Tag Archives: nonfiction

BOOKS: “Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction” by Daniel K. Gardner

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Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction by Daniel K. Gardner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – OUP

This is a brief guide to Confucianism from the early life of Confucius (孔子 -Kǒngzǐ) to the ups and downs the philosophy experienced in the twentieth century. It has chapters exploring the system’s thinking with respect to personal development as well as with respect to governance and also discusses how later thinkers (most notably Mencius and Xunzi) expanded on Confucius’s ideas — but also created schisms. The book examines the laudable elements of the philosophy such as its sanction of benevolence among leaders, but also its less laudable elements such as its unenlightened views on women and what they are capable of [and, of course, the many ideas in between that could be seen in varied lights.)

As with other books in this series, it has a few graphics as well as a bibliography and further reading section.

I found this book to be readable, well-organized, and of a level appropriate for its intended purpose. I’d highly recommend it for individuals looking for a concise introduction to Confucianism.

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BOOKS: 三字经 by 王应麟 [“Three Character Classic” by Wang Yinglin]

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三字经三字经 by 章炳麟
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available online — Project Gutenberg

This is a Confucian primer written in lines of three characters. It’s a children’s book in the sense that it’s aimed at children, but not necessarily with respect to being presented in a manner most conducive to childhood learning. (While it’s concise, the material isn’t presented in an interesting or memorable form. i.e. It’s intended for brute force rote memorization.)

The book consists of five sections, ranging between twenty-four and one hundred and six lines (72 to 318 characters per chapter.) The first introduces Confucian virtues. The second offers a broad overview of classics of Chinese philosophy. The third section lists the dynasties of China. The penultimate section describes ideal behavior from a Confucian perspective. The last, and briefest, section is largely a pep talk on studying hard.

As someone learning Mandarin Chinese, it’s interesting to see how sentences are formed in this sparse format, and this text offers insight into Chinese history and philosophy, in addition to providing a good early reader.

If you are interested in learning elementary Confucianism or you’re learning Chinese and looking for short and simple texts for reading, I’d recommend one look into the Three Character Classic.

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BOOKS: “The Secret of the Golden Flower” ed. / trans. by Thomas Cleary

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The Secret of the Golden Flower: The Classical Chinese Book of LifeThe Secret of the Golden Flower: The Classical Chinese Book of Life by Lü Dongbin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Online – Archive.org

This is a manual on Taoist inner alchemy practices, particularly a meditative practice called “turning the light around.” The book has been attributed to Lü Dongbin, said to be an immortal who lived during the Tang Dynasty, though there are differing views about the manual’s actual origins. While it is nominally a Taoist manual, it also discusses the Buddhist approach extensively (and Confucian ideas to a lesser extent) such that it could be considered a Buddhist teaching as much as a Taoist one.

The Cleary translation seems to exist not merely to provide an English translation of this Chinese manual, but to combat the misunderstandings perpetrated by the earlier English translation, that of Richard Wilhelm, a translation famously associated with the psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Neither Wilhelm nor Jung had any depth of understanding of Taoist and Buddhist methods and philosophy, and Wilhelm’s grasp of the Chinese language, itself, seems to have been fairly rudimentary. (At least the Chinese of the 1600’s, which is when the edition that Wilhelm is believed to have worked from is dated.) Thus, there is a lot of peddling of the notion that the ideas of this manual were in line with twentieth century psychotherapy in ways that were really not true — either because Wilhelm was mistaken or wanted them to be true or some combination, thereof.

The translation, itself, is quite short and makes up less than half of the text length of this book. More than half consists of extensive notes as well as an Afterward. While I have complained many times about publishers padding out pamphlet length publications to make them salable at book prices, in this case I believe the “ancillary” matter is helpful to achieving a better understanding of the text. The translation itself is not only sparse but features a bit of Taoist and Buddhist arcana that is likely to be unfamiliar — even to those with some understanding of the traditions. The notes and afterward help one to comprehend this book’s ideas much better.

If you’re interested in Taoist inner alchemy or Buddhist meditative practices, this book is worth checking out. That said, it can be a bit of a tedious read, flipping between the translation and the notes to make sense of ideas that don’t readily translate.

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BOOKS: “Swimming: Made Easy” by Terry Laughlin

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Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any StrokeSwimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any Stroke by Terry Laughlin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Google Books Page

I learned a lot from this book’s emphasis on how to smooth out and lengthen one’s strokes. The author describes his approach as teaching “fishlike” swimming, and effortlessness is emphasized.

The book covers all four of the strokes one sees in competitive swimming (i.e. crawl [a.k.a. freestyle,] backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly.) For each stroke one learns how to improve balance, stroke length, and fluidness, as well as a bit about breath and coordination.

The book is presented in two parts. The first is the more theoretical bit and the second describes drills one can use to improve one’s technique. Part one is longer, more detailed, and written in more readable prose. Part two is shorter, more picture-laden, and tends to stick to bullet points. Photos are monochrome, mostly from above water level, and of varying degrees of clarity / informational value.

My biggest peeve with the book is that it frequently breaks into advertisement for other products (i.e. DVD’s [dates the book, as I’m pretty sure no one has an operational DVD player anymore] and gear.)

I’d recommend this book for readers interested in learning to swim more efficiently. The book is geared toward competitive swimmers interested in shaving time, rather than recreational swimmers who are just interested in a move pleasant experience (e.g. if one swims for fun, one will probably not be running a sequence of drills as that kind of defeats the fun of the activity.)

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BOOKS: 孙子兵法 [Sunzi’s Art of War] by Sunzi

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孙子兵法白话全译孙子兵法白话全译 by 史哲 文
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available online – YellowBridge

In thirteen short chapters, Sunzi lays out a masterclass in strategy. One sees in Sunzi’s work the mark of a Taoist mindset, seeing it in the book’s emphasis on engaging in warfare only when necessary, doing things the easy way whenever possible, and never letting one’s ego write checks one isn’t able to cash in lives.

There is good reason that this is one of the world’s most well-known (if not the most well-known) treatise on warfare. Far from being complicated and technical, this guide is full of pithy teachings such as: “War is the way of deception.” “No country ever benefited from a long war.” “Defeating the enemy without fighting is supreme excellence.” “To be undefeated lies in oneself, to be victorious lies in the enemy.” “Know the enemy and yourself and victory is assured; know heaven and earth and victory is complete.” (And these teachings are even more concise in the original Chinese.)

In addition to basics like leadership, maneuver, and terrain, the book devotes chapters to both the use of fire and spies in warfare. (One’s level of understanding is central to strategic victory throughout Sunzi’s teachings.)

I’d highly recommend this book for anyone interested in strategy, martial arts, or other strategic pursuits. The book may be ancient, but it’s not obsolete by any means.

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BOOKS: “Shaolin: How to win without fighting” by Bernhard Moestl

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Shaolin: How to win without fightingShaolin: How to win without fighting by Bernhard Moestl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site

This is a self-help book that nominally draws on the philosophy of Shaolin Kung fu and its Chan Buddhist underpinnings, but – more broadly – employs quotes and examples from many, mostly Eastern, sources. For example, the ideas and stories of Miyamoto Musashi are perhaps as common as any source (Musashi was Japanese, not Chinese, and was not noted for being Buddhist. In his own words, he respected the gods and buddhas, but didn’t expect their help.)

The book offers a fine discussion of Eastern philosophic thought in action, particularly that which arose from warrior sources, but it isn’t particularly ground-breaking in any way. For those who like homework, the book does include many exercises to make the reading a more interactive experience.

I enjoyed reading this book well enough, but it didn’t distinguish itself and will soon fall into the mind-space of a fuzzy amalgamation of similar books I’ve read over the years.

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BOOKS: “Jñāna-Yoga: The Way of Knowledge” by Ramakrishna Puligandla

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Jnana-Yoga--The Way of KnowledgeJnana-Yoga–The Way of Knowledge by Ramakrishna Puligandla
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Google Books Page

This is one of the most useful books I’ve read on the topic of Jñāna-yoga — the approach to yogic philosophy employed by the studious / inquisitive (in contrast to Bhakti-Yoga [the yoga of those for whom faith and devotion works] and Karma-Yoga [the yoga for those for whom a course of self-less action appeals.]) There are Jñāna-yogic Hindu sects and Buddhism — in general — can be thought of as a school of Jñāna-yoga. The author draws from the teachings of both, principally Sankara for Hindu thinking and Nagarjuna for the Buddhist approach.

A word of warning, the author is a scholarly philosopher, and so — while not as unreadable as many works of academic philosophy — it will be a slog for those who are not used to reading scholarly writing.

That said, Puligandla does a fine job of laying out what he views as the central tenets of Jñāna-yoga in a concise fashion and reviewing them at the end. This is not to say I would agree with all that he proposes, herein. In particular, his Chapter 3 conclusions about consciousness are insufficiently justified to be considered core principles of Jñāna-yoga (in my view.) Of course, the beauty of Jñāna-yoga is that it not only doesn’t insist upon coming to the same conclusions, it generates explanations as to how it’s perfectly possible / reasonable to come to different conclusions (see “The Principle of Superimposition,” herein.) Furthermore, since the author is reporting the ideas of Sankara and Nagarjuna, I can’t really hold these ideas against him.

If you’re interested in Jñāna-yoga, and can handle scholarly prose, I’d highly recommend this book.

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BOOKS: “How to Fight Tough” by Jack Dempsey

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How to Fight ToughHow to Fight Tough by Jack Dempsey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read online at Archive.org

This book was put out by the Coast Guard during World War II as a commando fighting manual. The lead on the project was heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey, aided by a small team of others — all with varied bona fides in Combatives.

This is a fun book to read. It’s loaded with 1940’s slang, over-the-top reminders to fight tough and mean, and jokes that — while dated — still amuse with their quirky language. Seriously, the voice in my head was playing in Trans-Atlantic dialect (1940’s radio announcer voice) or as James Cagney playing a gangster the whole time I was reading this book.

That said, while the text was campy, the actual techniques are solid. The book consists of eighteen lessons that are built on well-established grappling and submission techniques such as hadaka jime (rear naked choke.) Also, while there is often only one (or — at most — a few) photos per technique, they seemed to put some effort into doing them conscientiously. (And they are almost full-page shots, so one can actually see a bit of detail.) The techniques include: unarmed v. various unarmed attacks, unarmed v. knife, unarmed v. gun (holstered, and front and rear approaches,) and unarmed v. bayonet.

I’d highly recommend reading this book. It’s a quick and amusing read with some useful techniques inside.

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BOOKS: “American Intellectual History: A Very Short Introduction” by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen

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American Intellectual History: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)American Intellectual History: A Very Short Introduction by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen


Publisher Site – OUP

This is a brief guide to the philosophies and major developments in United States’ academia from pre-colonial times to the 1990’s. But both of those end points require a bit of clarification. The discussion of pre-colonial scholarly history is largely a mea culpa for beginning with colonial history because Native American tribes weren’t big on recording their philosophical and other scholastic ideas in writing. There is an appendix that discusses America scholarship in the era of globalization (and beyond.) My point is that if you’re hoping for discussion of what’s happened in the last couple decades, you won’t find it herein. (There are a few bibliographic references from the 2010’s, but that’s it.) It is a history book, but some readers may be curious because there’s been a lot of talk of late about issues related to scholarship in America.

Overall, I believe the book covered the topic solidly. There is considerable discussion of the debates triggered by the ideas of Charles Darwin arriving on American shores. As one would expect, there is also quite a bit of discussion of Transcendentalism and Pragmatism, two philosophies closely associated with America. The author covered a wide swath of ground including both progressive and conservative thinkers and viewpoints. One conspicuous absence was any mention of Objectivism / Ayn Rand. I know that isn’t a popular topic in academic circles and is widely dismissed with contempt, but on the grounds of: a.) Objectivism’s considerable influence (e.g. we had a Federal Reserve Chairman – Alan Greenspan – who served almost 20 years under both Republican and Democratic Presidents who was from that school of thought,) b.) its distinctive Americanness, I’m shocked that it didn’t merit at least a sentence or any mention of a book in the bibliography.

All in all, it’s an interesting book that offers unique insight into the history of the United States.

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BOOKS: “The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi [trans. by Thomas Cleary] [w/ Yagyu Munenori’s “Book of Family Traditions”]

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The Book of Five Rings: A Classic Text on the Japanese Way of the Sword (Shambhala Pocket Library)The Book of Five Rings: A Classic Text on the Japanese Way of the Sword by Miyamoto Musashi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Shambhala Publications

This edition, i.e. The Shambhala Pocket Library edition, contains two guides to strategy, tactics, and philosophy of combat by famous early Edo Period swordsmen. The titular work is Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings, but the volume also contains Yagyu Munenori’s The Book of Family Traditions. The naming of the book is meant to capitalize on the continuing popularity of Musashi, who remains well-known to this day not only because of his own works and legend, but because of an afterlife in pop culture that ranges from Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel to a recent Netflix animated series. That said, one shouldn’t conclude Yagyu Munenori was some sort of slouch. He was, in fact, a martial arts teacher to the Shogun’s son, and he founded a branch of his family’s martial arts school that continues to this day.

It is interesting to see these two guides back-to-back, being by authors whose lifespans largely overlapped, though – in other ways – their lives were quite different. While there is some conceptual overlap in these guides, the two definitely show two very different minds at work, Musashi the pragmatic eccentric and Yagyu the Zen philosopher of noble standing.

Miyamoto Musashi is probably the most famous swordsman in Japan’s history. Oddly enough, he’s not known for his experience in battle (he lived at the tail end of the Warring States period and was only in a couple battles), but – rather – for his 62 duels. The Book of Five Rings and other works he left behind are certainly important factors in his continuing fame. Musashi was a bit of a renaissance man: painter, poet, and sculptor in addition to a swordsman. He also left behind a school of swordsmanship, Niten Ichi-ryū.

The Book of Five Rings is divided into five parts: earth scroll, water scroll, fire scroll, wind scroll, and void scroll.

The earth scroll provides an overview of martial science and an introduction to Musashi’s school, which is noted for its simultaneous use of both the large and short sword. A section is devoted the rhythm of martial arts, a crucial topic. It also includes what might be considered Musashi’s 9-point budō kun (a list of warrior precepts.)It’s worth mentioning a couple of these:
#7 Become aware of what is not obvious.
#9 Do not do anything useless.

The Water scroll describes Musashi’s approach to swordsmanship. It covers a range of elements of a martial art including footwork, the focus of one’s eyes, physical posture, mental posture, techniques, and approaches to cutting and thrusting.

The Fire scroll deals with the strategic or interactive aspects of the battle.

The Wind scroll explores other martial arts. Musashi discusses martial arts that use an unusually long sword, an atypically short sword, that focus on powerful strikes, and those that focus on many rapid strikes. He contrasts other martial arts with his own on subjects such as their focus with the eyes and their footwork.

The void scroll deals with, well, emptiness. It’s actually a short wrap-up.

Yagyu’s guide is much more philosophical and mind-centric. It’s not that Musashi doesn’t deal with such topics, but he also devotes considerable space to more practical nuts and bolts of swordsmanship and strategy. It’s also true that Yagyu gets into technical considerations such as control of distancing (if in a bit more poetic way than Musashi.) One can get a feel for the nature of Yagyu’s Book of Family Traditions [on the Art of War] by seeing how it is organized into three parts: “The Killing Sword,” “The Life-Giving Sword,” and “No Sword.” The latter two indicating the author’s belief in the importance of not equating warrior and killer (nor winning with killing) as well as not fixating on the sword.

These two men had great insight into strategy and the tactics of swordsmanship, their guides are worth being read and reread. And the two authors do offer two intriguingly different approaches to a similar subject.

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