Jeff Pepper
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The weary monk Tangseng and his three troublemaking disciples have now been traveling for over fourteen years. They arrive at a city near the Indian border just in time for the annual Lantern Festival, when three Buddhas come down from the sky and gather up large quantities of special lamp oil. Unfortunately these are not true Buddhas but monsters. They grab Tangseng and spirit him away to their cave. The monkey king Sun Wukong must get help from...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
As the monk Tangseng and his three disciples travel west, they find their path blocked by a huge blazing mountain eight hundred miles wide. Tangseng refuses to go around it, so his senior disciple, the monkey king Sun Wukong, must discover why the mountain is on fire and how they can cross it. He soon learns that he himself caused the mountain to ignite five centuries earlier. But finding out how to extinguish the blaze is a far more difficult and...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In a dark forest the monk Tangseng comes upon a beautiful young woman tied to a tree and half-buried in the ground. The monk frees her, not realizing she is a deadly mouse demon. Later they arrive at a nearby monastery where she devours some monks and tries to force Tangseng to marry her. Sun Wukong learns the truth about her, lodges a complaint with the great Jade Emperor in heaven, and battles the mouse demon to save his master.
This is the 27th...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In this, the 2nd book in our Journey to the West series, things begin to unravel for Sun Wukong, as he starts to see the consequences of his outrageous actions. While trying to defend his troop of monkeys, he manages to offend the underwater Dragon King, the Dragon King's mother, all ten Kings of the Underworld, and the great Jade Emperor himself. Finally, goaded by a couple of troublemaking demons, he goes too far, calling himself the Great Sage...
Author
Language
English
Description
Welcome to 三字经, San Zi Jing, known in English as the Three Character Classic. The San Zi Jing was written by Wang Yinglin during the Song Dynasty in the 13th century, modified many times since then, and memorized by generations of Chinese students. It's a box of treasures, a puzzle within a puzzle, with layers of meaning waiting you to discover.
At the simplest level, San Zi Jing is just a workbook, a way for you to learn how to read, speak...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In this, the 4th book in our Journey to the West series, we leave the imprisoned Sun Wukong behind, and tell the story of Xuanzang, the monk chosen by the Buddha to undertake the dangerous journey westward to India and bring sacred wisdom back to China. Unlike the previous books which told of Sun Wukong's great adventures (and misadventures) across heaven and earth, this story deals with smaller, human-scale events and the traditional themes of love,...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
As Tangseng and his three disciples continue on their westward journey, they meet the king of Scarlet Purple Kingdom. The king is gravely ill, sick with grief over the loss of one of his wives who was abducted by a nearby demon king. Sun Wukong pretends to be a doctor and attempts to cure the king with a treatment not found in any medical textbook. Then he goes to rescue the imprisoned queen, leading to an earth-shaking confrontation with the demon...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
A young boy shares a little house in Beijing with 23 cats. His friend comes to visit, but the two of them can't sit down, can't study, and can't even eat dinner together because of all the cats. What to do? The answer, which involves a very large dog, will surprise and delight you.
This wonderful little tale is for beginning Chinese students of all ages. Its tiny vocabulary of just 101 words is taken from the HSK1 list of words used to teach beginning...
Author
Language
English
Description
Sang is a young scholar living alone in a small village in 18th-century China. One night a strange and beautiful woman arrives at his house, and he soon falls deeply in love with her. But later, a second even more beautiful woman arrives, and things become extremely complicated. This is a story about fox spirits and ghosts, love and lust, and the unpredictable nature of the human and the not-quite-human heart.
This book is a retelling of a Chinese...
10) The Last King of Shang, Book 3: Based on Investiture of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin, In Easy Chinese
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In the waning days of the Shang dynasty in ancient China, an epic battle begins between forces loyal to the corrupt Shang king and the rebels of West Qi. The leader of the Shang army, Grand Tutor Wen, desperately recruits a host of demons, immortals and Daoist magicians to his side. They build ten magic traps to ensnare the West Qi rebels. But the legendary Jiang Ziya, aided by Nezha and the immortals of Mount Kunlun, use deception, magic and raw...
Author
Language
English
Description
In the beginning, the King of Shang was a good man…China, 1057 B.C. The well-meaning but foolish king of the Shang Dynasty has gravely insulted a goddess. In revenge, the angry goddess sends a thousand-year-old fox demon to extinguish the soul of the beautiful young Daji, inhabit her body, and seduce the king into taking her as his chief concubine. Daji slowly gains control of the king and his kingdom, leading the Shang Dynasty towards chaos and...
Author
Language
English
Description
The story of Mulan, the young girl who joins the army to save her family and her country, is at least 1500 years old. Over the centuries, it has inspired dozens of poems, plays, novels, songs, and more recently, graphic novels, TV shows and films. The details of the story vary, but the core is always the same: a young girl living with her family in a small Chinese village learns that the army requires each family to contribute one man to fight invaders...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
This story, the 6th in our Journey to the West series, marks the end of the first section of the novel, as we wrap up the preliminaries and begin the actual journey. Several threads and key characters from earlier books come together. Taizong, the great emperor of the Tang Dynasty who spent most of Book Five trapped in the underworld, selects the young monk Xuanzang to undertake the journey, after being strongly influenced by the Buddhist teacher...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
This, the 5th book in our "Journey to the West" series, starts innocently enough, with two good friends chatting as they walk home after eating and drinking at a local inn. One of the men, a fisherman, tells his friend about a fortuneteller who advises him on where to find fish. This seemingly harmless conversation between two minor characters triggers a series of events that eventually cost the life of a supposedly immortal being, and cause the great...
Author
Language
English
Description
During one of my business trips to Japan I was treated to a big dinner event at a fancy Tokyo restaurant. A dozen Japanese executives were there. At some point, after several rounds of drinks, I asked the senior Sumitomo executive if he could tell a joke. The room grew quiet. The executive stood up, whiskey glass in hand, and said, "In my youth I had time and health but I had no money. In my middle age I had health and money but I had no time. Now...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The monk Tangseng has harsh words for his eldest disciple, the monkey king Sun Wukong. His pride hurt, Sun Wukong complains to the Bodhisattva Guanyin and asks to be released from his service to the monk. She refuses his request. This leads to a case of mistaken identity and an earthshaking battle that begins in the sky over the monkey's home on Flower Fruit Mountain, moves through the palaces of heaven and the depths of the underworld, and ends in...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In ancient China, the Shang kingdom descends into chaos as Daji, the beautiful thousand year old fox spirit, bewitches the king. Opposing him, the brilliant strategist Jiang Ziya navigates political intrigue and divine machinations to protect the kingdom. Mortals and immortals intertwine in alliances, betrayals, and sacrifice, as they grapple with fate, love, and the power of destiny.This book, the second in the series, is based on chapters 18 through...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
An evil rainstorm of blood covers a city and defiles a beautiful Buddhist monastery. Three years later the monk Tangseng and his three disciples arrive at the city. They explore the monastery and discover two fish-demons drinking wine and gambling in the top floor of the monastery's pagoda. This leads to an epic underwater confrontation with their boss, a powerful dragon king. And later, Tangseng is trapped in a vast field of brambles by a group of...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Tangseng and his disciples arrive at the capital of Bhiksu Kingdom and learn that it's been renamed "Boytown" because over a thousand little boys have been locked in cages in front of their homes. When they learn what fate awaits these children, Sun Wukong arranges to get them safely out of the city. Then he and the others unravel a plot devised by two demons who, disguised as a Daoist master and his lovely daughter, have beguiled the king. They must...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Tangseng and his three disciples have traveled to the wild country west of China. They arrive at a strange city where Daoism is revered and Buddhism is forbidden. The few remaining Buddhist monks are enslaved, but every night they receive a dream message that the Great Sage Equal to Heaven will come to save them. This of course is the Monkey King Sun Wukong, the eldest disciple. Sun Wukong gleefully causes trouble in the city, and finds himself in...