China Books
Three
Thousand Years of Chinese Painting - 1997
Six China art experts from China and the U.S. present their varied
assessments on the development of Chinese pictorial arts. Analized
are masterpieces from the Neolithic period, early paintings on silk,
and modern artists works. Included are more than 200 color pictures
and 75 black-and-white reproductions. This is one of the most complete
and best-illustrated works on the topic of Chinese pictorial art
available. |
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Ming
Ceramics in the British Museum
2001 - Jessica Harrison-Hall
The British Museum holds the world's broadest collection Ming ceramics,
here published for the first time in its entirety. Nearly a thousand
items are illustrated, identified, dated and discussed, incorporating
the most up-to-date archaeological discoveries and scientific research
previously available only in Chinese or specialist journals. The
author first provides an accessible historical context, followed
by stimulating essays on the porcelain industry, trade and diplomacy,
and aspects of social life and burials in the Ming dynasty. |
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Looking
at Chinese Painting
1996 - Wang Yao-t'ing
An excellent book, Looking at Chinese Painting discusses the history,
philosophy and techniques of traditional Chinese painting. This books
covers a great deal including Chinese painting materials and how
they are used, merging of poetry and painting, the presentation of
chinese paintings, authentication paintings, comparing Chinese and
western style painting techniques, and much more. The writer Mr.
Wang is a scholar at the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. The National
Palace Museum in Taiwan houses the finest collection of Chinese art
in the world. |
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The
Chinese Art of Tea
1985 - Blofeld
Great in-depth overview of the varieties of Chinese tea and drinking
vessels. Includes history, poems and treatises about tea, tea houses,
ceremonies, brewing, cups and vessels, varieties, and the effect
that tea has on the physical health and psyche. Everything you need
to know about Chinese teas is contained in this book. |
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Foreign
Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities
and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia
1984 - Peter Hopkirk
The
Silk Road, which linked imperial Rome and distant China,
was once the greatest thoroughfare on earth. Along it travelled
precious cargoes of silk, gold, and ivory, as well as revolutionary
new ideas. Its oasis towns blossomed into thriving centres
of Buddhist art and learning. In time it began to decline.
The traffic slowed, the merchants left, and finally its
towns vanished beneath the desert sands to be forgotten
for a thousand years. But legends grew up of lost cities
filled with treasurees and guarded by demons. In the early
years of the 20th century, foreign explorers began to investigate
these legends, and very soon an international race began
for the art treasures of the Silk Road. Huge wall paintings,
sculptures, and priceless manuscripts were carried away,
literally by the ton, and are today scattered through the
museums of a dozen countries. Peter Hopkirk tells the story
of the intrepid men who, at great personal risk, led these
long-range archaeological raids, incurring the undying
wrath of the Chinese. |
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The
Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology : Celebrated Discoveries
from The People`s Republic of China
1999 - Xiaoneng Yang
Chinese archaeological discoveries of the last fifty years have transformed
previous notions of the origins of Chinese civilization and art.
This book presents an astonishing range of findings--more than 200
works of art in jade, stone, ivory, bone, pottery, bronze, lacquer,
bamboo, gold, and silver from the period 5000 B.C. to 900 A.D.--that
show how culture flowered not only in the Yellow River Valley but
throughout ancient China. |
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Chinese
Art
1997 - Mary Tregear
Interest in China and its culture grows everyday and this revised
authoritative survey of the Chinese visual arts will be welcomed
by art lovers, students and travelers alike. Beautifully illustrated
and easily readable, it covers artworks such as bronzes, jades, calligraphy
and painting, Buddhist sculpture, ceramics, textiles, metalwork,
lacquer, garden design and architecture. For the revised edition,
all Chinese names, places and terms have been romanized to current
international usage. Throughout, information has been updated in
view of recent finds, and the book contains new illustrations, a
revised introduction and a new final chapter on twentieth-century
art. |
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The
Chinese Garden
2003 - Maggie Keswick
In these richly illustrated pages, Chinese gardens unfold as cosmic
diagrams, revealing a profound and ancient view of the world and
of humanity's place in it. First sensuous impressions give way to
more cerebral delights, and forms conjure unending, increasingly
esoteric and mystical layers of meaning for the initiate. Keswick
conducts us through the art and architecture, the principles and
techniques of Chinese gardens, showing us their long history as the
background for a civilization--the settings for China's great poets
and painters, the scenes of ribald parties and peaceful contemplation,
political intrigues and family festivals. |
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Poetry
and Painting in Song China
2002 - Alfreda Murck
Throughout the history of imperial China, the educated elite used
various means to criticize government policies and actions. During
the Song dynasty (960-1278), some members of this elite found an
elegant and subtle means of dissent: landscape painting. By examining
literary archetypes, the titles of paintings, contemporary inscriptions,
and the historical context, Alfreda Murck shows that certain paintings
expressed strong political opinions--some transparent, others deliberately
concealed. She argues that the coding of messages in seemingly innocuous
paintings was an important factor in the growing respect for painting
among the educated elite and that the capacity of painting's systems
of reference to allow scholars to express dissent with impunity contributed
to the art's vitality and longevity. |
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Gardens
in China
2002 - Peter Valder
In this new companion book to The Garden Plants of China, Peter Valder
describes more than 200 gardens he has visited in China. He documents
temple courtyards and gardens, evocative enclosures of ancient burial
grounds and imperial tombs, and public parks, botanical gardens and
arboreta, most of which have sprung up since 1949.
Gardens
in China includes more than 500 color photographs, many depicting
gardens not previously illustrated in any Western publication,
as well as reproductions of illustrations of historical interest.
This book is essential reading for visitors to China with an
interest in gardens, garden history, and Chinese culture.
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