Traditional China (Illustrated Collector's Edition)

Author: Wu Guozhen
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-12-01
Features: Why does the Chinese nation lack myths and epics? Why do we worship ancestors while distancing ourselves from deities? Did Cangjie really invent the characters? Did agriculture play a pivotal role in the transitions of the three ancient dynasties—Xia, Shang, and Zhou? How did the shifts in political tides give rise to the origins of Chinese civilization? What happened during this ancient nation's most distant history? Three hundred precious charts carrying the traces of distant civilizations tell the profound wisdom of a generation of political luminaries. This book is a monumental work in Sinology completed by Wu Guozhen, a prominent political figure of the Republic of China, in his twilight years in the United States, driven by his desire to save traditional Chinese culture. Beyond the humor of's A History of the Chinese People and the rigor of's An Outline of Chinese History, Wu's unique historical narrative style makes this book both highly accessible and deeply engaging. It strives to correct the widespread confusion about the origins of Chinese civilization. What happened during this ancient nation's most distant history? In this distinctive book on ancient history, you will find answers that are both exhaustive anding! This book is a monumental work in Sinology completed by Wu Guozhen, a prominent political figure of the Republic of China, in his twilight years in the United States, driven by his desire to save traditional Chinese culture. Wu's unique perspective as a political scholar in examining history gives the book a distinctive narrative style. Grounded in the profound influence of ancient civilization on traditional Chinese culture, he vividly portrays the social landscape from the Yellow Emperor to the Western Zhou with epic grandeur and expansive scenes, presenting a clear and systematic picture of the ancient society. With masterful skill, he weaves together isolated historical facts from politics, economy, culture, and warfare into a real and organic world of ancient civilization. This book is highly accessible and deeply engaging, guided by the boundless and profound wisdom of a political luminary, allowing readers to appreciate the most distant yet most important chapter of the nation's civilization while gaining a profound understanding of the essence of traditional Chinese culture. The Chinese are different in this regard. Although the world acknowledges their nation's longevity, what they have inherited from their ancestors in this regard is too fragmented and scarce, almost bordering on absurdity. Their myths, if they deserve such a name, can only boast of being a few short, scattered stories. In other words, their myths consist of a handful of isolated anecdotes, lacking coherence, organicity, or artistic sense, as if their characters neither enter nor exit in a clear manner. Compared to the famous epics and heroic tales of other nations, these stories resemble unorganized and bizarre tales. "Pangu" and "Chang'e"—posthumously fabricated myths If someone were to ask a Chinese person on the street to tell them about their nation's myths, they might recount only one or two. They would likely start with the story of Pangu, an inhabitant of the earth, who separated heaven and earth. Because before Pangu, heaven and earth were fused together, forming a huge, egg-shaped cloud of mist. With his hands, Pangu split this mass into two parts: the lighter part rose to become heaven, while the heavier part sank to become earth. And there you have it, the beginning and the end of the story, whether you believe it or not. There are various accounts of how Pangu separated heaven and earth: some say he used an axe to split them apart, while others simply say he relied on his ever-growing body to hold heaven and earth farther apart. Still, others believe that when Pangu died, his head became mountains, his eyes became the sun and the moon, his veins and arteries became oceans and rivers, and his skin and hair became plants. However, nothing is said about his origins. Was he created by an unknown force, or did he arise from the mist itself? It neither explains whether he was married nor who he married, nor how the population multiplied after the earth was formed. Despite this, some believe that the remains of Pangu are buried on a mountain in southern Guangdong Province in modern China. The second story the Chinese person might tell, though more legendary, is equally disjointed. The great archer Hou Yi received an elixir of immortality from the mysterious goddess Xi Wangmu. Before he could use it, however, his beautiful wife Chang'e swallowed it. In an instant, she flew straight to the moon, leaving her husband in despair and unable to follow her. From then on, Chang'e lived in the heavens as a maiden in the moon, forever retaining her immortal beauty while enduring endless solitude—a theme perfectly suited for a poet's endless compassion. These two stories, perhaps, cover the entirety of Chinese mythology. If the person on the street were to claim these stories were passed down from ancient times, they would be mistaken. Because research has already confirmed that these two stories were fabricated in much later periods. The story of the maiden in the moon