Customer Reviews

The Spirit of the Chinese Character: Gifts from the Heart

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you only have the time and patience to learn forty Chinese characters in your lifetime, you should learn the ones in this book. Concepts such as "spirit", "benevolence", "harmony", "loyalty", and "wisdom" characterize so much of traditional Chinese thought and culture. The authors illustrate each of these characters with beautiful brush and ink calligraphy on rice paper background. There is a short explanation accompanying each character telling why it is written just so. For example the strokes making up the character "love" show us that the word means "breathing into the heart with a gracious motion". The character "enlightenment" shows the two components "sun" and "moon" which together light the world. Students who wish to practise writing these characters can follow the useful stroke order guide next to the explanations. This is a beautiful gift for the student or scholar, or just for those who appreciate Chinese culture.

This book is wonderful. It was what kinda got me started into the research of Chinese characters and such. Until I read this book I never knew how beautiful and interesting and deep the chinese character is. The stories and describtions just captivate you. The in depth design of every single character and the story behind it is very interesting and fascinating. Though not as long as I would have hoped, I reccomend it.

great for learning a limited number of characters - 40. step by step illustration to create each character in the order they should be formed. also a brief description of the concept/meaning for each.

This fine little book reveals how dozens of chinese characters are assembled from simple graphic ideas. The illustrations engage the learner in an elegant discovery of how characters for love, grace, spirit, destiny and others are drawn. The text accompanying each character is beautifully written. I am really enjoying discovery of chinese with this lovely book.

This beautifully designed book is a little gem. There is a clear breadth of understanding of Chinese culture and language. The text is eloquent and if you are learning to write Chinese characters, the stroke-by-stroke instructions make it seem easy and less intimidating.

I have always loved the Zen like beauty of the Chinese character calligraphy. This book provides a basic history of Chinese calligraphy, which is considered part of the richness and beauty of its culture. This volume covers forty characters explaining the words and concepts of the human spirit. A few examples include the spirit(Shen), the way (Tao), virtue (Te), tranquility (An), peace (Ping), truth (Fu), enlightenment (Ming), love (Ai), Wisdom (Chih), Courage (Ying), Honesty (Shih), Honor (Kuei), and much, much more. In conclusion, even if you have little interest in Chinese calligraphy, you will find this book interesting and informative.

Rating: 5 stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Haiku Moments: How to read, write and enjoy Haiku).

I found the book to be a great rep. of what chinese art is like. The meaning are like words we want to hve written know you can write they with a different look to keep people guessing. I now have 4 tatoos that look and mean something cool.