Ch'ing, a Chinese Book of Love: From Early Times to the Modern Age - Hardcover

$27.50

Ch'ing, a Chinese Book of Love: From Early Times to the Modern Age - Hardcover

Name: Ch'ing, a Chinese Book of Love: From Early Times to the Modern Age - Hardcover
Brand: BooksCloud
SKU: 9781836391944
Price: 27.50 USD
Availability: InStock

$27.50

Book Overview

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by John Minford (Editor)

A revelatory portrait of China's literary passion, sensuality, elegance, and desire.

This landmark anthology brings together, for the first time in English, the rich tradition of Chinese writing on love--sensuous, romantic, and ecstatic--from early classics like the Book of Songs to twentieth-century modernist verse. Challenging the stereotype of Chinese literature as stiffly Confucian, it celebrates instead the Taoist embrace of physical passion as cosmic harmony. The selections span lyrical hymns, bawdy tales, singsong-house ballads, philosophical musings, and a bedside manual, revealing a long, diverse literary culture of erotic and emotional expression. High-quality translations preserve both elegance and clarity, while exquisite seventeenth-century erotic woodblock prints provide visual echoes of the texts' spirit. This anthology offers a rare and revelatory window into the pleasures, desires, and poetic sophistication of Chinese love literature through the ages.

Author Biography

John Minford is a sinologist and translator, and emeritus professor of Chinese studies at the Australian National University. He has translated many classics of Chinese Literature, including The Story of the Stone, the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching, and The Art of War.

Number of Pages: 256

Dimensions: 1.49 x 8.79 x 5.78 IN

Publication Date: September 02, 2026

ISBN	9781836391944
Publisher	Reaktion Books
Genre	History and Literature
Format	Hardcover
Published	September 2026
Language	ENG- English
Pages	256
Weight	1.0 lb
Target Audience	Adults
Print Size	Standard Print