Chinese Wisdom: Inspiring Quotes on Life, Love and Family

Ancient Chinese culture has a been a rich source of wisdom for many millennia. Chinese Wisdom provides a concise insight into the ideas of great Chinese thinkers, arranged thematically. Living in the 5th century BCE, great teacher Confucius laid the foundations for an outlook and way of life that focused on correct behaviour, humaneness and respect for one’s elders, precepts that are deeply embedded across East Asian countries to this day. His disciple, Meng Ke, outlined new ideas for rulers which provided the basis of Chinese political culture for many centuries afterwards. Laozi, the founder of Taoism and author of the Tao Te Ching, wrote about the Tao, or the Way – the correct way of living attainable to all and which links all things. Sun Tzu’s Art of War provides advice on how to overcome and outwit an opponent (the basic tenets of which are often applied to business strategy today), while Zhu Xi taught the advantages of meditation as a method for self-knowledge and self-cultivation. Beautifully produced in traditional Chinese binding, Chinese Wisdom offers more than 80 succinct quotes from Chinese thinkers through the ages, on topics as wide- ranging as filial piety, love, clear thinking, work, business, war and family.

About the Author

James Trapp is the author of Chinese Characters: The Art and Meaning of Hanzi, Chinese Proverbs and also has translated a bestselling new multilingual edition of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. A Chinese language graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, he teaches Mandarin and was previously an Education Officer on the China Collection at the British Museum.