Xiangqi, or Chinese Chess which more Westerners may be acquainted with, is an ancient game with strategy that has been played for at least a thousand years. Through the ages, there have been many classics that were written about it, with the earliest publication on the form of Xiangqi that we know today in the late Song dynasty. Many have been lost through the ages, but a handful few have made are still present today. One of theses ancient classics is The Xiangqi Master from the Cave which was estimated to have existed at least over two hundred years ago. There are several unique features to this ancient manual. The Chinese name is made up seven Chinese characters, with each character representing a particular opening system being discussed. There are five games per character. The Chinese name of the book, if translated directly would be Invincible after coming out of the Caves. There are not many variations but there are many tactics, strategies and brilliant kills that are demonstrated. Although the level of play may seem simple by today's standards, it is nevertheless an ideal book for the beginner, amateur or even club level Xiangqi player to learn, for the ideas demonstrated form the basics of Xiangqi theory today. Detailed explanations have been provided to assist the reader in understanding the game. Ample diagrams have also been placed such that it would be easy to cross reference the moves and the actual situation on the board. The reader will be guaranteed to be amazed at the contents of the board, but more importantly, the reader will be able to appreciate the Chinese culture way back in the ancient times."

London 1842 - Unwilling to be shackled by his orphan tag and the Mile End Poorhouse, 10-year-old Alfie London is desperate to break out and explore the world by way of a naval career. Following a chance encounter, Alfie meets the well-to-do Alexandria Scott. Together with their stray Jack Russel, Rocket, they fearlessly stowaway into the unknown in search of adventure. And adventure is what they soon find! The kind that will test their mettle to the limits and take them on a magical journey to save their imprisoned shipmates. Tackling puzzles, villains, and mythical creatures at every turn, they must find a way to ensure that the history of the world as we know it comes to pass! Where their only hope is finding the long-lost Scrolls of Shangri-La and, in turn, the enchanting and miraculous kingdom itself!

Adopting new theoretical perspectives and using updated research, this book by a leading Chinese scholar seeks to provide a coherent, panoramic description of the development of premodern Chinese literature and its major characteristics.

A history of Chinese literature from its early beginnings through the end of the Qing dynasty, this recent work from Professor Luo Yuming of China’s Fudan University seeks to provide, by adopting new theoretical perspectives and using updated research, a coherent, panoramic description of the development of Chinese literature and its major characteristics. As one of the very few English translations of such works by Chinese authors it seeks to inform the Western audience of the recent viewpoints and scholarship on the topic from a leading Chinese scholar. It may also provide some grounds of comparison and contrast with equivalent works in the West.

The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Scholars have noted the profound effect on, and literary responses to, the fall of the Ming on the male literati elite. Also of great interest is the remarkable emergence beginning in the late Ming of educated women as readers and, more importantly, writers. Only recently beginning to be explored, however, are such seventeenth-century religious phenomena as "the reinvention" of Chan Buddhism—a concerted effort to revive what were believed to be the traditional teachings, texts, and practices of "classical" Chan. And, until now, the role played by women in these religious developments has hardly been noted at all. Eminent Nuns is an innovative interdisciplinary work that brings together several of these important seventeenth-century trends. Although Buddhist nuns have been a continuous presence in Chinese culture since early medieval times and the subject of numerous scholarly studies, this book is one of the first not only to provide a detailed view of their activities at one particular moment in time, but also to be based largely on the writings and self-representations of Buddhist nuns themselves. This perspective is made possible by the preservation of collections of "discourse records" (yulu) of seven officially designated female Chan masters in a seventeenth-century printing of the Chinese Buddhist Canon rarely used in English-language scholarship. The collections contain records of religious sermons and exchanges, letters, prose pieces, and poems, as well as biographical and autobiographical accounts of various kinds. Supplemental sources by Chan monks and male literati from the same region and period make a detailed re-creation of the lives of these eminent nuns possible. Beata Grant brings to her study background in Chinese literature, Chinese Buddhism, and Chinese women’s studies. She is able to place the seven women, all of whom were active in Jiangnan, in their historical, religious, and cultural contexts, while allowing them, through her skillful translations, to speak in their own voices. Together these women offer an important, but until now virtually unexplored, perspective on seventeenth-century China, the history of female monasticism in China, and the contributionof Buddhist nuns to the history of Chinese women’s writing.

"In Chess Metaphors, Diego Rasskin-Gutman explores fundamental questions about memory, thought, emotion, consciousness, and other cognitive processes through the game of chess, using the moves of thirty-two pieces over sixty-four squares to map the structural and functional organization of the brain." --Book Jacket.