The Spirit of the Chinese Character: Gifts from the Heart

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Summary: Spirit of the Chinese Character
Review: great for learning a limited number of characters - 40. step by step illustration to create each character in the order they should be formed. also a brief description of the concept/meaning for each.

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Summary: Beautifully explains the origins of Chinese characters
Review: If you only have the time and patience to learn forty Chinese characters in your lifetime, you should learn the ones in this book. Concepts such as "spirit", "benevolence", "harmony", "loyalty", and "wisdom" characterize so much of traditional Chinese thought and culture. The authors illustrate each of these characters with beautiful brush and ink calligraphy on rice paper background. There is a short explanation accompanying each character telling why it is written just so. For example the strokes making up the character "love" show us that the word means "breathing into the heart with a gracious motion". The character "enlightenment" shows the two components "sun" and "moon" which together light the world. Students who wish to practise writing these characters can follow the useful stroke order guide next to the explanations. This is a beautiful gift for the student or scholar, or just for those who appreciate Chinese culture.

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Summary: Spirit of the Chinese Character
Review: This beautifully designed book is a little gem. There is a clear breadth of understanding of Chinese culture and language. The text is eloquent and if you are learning to write Chinese characters, the stroke-by-stroke instructions make it seem easy and less intimidating.

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Summary: Beautiful
Review: This book is wonderful. It was what kinda got me started into the research of Chinese characters and such. Until I read this book I never knew how beautiful and interesting and deep the chinese character is. The stories and describtions just captivate you. The in depth design of every single character and the story behind it is very interesting and fascinating. Though not as long as I would have hoped, I reccomend it.

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Summary: The book gave some cool ides for tatoos.
Review: This fine little book reveals how dozens of chinese characters are assembled from simple graphic ideas. The illustrations engage the learner in an elegant discovery of how characters for love, grace, spirit, destiny and others are drawn. The text accompanying each character is beautifully written. I am really enjoying discovery of chinese with this lovely book.