Publisher's Synopsis
This book attempts to deconstruct certain key clusters of Chinese characters and words, centering on themes such as war and peace, kith and kin, male and female, rites and rituals, pleasure and leisure to make them yield fascinating tales about Chinese culture and history in which these words are embedded and which they at the same time encapsulate. The Chinese language, Chinese history and culture are presented as one long woven bolt of silk (for which China has historically been noted), with the written language conceived as the warp while the history and culture the weft. In this process of linguistic exploration, the book shows in what ways the Chinese written language may be said to be unique as well as to reveal, amongst other things, certain aspects of: - ancient Chinese religion, cosmology, philosophy, political theory, law, medicine, astronomy, physics, geography; - their grasp, on the part of the ancient Chinese people, of human reproduction, biology and physiology, psychology, biochemistry, even neurology of the brain; - what constitutes Chinese identity, the core values of Chinese culture, the essential glue holding their society together; - their daily existence, such as their food and drink, the houses they lived in, the furniture they used, their chief modes of transportation, etc. A fascinating look at Chinese language and culture.
