Wanted and said

Author: Wang Yubei (compiled), Wei Erqiao (illustrated)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: Ancient Greek wisdom is scattered throughout the vast body of literature. Over the past decade, more than 2,000 entries have been collected, and over 100 of the most important ones are now compiled. These entries, in terms of form, are either single sentences, dialogues, or passages; in terms of content, they are either proverbs, witty exchanges, or stories that reflect a certain philosophy. Ancient Greek wisdom is profound and extensive. To make it accessible to both the educated and the general public, the compiler has provided two types of annotations: textual and pictorial. The textual annotations neither adopt the approach of "annotating the classics with my notes" nor "annotating my notes with the classics," but rather "the classics contain me, and I am in the classics." The purpose is to make the original text and annotations complement and enhance each other. The choice of text paired with the corresponding illustration is extremely important. A perfect combination of text and illustration should be mutually supportive. Therefore, Wei Erqiao has adopted single-panel cartoons, pairing each segment of the original text and annotations with an illustration. To give the illustrations an ancient yet light and lively charm, Wei Erqiao has drawn inspiration from the depictions of ancient sages in Greek vase paintings and added some meaningless "foreign text"—mixing Latin with Greek letters. The purpose of this is both to meet the needs of composition and to make the illustrations more cosmopolitan. These illustrations are the result of Wei Erqiao's meticulous effort, and both in content and form, they are truly "unique and innovative." Whether it is textual annotations or pictorial annotations, they are all aimed at spreading wisdom to more people, to make reading enjoyable and beneficial.