Buy new:
$24.95$24.95
FREE delivery: Tuesday, Nov 8 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used:: $22.07
Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $3.99 shipping
85% positive over last 12 months
FREE Shipping
98% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
91% positive over last 12 months
Usually ships within 4 to 5 days.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Handbook of Chinese Mythology (Handbooks of World Mythology)
| Lihui Yang (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Enhance your purchase
Compiled from ancient and scattered texts and based on groundbreaking new research, Handbook of Chinese Mythology is the most comprehensive English-language work on the subject ever written from an exclusively Chinese perspective. This work focuses on the Han Chinese people but ranges across the full spectrum of ancient and modern China, showing how key myths endured and evolved over time. A quick reference section covers all major deities, spirits, and demigods, as well as important places (Kunlun Mountain), mythical animals and plants (the crow with three feet; Fusang tree), and related items (Xirang-a kind of mythical soil; Bu Si Yao-mythical medicine for long life). No other work captures so well what Chinese mythology means to the people who lived and continue to live their lives by it.
With more than 40 illustrations and photographs, fresh translations of primary sources, and insight based on the authors' own field research, Handbook of Chinese Mythology offers an illuminating account of a fascinating corner of the world of myth.
- ISBN-100195332636
- ISBN-13978-0195332636
- PublisherOxford University Press
- Publication dateMarch 13, 2008
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions1.4 x 9.2 x 6.1 inches
- Print length312 pages
Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Lihui Yang is Professor of Folklore and Mythology at the College of Chinese Language and Literature at Beijing Normal University. Deming An is Professor and Senior Researcher at the Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. Jessica Anderson Turner is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
Product details
- Publisher : Oxford University Press (March 13, 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 312 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0195332636
- ISBN-13 : 978-0195332636
- Item Weight : 1.14 pounds
- Dimensions : 1.4 x 9.2 x 6.1 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #745,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,077 in Folklore & Mythology Studies
- #5,662 in Social Sciences (Books)
- #9,587 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
But that's a minor point. My biggest criticism concerning this book: the paucity of its content: 300 pages, here you go. There is a relatively interesting introduction (though with quite a few paragraphs repeated.. for a narrative it seems a bit strange) for about a quarter of the book, but then comes the "index": the main matter of the book is merely a lexicon/index of mythological entities (deities, half legendary figures, sacred places etc.) with anything from half a page (most of them) to a few pages (for really key items) for each entity. The problem is of course that when two entities A and B are part of the same story, you'll find almost the exact same paragraph in the respective entries for A and B, and that happens all the time. By the time you'll have read half the book, you'll be bored to death, reading the same story about X over and over and over.
This is of course due to the layout of the book, a "handbook". This is a poor choice, for a simple reason: anyone needing a handbook (i.e. a scholarly reference?) on Chinese mythology would need a much bigger work (in fact, would already be able to work on some modern Chinese reference), while the layman would benefit from a more narrative-like presentation (i.e. not as a reference work). It is a bit of a shame, since the author is obviously an expert in the field and there is an obvious need for such a book. Sad it's not been fulfilled.
Top reviews from other countries
Unfortunately though it is somewhat behind considering the hermetic and its potential when it comes to a critical understanding of practical aspects of myths for the ruling classes, historic development, calibration of mass consciousness, gender, shamanism, gongfu, astrology, metaphysics, ethymology, etc.
A bit boring to put it plainly.
If this is the essence of how chinese scholars look at their own culture? Goodbye original chinese thought.








