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Books (937)

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- La Tunique Perlée (1)
- By Menglong Feng
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- Histoire du toïsme (1)
- Des origines au XIVe siècle
- By Isabelle Robinet
- Finished on Aug 30, 2012
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Histoire du toïsme

This is without a doubt the best book on the history of Taoism. I have read the English translation twice. Once when I started to become interested in Chinese history and once when I was doing my MA at SOAS. I reviewed the book twice when I read it then. In my last review I said that I hoped one day ... (continue)

This is without a doubt the best book on the history of Taoism. I have read the English translation twice. Once when I started to become interested in Chinese history and once when I was doing my MA at SOAS. I reviewed the book twice when I read it then. In my last review I said that I hoped one day my French would be good enough to read it in the original. So when I found a cheap copy of it when we were on holiday in Paris in August I decided I should try it. I must admit that I don't think I understood it was well reading it in French but I did manage to understand most of it, which made me really happy.
The book gives an excellent historical introduction to the history of Taoism, from its earliest origins to the development of the religion in the Han. It outlines the different developments within Taoism and the different schools that it produced during the period of disunion and the Tang and the Song. It also gives an introduction to the internal alchemy practices. Unlike a lot of European and American books about Taoism that separate it out into "philosophical Taoism" and "religious Taoism" this was one of the first to show the tradition as a whole. If anyone wants to learn more about this fascinating religion I would highly recommend this book, either the French or English translation.

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— Sep 30, 2012 | Add your feedback
- L'armée de la résistance, Tome 2 : Un chemin semé d'embûches (1)
- By Hong Mo Kim
- Finished on Aug 23, 2012
  
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L'armée de la résistance, Tome 2 : Un chemin semé d'embûches

Volume 2 is set in China with the resistance fighting the Japanese with the Chinese communists. The Chinese communists are very surprised to find that the Korean resistance movement is led by a girl. Like the first book the artwork is amazing. Here there is more politics about what is right in a res ... (continue)

Volume 2 is set in China with the resistance fighting the Japanese with the Chinese communists. The Chinese communists are very surprised to find that the Korean resistance movement is led by a girl. Like the first book the artwork is amazing. Here there is more politics about what is right in a resistance movement and political ideaology. While I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first book I still really loved it.

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— Sep 15, 2012 | Add your feedback
- La Bannière (3)
- Pour une dame chinoise allant en Paradis
- By Claude Larre, Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée
- Finished on Sep 7, 2012
  
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La Bannière

I was really happy to have found this book in Paris. It describes in tremendous detail the banner belonging to the Marquis of Dai found in the tombs at Mawangdui. Many books I have read have referred to this banner and how it is a representation of the Chinese afterlife. Having read this book it see ... (continue)

I was really happy to have found this book in Paris. It describes in tremendous detail the banner belonging to the Marquis of Dai found in the tombs at Mawangdui. Many books I have read have referred to this banner and how it is a representation of the Chinese afterlife. Having read this book it seems less of a journey of the dead like you'd find in an Egyptian tomb and more of a description of the world, both heavenly and earthly. But that could just be because of the way they chose to describe it.
The book gives a brief background on the object and it's significance and then goes through the banner and examines each figure, animal and talks about the meaning of that figure within Chinese cosmology/thought and how it fits in with the other images. Most of the descriptions related to yin/yang theory. There are plenty of ilustrations so it's easy to see what they are talking about. Often reading the descriptions you start to see things that you didn't see to start with. It focuses mostly on yin/yang and the five elements and I did wonder if more had been done putting it in more of a religious context but I wasn't able to find any more articles about it on Jstor.
But I would definitely recommend this book. I really enjoyed it. I felt that I learned a lot reading it. Not only is it a good description of the banner but can also be used as a reference book for Chinese symbolism.

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— Sep 30, 2012 | Add your feedback
La quête de l'immo-
rtalit-
é…
- La quête de l'immortalité en Chine (1)
- Alchimie et paysage intérieur sous les Song
- By Muriel Baryosher-Chemouny
- Finished on Sep 13, 2012
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- De profundis (1)
- L'étrange voyage de Jonathan Melville
- By Chanouga
- Finished on Aug 15, 2012
  
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De profundis

This is an absoultely beautiful graphic novel. The art is beautiful coloured sketches. The story is about a man who was shipwrecked and meets strange magical mermaids. It's a wonderful fairy tale that seems a bit like Cthuhlu mythos. I really enjoyed it.

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— Sep 15, 2012 | Add your feedback
- L'armée de la Résistance (2)
- Episode 1 Prélude à la résistance
- By Kim Hong-mo
- Finished on Aug 21, 2012
  
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L'armée de la Résistance

I bought this book in Paris. It was throughly gorgeous the art was just amazing, not really a manga style but sort of comic meets East Asian ink painting. The book was about a young girl in Korea fighting robots who belonged to a Japanese occupational force in an alternate universe. While set in an ... (continue)

I bought this book in Paris. It was throughly gorgeous the art was just amazing, not really a manga style but sort of comic meets East Asian ink painting. The book was about a young girl in Korea fighting robots who belonged to a Japanese occupational force in an alternate universe. While set in an alternate universe it had a LOT of interesting things to say about Korea in our world and cultural imperialism and freedom and was all around fantastic. It is one of the best and most unique comics I've read in a long time.

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— Sep 15, 2012 | Add your feedback
Wu-sha-
ng pi-yao
- Wu-shang pi-yao (1)
- Somme taoïste du VI- siècle
- By John Lagerwey
- Finished on Jun 1, 2012
  
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Wu-shang pi-yao

I finished this a month and a half ago and failed to write a review. It was pretty amazing though. Such a good find. It included a history of the book, textual variants found at Dunhuang and a huge description of all the sections. Some of which sounded truly amazing. I read through the whole thing e ... (continue)

I finished this a month and a half ago and failed to write a review. It was pretty amazing though. Such a good find. It included a history of the book, textual variants found at Dunhuang and a huge description of all the sections. Some of which sounded truly amazing. I read through the whole thing even though it is designed more for reference and found it just fascinating. I am so happy that I stumbled across a copy of this in Paris. It's something I otherwise wouldn't have known existed.

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— Jul 15, 2012 | Add your feedback
- La voix des armes (1)
- By Nicolas Tackian
- Finished on May 10, 2012
  
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La voix des armes

This was one of the last graphic novels I picked up while we were in France. I've always loved Orcs and it was good to see a book where they were the heros. The orks here were a little bit like elves in that they were the primitive people living in the forests who were one with nature. The humans we ... (continue)

This was one of the last graphic novels I picked up while we were in France. I've always loved Orcs and it was good to see a book where they were the heros. The orks here were a little bit like elves in that they were the primitive people living in the forests who were one with nature. The humans were coming through the forests destroying them. It was a fairly simple premise but it was told well with lots of intrigue and mystery. The art was almost too pretty the orcs were all finely sculpted and quite beautiful, at least as far as their bodies went. It was a little disconcerting. The French I managed quite easily with a dictionary. I found I had to look up about a word a page. (using the nice french Larouse iphone dictionary which is very good). I managed to understand just about everything. Which was really nice. Definitley planning on picking up volume 2 when I'm back in Paris next time.

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— May 13, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Itinéraire d'un lettré chinois (1)
- l'arc et le pinceau
- By Ivan P. Kamenarović
- Finished on May 3, 2012
  
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Itinéraire d'un lettré chinois

I bought this book at the Musee Guimet. I was very excited to see a book about Tang history that I'd not read before. This book is definitely a popular history rather than scholarly but I still really liked it. The book focuses on the life of the literati during the Tang, what they studied, their ph ... (continue)

I bought this book at the Musee Guimet. I was very excited to see a book about Tang history that I'd not read before. This book is definitely a popular history rather than scholarly but I still really liked it. The book focuses on the life of the literati during the Tang, what they studied, their philosophy and a little bit about daily living. The book "recreates" an example family and tells the story of three young boys growing up and being educated in the Classics and ends after they have taken the examinations and been awarded places in the imperial government. The book is a nice introduction to the ways of thinking and being in the upper classes in Tang China. It does however fall a little short in that it is almost entirely focused on the Confucian side of things and the Buddhists and the Taoists hardly get a mention (which didn't strike me as that appropriate for the Tang dynasty as this was pre-neo-confucian and the religions were highly popular). The other short coming of the book was that it focused almost entirely on the men within the family. But as a general introduction to Chinese thought and history it was very good. I'd definitely recommend it as a starting place for people who are interested in Chinese history and philosophy (and can read French).

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— May 5, 2012 | Add your feedback

- La colère de Ying Long (1)
- By Emmanuel Civiello
- Finished on Apr 15, 2012
  
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La colère de Ying Long

This is one of the most beautiful comics I own. It's set in Song dynasty China and is lovely and historical but at the same time also has a lovely supernatural element to it. The emperor Renzong. The comic has him obsessed with becoming immortal. The empire is under pressure from the "barbarians" to ... (continue)

This is one of the most beautiful comics I own. It's set in Song dynasty China and is lovely and historical but at the same time also has a lovely supernatural element to it. The emperor Renzong. The comic has him obsessed with becoming immortal. The empire is under pressure from the "barbarians" to the north and the upper classes are unhappy about the money they have to pay as tribute for the peace. All these things actually happened, the addition of the dragon and the phoenix were fictional but beautifully done. I'm very much looking forward to the next one.

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— Apr 29, 2012 | Add your feedback
La divini-
sation de Lao Tse…
- La divinisation de Lao Tseu dans le taoïsme des Han (1)
- By Anna K. Seidel
- Finished on Apr 14, 2012
  
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La divinisation de Lao Tseu dans le taoïsme des Han

When I was doing my MA at SOAS it seemed like for awhile whenever I asked my professor to recommend me a book on a subject he nearly always suggested this book by Anna Seidel. I actually managed to find a copy for 10 euros in the "esoteric" Gibert Jeune bookshop in Paris and was SOO excited. The bo ... (continue)

When I was doing my MA at SOAS it seemed like for awhile whenever I asked my professor to recommend me a book on a subject he nearly always suggested this book by Anna Seidel. I actually managed to find a copy for 10 euros in the "esoteric" Gibert Jeune bookshop in Paris and was SOO excited. The book has so much in it that I'm interested in. It talks about the religion of the Yellow Turban rebellion and how that fits into the development of Taoism as a religion. It talks about an Empress who was interested in Taoism and how her influence helped develop a further interest in Taoism at the court, it talks about the Feng and Shang sacrifices and the Ming Tang. While most of the time it focuses on early Taoism before the influence of Buddhism it also looks at Buddhist influence a little bit and the way this transformed Lao Zi.
The book is just brilliant. It's a wonderful display of scholarship. Well thought out arguments, copious footnotes, lots of translations and inclusion of the original Chinese text, she discusses other scholarship. It's no wonder that so many books I've read before this have been citing this one. I must admit there were a couple places that my French failed me but on the whole I managed to get through it without much difficulty. I think having so much Chinese and having such a specailist subject really helped. Seidel also did a good job of writing a wonderful conclusion which discussed how all the different things she'd been discussing linked together.
I'm So happy I found a copy of this and read it and now I can keep it and use it to study from and develop further questions. Anna Seidel was one of the best scholars on Taoism and I really wish she'd written more books.

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— Apr 15, 2012 | Add your feedback
Les contes du boudoi-
r hant…
- Les contes du boudoir hanté (1)
- By Yishan Li
- Finished on Apr 1, 2012
  
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Les contes du boudoir hanté

This is the second volume of a comic version of Pu Songlin's Strange tales from Make do studio. This is probably my favourite short story collection of all time, stories about ghosts and fox spirits so it's not really a surprise that I love this series. The interpretations of the tales are very good ... (continue)

This is the second volume of a comic version of Pu Songlin's Strange tales from Make do studio. This is probably my favourite short story collection of all time, stories about ghosts and fox spirits so it's not really a surprise that I love this series. The interpretations of the tales are very good. This one is about a young man who helps a fox and ends up having a love affair with the fox's daughter. Eventually they have to part but she leaves him their child at the end. It's a very nice spooky story and I'm definitely getting the third volume when I go back to Paris as I will re-read these stories MANY times. The artwork is just SOO beautiful. The traditional Chinese places, costumes and people are drawn perfectly. Definitely very highly recommended.

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— Apr 24, 2012 | Add your feedback
Le petit peuple des tombes
- Le petit peuple des tombes (1)
- By Gilles Béguin
- Finished on Mar 29, 2012
  
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Le petit peuple des tombes

This book is about the Chinese tomb sculptures at the Musee Germuci. I was hoping that it would be a little more scholarly and talk more in depth specifically about the collection at the museum but despite that it was a lovely little book. It's a good introduction to Chinese tomb0 sculptures, how th ... (continue)

This book is about the Chinese tomb sculptures at the Musee Germuci. I was hoping that it would be a little more scholarly and talk more in depth specifically about the collection at the museum but despite that it was a lovely little book. It's a good introduction to Chinese tomb0 sculptures, how they came about and how they reflected the changing ideas towards the after life. It has lots of really wonderful pictures of the museums collection which is very strong, particularly in Han sculpture.

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— Apr 25, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Le Dérisoire - Prix du meilleur dessin, Angoulême 2003 (2)
- By Eric Omond, Olivier Supiot
- Finished on Mar 18, 2012
  
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Le Dérisoire - Prix du meilleur dessin, Angoulême 2003

This was a lovely tale of a damned Captain whose only company was ghosts on an empty ship traveling to an unknown destination. The art work was very beautiful and the ghosts were amazing. It was a lovely haunting tale of chances and loss as the Captain followed a beautiful woman into a mysterious ... (continue)

This was a lovely tale of a damned Captain whose only company was ghosts on an empty ship traveling to an unknown destination. The art work was very beautiful and the ghosts were amazing. It was a lovely haunting tale of chances and loss as the Captain followed a beautiful woman into a mysterious world hidden in the ship. It's hard to explain but I really recommend it.

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— Apr 18, 2012 | Add your feedback