“Chivalry is a flower no less indigenous to the soil of Japan than cherry blossom” are the opening words to Inazo Nitobe’s Bushido: The Soul of Japan. It was 1900 and Inazo, a …
‘Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage,’ are the opening words of Okakura Kakuzo’s The Book of Tea, written in English in 1906 for a Western audience. The book is a long …
Claimed by some to have been compiled by Confucius in the 5th century BCE, the Book of Songs is an ancient anthology of Chinese poetry. Collecting poems over a number of centuries, …
No understanding of Chinese civilization is possible without a grasp of Taoism, the philosophy that has shaped not just Chinese spirituality but also art, science and politics. And …
