Publisher's Synopsis
Here are two famous Chinese classics in versions provided by the major 20th-century philosopher Martin Buber. "Zhuangzi: Sayings and Parables" is the major text underlying Daoism, and yet it presents that central line of Chinese thought and attitudes by means of common-life, charming, pointed tales and parables. Zhuangzi himself is revered both as the chief exponent of Taoism and as a writer of consummate literary skill whose effectiveness owes to his sense of drama, his eye for character, plain speaking and, not least, to sparks of sly humour. Buber emphasises these qualities by his selection and editing.;"Ghost and Love Stories" may strike the unwary reader as a surprise, for in this collection there is found, as Buber points out, an uncanny mingling of the human and the otherwordly, the lover between men and female demons who crave to achieve full humanity through love. In their poignancy, in the richness of their tapestry, in the imaginitive detail, many stories resemble Grimm's fairy tales, except that these Chinese ones do not shy from the physical aspects of love.;Though the two works are from different periods of Chinese history, and one is philosophical and the other more popular, both offer absorbing and delightful views of China.
