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Recipes from the Garden of Contentment: Yuan Mei`s Manual of
Gastronomy (Suiyuan Shidan) is, remarkably, the first English
edition of one of the world's most famous books about food. Recipes
from the Garden of Contentment is a treatise and a cookbook,
written in the late eighteenth century by the Qing dynasty poet
Yuan Mei. It includes recipes for well-known dishes such as birds
nest and sharks fin, and offers modern readers an appealing
perspective on Chinese history and culinary culture. It was
translated and annotated by Sean J. S. Chen with editorial advice
from E. N. Anderson and Jeffrey Riegel. This edition is bilingual
(English-Chinese) and extensively annotated, and 428 pages in
length. The team's aim was to convey the charm, humor, and
erudition of one of China's greatest writers. Also included are a
glossary and a bibliography of additional sources. Chinese food
expert Nicole Mones, author of the novel The Last Chinese Chef, has
contributed an engaging introduction to Yuan Mei and his work. The
cover illustration is by Lichia Liu.
This is the first complete English translation of "Lushi chunqiu,"
compiled in 239 b. c. under the patronage of Lu Buwei, prime
minister to the ruler of the state of Qin, who was to become the
first emperor of a newly unified China fifteen years later. Lu
retained a group of scholars whose aim was to encompass the world's
knowledge in one great encyclopedia; so delighted was Lu with the
finished work that he is said to have offered a fabulous prize of
gold to anyone who could add or subtract even a single word.
An exceptionally rich and comprehensive compendium, "The Annals of
Lu Buwei" recounts in engaging, straightforward, and readable prose
the great variety of beliefs and customs of its time. The work is
one of the great monuments of Chinese thinking, a work of
originality and cohesion, inspired by a vision of a universal
empire ruled by principles that ensured harmony between man and
nature, protective of human and animal life, devoted to learning
and culture, practicing benevolence and kindness, and motivated by
reason and morality.
In addition to revealing an advanced state of technical knowledge,
the "Annals" set forth a philosophy of government suitable to the
centralized control that the Qin state would subsequently
establish. It also took into account every philosophical trend of
the day, sometimes adapting themes, sometimes combining ideas that
had not previously been associated, sometimes rejecting and
refuting positions that were in conflict with its basic vision.
Because Lu aimed at comprehensiveness, his work preserved a number
of systems of thought that are otherwise unknown or scarcely known.
The "Annals" thus provides an essential tool for anyone seeking to
reconstruct the philosophical controversies of the third century b.
c. At the same time, Lu's compendium proclaims his independent,
highly original philosophical positions. Today, with most of the
works of classical Chinese philosophy long lost, "The Annals of Lu
Buwei" remains indispensable as a summa of the Chinese intellectual
world of its time.
Recipes from the Garden of Contentment: Yuan Mei`s Manual of
Gastronomy (Suiyuan Shidan) is, remarkably, the first English
edition of one of the world's most famous books about food. Recipes
from the Garden of Contentment is a treatise and a cookbook,
written in the late eighteenth century by the Qing dynasty poet
Yuan Mei. It includes recipes for well-known dishes such as birds
nest and sharks fin, and offers modern readers an appealing
perspective on Chinese history and culinary culture. It was
translated and annotated by Sean J. S. Chen with editorial advice
from E. N. Anderson and Jeffrey Riegel. This edition is bilingual
(English-Chinese) and extensively annotated, and 428 pages in
length. The team's aim was to convey the charm, humor, and
erudition of one of China's greatest writers. Also included are a
glossary and a bibliography of additional sources. Chinese food
expert Nicole Mones, author of the novel The Last Chinese Chef, has
contributed an engaging introduction to Yuan Mei and his work. The
cover illustration is by Lichia Liu.
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