese/English
Poetry is China’s greatest art, and for the past eight centuries Poems of the Masters has been that country’s most studied and memorized collection of verse. For the first time ever in English, here is the complete text, with an introduction and extensive...
The Loom of Time: A Selection of His Plays and Poems
| Author | Kālidāsa |
| ISBN | 0140455213 |
Kalidasa was the most accomplished poet and playwright in classical Sanskrit literature. This collection features his best-known work: the great poem Meghadutam (The Cloud Messenger), a haunting depiction of longing and separation; the play Sakuntala, which describes the troubled love between...
| Author | Hui-Neng |
| ISBN | 0231083610 |
The "Platform Sutra" records the teachings of Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch, who is revered as one of the two great figures in the founding of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism. This translation is the definitive English version of the eighth-century Ch'an classic.
Phillip B. Yampolsky has based his...
The Age of Confucian Rule: The Song Transformation of China
| Author | Dieter Kuhn |
| ISBN | 0674031466 |
Just over a thousand years ago, the Song dynasty emerged as the most advanced civilization on earth. Within two centuries, China was home to nearly half of all humankind. In this concise history, we learn why the inventiveness of this era has been favorably compared with the European Renaissance, which...
| Author | Wu Jingzi |
| ISBN | 7119012134 |
A masterpiece from the Ming dynasty, Wu Ching-tzu's The Scholars ranks with Dream of the Red Chamber, Journey to the West, and the Water Margin as one of the greatest classic novels of China. The Scholars is the first Chinese novel of its scope not to borrow any characters from history or legend and it is...
