Cultured Travel Guide Books - My Journey in Mystic China: Old Pu's Travel Diary |
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.042092
EAN: 9781594771576
ISBN: 159477157X
Label: Inner Traditions
Manufacturer: Inner Traditions
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 296
Publication Date: 2008-03-18
Publisher: Inner Traditions
Release Date: 2008-03-29
Studio: Inner Traditions |
| Spotlight Customer Reviews: |
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Old Pu hits the road
Comment: Wow! What a great book. Now, I admit that I am biased toward anything John Blofeld writes. I first used his translation of the Yijing when I began studying baguazhang 25 years ago. I still prefer his translation. Blofeld was determined to write one book in Chinese, and he did...this one. It was his last book. Daniel Reid has produced a very readable English translation. It has the feel of a Blofeld book. Buy this book, sit back, and read about China in the 1930s and 40s from the eyes of an Englishman gone native. Blofeld's Chinese name was Lao Pu or Old Pu. His adventures are always fascinating, his attempts to understand the tao and Buddhism are often enlightening, and some events are just down-right funny. Highly recommended! I only wish I could read it in the original Chinese. Sigh.
Customer Rating:
Summary: art travelogue, part memoir and part cultural exploration
Comment: Part travelogue, part memoir and part cultural exploration, My Journey in Mystic China: Old Pu's Travel Diary deserves ongoing mention as a powerful expose from the travel diaries of English-born John Blofeld, covering his life in China. Blofeld translated the I Ching and spent much of his adult life traveling during the 1930s and 40s; his scholarly comments are ideal for any who would better understand pre-World War II China. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A memorable journey
Comment: John Blofeld's account of his travels in China during the 1930's & 40's are translated for the first time and it is a cause for celebration for all Sinophiles. His words are a visual canvas of pastels and rich colors, smells, and tastes of a China no longer to be seen. Blofeld comes across as a gentle loving soul that if one were to accept reincarnation as a fact, then this British born man was truly Chinese in his soul. Besides a journal of his travels, he also offers folk stories and accounts of inexplicable sights and people he encountered along the way.
Blofeld is a fine writer of great subtlety and nuance. Normally I am a quick reader but like a fine tea I wanted to savor each page and chapter of this book. The translation by Daniel Reid is superlative. Reid's deep friendship and admiration he cultivated in the last years of Blofeld's life imbues this work with a warmth and charm too little seen in memoirs today.
For those interested in the history of China, Chinese folk life, Taoism, Confucianism or Buddhism this book is recommended. I know this is a work that I will return to every so often like a visit with a good friend and raconteur.
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| Editorial Reviews: |
The only English translation of John Blofeld’s memoirs as a Westerner living in China prior to the Communist Revolution
• Paints an intimate portrait of the grace and refinement of ancient Chinese civilization
• Originally written in Chinese for Chinese readers, revealing a rare glimpse of Blofeld’s private Chinese side and uncensored views
• The last book by the great English sinologist, translator of the I Ching and author of Taoist Mystery and Magic
The reveries and remembrances contained in the travel diaries of John Blofeld cover every aspect of his life in China--from visits to opium dens and sing-song houses to sojourns in the Buddhist monasteries and Taoist hermitages of China’s sacred mountains. Here is a vivid glimpse of “old” China as it existed in elegance and grace for three thousand years before China’s Communist Revolution. Originally written in Chinese for a Chinese audience, Blofeld’s travel diary reveals a rare, uncensored view of pre-communist China to which few westerners have been exposed.
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