Customer Reviews

Great Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millennial Kingdom

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This book deals with the Cheng-Han state, which can be traced as a descendant of the Hanzhong state under Zhang Lu in the Three Kingdoms period. Has a great deal of back information dealing with the Ba and Shu ethnicities, the Daoist faith (as opposed to philosophy), and the history of the Daoist Hanzhong state. It also included annotated biographies of the principle members of the Li Imperial family of the Cheng-Han state. Highly recommended, but be warned- Chinese historical biographies can be confusing and somewhat tedious- read those if you are a true history buff- otherwise, you can use the preceding part of the book, (the first 70%), as a great reference.

Also, there is a great translation of titles/ranks, a heavy use of Chinese characters for names and titles (as well as explanations if there is possible confusion between two texts), and a fabu index. A great reference of the little known (outside of scholarly circles) Daoist / Taoist state in Sichuan.