Sunday, January 7, 2018

Chinese Mythology: An Introduction by Anne Birrell

With this book being an introduction, it is very much straightforward with what the subject matter is on and focuses more on the lesser known gods. For this, it is much appreciated and its academic style is easy to understand making it great to read for those just beginning to learn about Chinese mythology.

There are also numerous references to ancient Chinese texts within its pages, to which at the end of the book a list of all the texts referenced in the book itself with its name in English and what it is called Chinese but with English letters. This is invaluable for such a book as this with plenty of books referenced, making it not a needed thing to have to go through the book again just to find a particular text brought up at one point or another.

For all that is mentioned above I love the book for it. I've already heard many stories on Sun Wukong, Guan Yu, Jade Emperor and Guanyin from other books on Chinese mythology so seeing a book that has little to nothing on them is rather refreshing and is different, especially when there are two classic Chinese books I can read to learn about them, even if just a bit.

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