John Minford – författare

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.

For more than two thousand years, Sun-tzu's The Art of War has provided leaders with essential advice on battlefield tactics and management strategies. 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, eminent scholar John Minford brings this seminal work to life for today's readers. Capturing the literary quality of the work, Minford presents the core text in two formats: first, the unadorned ancient words of wisdom ascribed to Sun-tzu; then, the same text with extensive running commentary from the canon of traditional Chinese commentators. A lively, learned introduction and other valuable apparatus round out this authoritative volume.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This landmark anthology brings together, for the first time in English, the rich tradition of Chinese writing on love – sensuous, romantic and ecstatic – from early classics like the Book of Songs to twentieth-century modernist verse. Challenging the stereotype of Chinese literature as stiffly Confucian, it celebrates instead the Taoist embrace of physical passion as cosmic harmony. The selections span lyrical hymns, bawdy tales, singsong-house ballads, philosophical musings and a bedside manual, revealing a long, diverse literary culture of erotic and emotional expression. High-quality translations preserve both elegance and clarity, while exquisite seventeenth-century erotic woodblock prints provide visual echoes of the texts’ spirit. This anthology offers a rare and revelatory window on to the pleasures, desires and poetic sophistication of Chinese love literature through the ages.