For more than 2000 years, Confucius has been a fundamental part of China's history. This book negotiates the reconstructions, guess-work and numerous Chinese texts in order to establish an account of the thinker's life and legacy. It shows how Confucius lived and thought, his habits and inclinations, and his work as a teacher and as a counsellor.
Through the stories of four sisters born between 1907 and 1914, a renowned historian examines a century of change in Chinese culture and in women's lives. Now in their late eighties and early nineties, the four Chang sisters lived through a century of historic change in China. In this extraordinary work, assembled with the benefit of letters, diaries, family histories, poetry, journals and interviews, Annping Chin shapes the story of one family into a riveting chronicle that provides a unique insight into the old China and its transition into the new. From prosperity to persecution, from foreign wars to Cultural Revolution, FOUR SISTERS OF HOFEI is an intensely personal and sweeping story that illustrates the complex history of a complex culture.