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Including twelve proverbial stories.
Order your copy at www.amazon.com |
Use the index above to navigate to the proverb pages.
"In its 4,000-year civilized history, the Chinese have generated innumerable proverbs. There can be a proverb for almost any situation. Judicious use of proverbs in Chinese writing is regarded as a sign of good education rather than pedantry or showing off one’s knowledge of clichés.
"Chinese proverbs can be split into chengyu (accepted phrases), yanyu (familiar sayings), suyu (popular sayings), and xiehouyu (two-part allegorical sayings). Unique to the Chinese language, xiehouyu proverbs are vivid with images and dramatic results."
— Excerpt from Haiwang Yuan, The Magic Lotus Lantern and Other Tales from the Han Chinese. Libraries Unlimited, 2006)
Book Review: "Yuan (Western Kentucky Univ.) has done an admirable job of presenting these tales. In the book's first two parts (60 pages), he offers cultural context and a brief introduction to the language, population, history, literature, foods, games, and crafts associated with the popular culture of the Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 percent of the population of China. The writings themselves--54 folktales, myths, legends, and popular tales--take up the third part, and all are well known among the Han Chinese. Yuan distinguishes between the culture and tales of the Han Chinese and the cultures and tales of minority ethnic Chinese. He will treat the latter in a second volume, tentatively titled Princess Peacock and Tales of Other Chinese Peoples (forthcoming, 2007). Two appendixes, "Chinese Proverbs" and "Motifs and Tale Sources," plus the glossary and references make this book useful to both scholars and the uninitiated. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. -- J. W. Walls, Simon Fraser University" (from Choice Reviews Online, January 2007 ) |
