Llanerch Press

Professor Huang Huanyou's collection of proverbs, quotations from classical writers, and fables provides the reader with a useful introduction to the timeless wisdom of China. There are nearly fourteen hundred proverbs, arranged thematically. The quotations from ancient celebrities include well-known writers such as Lao 21, Confucius and Mencius, but there are many others previously little known in the West except to specialists. In particular the quotations from the ancient historian Sima Qian .......

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These tales were collected in China in the late nineteenth century by Leon Wieger, who translated a large number of them, published as Folklore Chinois Moderne (Modern Chinese Folklore). By modern, Wieger implied the period of Chnese history from the ninth century onwards. This book contains a selection of around eighty tales adequately representing the popular beliefs of the traditional Chinese people prior to the military and cultural revolutions that have changed everything.
The traditional C.......

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Unlike the most famous book of Taoism (or Daoism), the Tao-te-ching of Lao-tzu which is concise to the point of obscurity, the book bearing the name of Chuang-tzu explains Taoism at length, illustrating difficult points by means of anecdotes. The precise dates of Chuang-tzu are not known, but he seems to have been in the decline of his life towards 330 B.C.

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This book aims at providing an introduction to Daoism by means of a selection of texts from the ancient sacred books of China, notably the Dao De Jing of Lao Zi, and works bearing the names of Lie Zi, Zhuang Zi, Huai Nan Zi and Guan Yin Zi. Many people have read the Dao De Jing (or Tao-te-ching) for it has been translated almost as many times as the Bible, but when taken in isolation, that book can be concise to the point of obscurity. The Daoist sages who succeeded Lao Zi, explained many obscur.......

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The original Daoist sages claimed to follow a rational way based on the observation of nature. Thus the sun shines on all alike, so the sages treat everyone the same; they do not form a separate sect but live amongst the people. They shine with a tempered light so as not to eclipse the sun and the moon. They never have any problems because they deal with them in their earliest and weakest beginnings, before they can take hold. Everything in nature is born, grows, matures, declines and becomes br.......

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Lieh-tzu, Master Lieh, lived some forty years in obscurity and poverty in the Chinese Principality of Cheng. He was driven away by famine in 398 B.C. At that time, says the Taoist tradition, his disciples would have written down the substance of his teaching. Whereas the earlier Taoist treatise, the Tao-te-ching of Lao-tzu, is concise and compact to the point of being difficult to follow, the book of Lieh-tzu contains many anecdotes as well as longer explanatory passages, making it. along with t.......

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Leon Wieger spent most of his adult life in China; he died there, in 1933. His translations have a special quality, because of his long sojourn there, and also because he took the trouble to find out the ancient meanings of the written characters; meanings which have sometimes changed with the passage of time.
Wieger's original work on philosophy and religion in China was very long, and written for scholars. The present selection, designed to have a wider appeal, concentrates on the more ancien.......

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Dr Leon Wieger was a distinguished Sinologist who spent most of his adult life in China; he died there in 1933. The exceptional clarity of his translations of the Taoist (or Daoist) writings owes much to his deep understanding of the Chinese way of thought, his use of the traditionsal commentaries, and his recognition that the Chinese characters should be translated according to their ancient meanings. Ths Tao-te-ching should be translated as "A Treatise on the Principle and its Action" (from th.......

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This book gives an absorbing picture of life in Buddhist and Taoist (Daoist) monasteries in China during three decades of this century. It is difficult to define precisely what the practicing Taoist believes, thinks and does. Taoism must be evidenced by the way it is lived and so, in revealing how his gradual initiation into the meaning of Taoism took place, Peter Goullart describes fully his visits to various Taoist Monasteries, his discussions with Abbots and monks, and their ritual practices .......

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Complete Pinyin edition. Lao Zi, Lei Zi and Zhuang Zi.

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