45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Singularly Superlative, May 19, 2001
This review is from: The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics (Paperback)
I myself am not a scholar of China. I found this book while doing a search online about Samarkand, for an historical fiction novel I'm working on. This book tempts me to drop everything else I'm doing in my life, and just study China all the time.
Let me just quickly point out that there are only three or four illustrations in this book, and that they are in black and white. The constant references in other reviews of this book to its "gorgeousness," and beauty, apply to the style in which it is written. It really is a pleasure to read this work. Every page brims over with measured, cadenced sentences that just flow, like terraced waterfalls of prepositional phrases. It all sounds so natural that one suspects that Mr. Schafer actually spoke like this. It simply doesn't have the feel of extensively edited prose... In reading this book, oddly enough, it is best to start with the introduction, and the first chapter, pausing to dwell carefully upon the last two sections of the first chapter, entitled "Exotic Taste" and "Exotic Literature." Then, I recommend taking some time to just browse back and forth, to see what catches your eye. The book isn't really set up to be read straight through cover to cover -- it's more of a wandering browser's feast. Also, it's not a bad idea to return periodically to the table of contents, just to reinstate and solidify your own sense of the context, and the taxonomy of all these funky knick-knacks. Finally, there are kind of a lot of footnotes, but it's usually worth being patient and flipping back and forth to the back of the book. Most of then are pretty interesting.
Some of my personal favorite bizarre, hilarious sections in this book are as follows... "Lamp Trees," "Water Sheep and Ice Silkworms," "Feather Garments," "Dragon's Blood," "Python Bile," "Fish Tusks," (?!?!) and "Fire Orbs." These sections are extremely well presented, placed with related items in eighteen carefully thought out categories, such as Aromatics, Textiles, Industrial Minerals, Sacred Objects, Wild Animals, and so on. Each topic is presented interestingly, with discussions of it's significance, and often with reference to folktales, historical tidbits, or other means of placing the exotica in even cooler contexts.
If you get this book, and enjoy it, I'd like to recommend "Passing Strange and Wonderful," by Yi-Fu Tuan, which is a sort of global historical survey of aesthetic awareness. Chapter nine, especially, deals with the T'ang dynasty, and therefore probably has enhanced relevance for anyone who actually is reading this review. If you enjoy surveys of the unusual, especially in (roughly) this time period, then I'd like to seize this opportunity to recommend "Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750" written by two eminent historians of science, Lorraine Daston and Katherine Park. It focuses upon Western societies, but has many interesting thematic parallels to this very enjoyable work.
I wish I were some kind of mutant, so I could give this book three or more thumbs up.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb scholarship on China's exotic material culture, April 15, 1999
This review is from: The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics (Paperback)
This remarkable and highly readable book abounds with information on tribute goods sent to the T'ang Court from all over Asia. These exotic materials included plants, animals, perfumes, drugs, jewels, books, even slaves. Schafer identifies each item as they appeared in the extant writings of numerous Asian and European cultures, and provides anecdotes and stories related to them. Did you know ambergris was known as "dragon spittle" in eleventh century China? Reading this book is like opening a chest filled with the most wonderful treasures in the world.
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60 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Most Gorgeous Work of Scholarship I've Ever Read, April 16, 1999
This review is from: The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics (Paperback)
In the course of acquiring a PhD and writing about 25 books, I've encountered a LOT of scholarly works, but never one as richly textured, evocative, and just plain beautiful as THE GOLDEN PEACHES OF SAMARKAND. It lives up to its title, which is a hard enough act to follow, and takes readers through the splendor and tragedy of T'ang Dynasty China, including the revolt of An Lushan (Rokshan).
He has another book out, THE VERMILION BIRD, which deals with Southeast Asia.
Schafer strikes me as a sort of literary Marco Polo, opening up a strange new world for the specialist and nonspecialist alike.
Five minutes after encountering his book in the NY Public Library (it had been recommended to me by a scholar at Columbia), I knew I was going to have to buy it. It has enriched my cultural life.
Susan Shwartz
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