The Swordswoman is very exceptional in that its protagonist is a swordswoman. The double-layered plot is also highly unusual: two women, a mistress and her slave, join forces for vengeance, after which the mistress takes her own life, and the protagonist the slave conceals her identity and becomes the concubine of a well-respected scholar. Some years later, this woman decides to leave the scholar upon realizing that his strengths consist of a handful of trifling tricks and that they fall far short of grand enough principles to govern the world and serve as norms for posterity. This man was So Eung-cheon (1704 1760), a scholar of some note in the mid-18th century. While this work recounts a tale of imaginary retribution and dazzling martial arts, it may ultimately be underhanded ridicule of the aristocracy of the time.

Korean Classic Stories: Avengers & Artists (vol 1)

Literature & Fiction

Hunggyu Kim

Short Stories & Anthologies

Seoul Selection

Literary Nonfiction. Cooking. Asian & Asian American Studies. For this book, Dr. Choi selected from her cooking classes 28 dishes that her foreign students have particularly enjoyed. In addition to the standard meat dishes (spicy stir-fried pork and braised chicken in soy sauce), and vegetarian options (kimchi, chilled white radish salad, and zucchini salad), it also features noodle options (noodles served with spicy squid, spicy noodle salad, and glass noodle salad), stone pot bibimbap, stews, and various other dishes. The author relied on the following three principles in selecting which recipes to include in the book. First, she wanted recipes that are easy to make. Second, she placed priority on ingredients that are readily found outside of Korea. Third—and most importantly—she selected dishes that taste great. While preparing the recipes, Dr. Choi took great pains to make them more accessible to her readers, who might otherwise find Korean cooking techniques confusing and complicated. She also throws in some handy tips. Readers are told that herbs or lemon chives can stand in for Korean garlic chives if the latter are hard to find, and that bulgogi, or marinated stir-fried beef, tastes great inside a sandwich.

A Korean Kitchen Companion: 28 Recipes for Korean Dishes

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Choi, Jia

Regional & International

Korean handicrafts are often overshadowed by those of China and Japan, preventing them from being recognized for their unique charm and cultural value. Frustrated with this widespread ignorance of Korean crafts, two American authors set out to write 100 Thimbles in a Box: The Spirit and Beauty of Korean Handicrafts, hoping that an English-language book on the topic would help bring some deserving global attention to Korea s strong crafting history. The book s title draws from a tradition dating back to the Joseon Dynasty in which a bride would present handmade thimbles to her husband s female relatives to wish them good fortune and a long life. The stunning beauty of 44 of Korea s traditional crafts sorted into ceramics, fiber arts, paper, inlay, metal, wood, and painting is presented in detail with over 400 pictures found in the book. While other publications have focused on one or two of these handicraft categories, this is the first English-language guide that brings these diverse genres together in a single volume.

100 Thimbles in a Box: The Spirit and Beauty of Korean Handicrafts (Seoul Selection Guides)

Arts & Photography

Debbi Kent

Joan Suwalsky

History & Criticism

Literary Nonfiction. Asian &amp; Asian American Studies. Art. Kimchi, K-pop, taekwondo, Samsung—the images that most people get when they think of Korea don't stray much beyond the usual ones. But there are so many more fascinating sides to Korea. A cultural anthropologist with over 20 years of personal experience in Korea, author Benjamin Joinau introduces readers to the various faces of Korea outside those that Koreans typically like to present, guided by Elodie Dornand de Rouville's refreshingly original and detailed illustrations—Korean society through the eyes of two foreigners. Grab a copy and let's take a look at the real faces of Korea, past and present.

Sketches of Korea: An illustrated Guide to Korean Culture

Joinau, Benjamin and

Literary Nonfiction. Asian &amp; Asian American Studies. Religion &amp; Spirituality. What exactly is this deep prajna practice? Prajna is the truth that governs the universe, the myriad things, society, and life. This truth is contained in everything. Thus, it is difficult to find it from the outside. We must search for prajna in our mind, which is closest to us. We must then use it to extinguish defilements and idle thoughts, do away with desires, and train the mind in mercy, wisdom, and liberation in order to reach the other shore, in other words, to become a buddha. This process is called the profound prajna practice.

The Shore of Freedom

Politics & Social Sciences

Kyongsan, Prime Dharma Master

Philosophy

Literary Nonfiction. Asian &amp; Asian American Studies. Religion &amp; Spirituality. In the broad sense, Timeless Zen is a compound term that refers to Zen when we do and do not have activities, and thus is a concept that encompasses all Zen. It is a dharma of Zen that embraces not only action and rest but also walking, abiding, sitting, lying, speaking, and silence, and because Timeless Zen is a general term for the Zen dharmas performed at any time or place, all Zen dharmas ultimately converge on this dharma of Timeless Zen. In other words, the concept of this dharma of Timeless Zen includes senses of both seated meditation and placeless Zen. The spirit of the Timeless Zen dharma is, at its core, about consistent practice of Zen, without being bound by concepts of time or space. This greater principle must underlie our Zen practice from the beginning.

Commentary on the Dharma of Timeless Zen

Religion & Spirituality

Chw, Prime Dharma Master Emeritus

Buddhism

Art. Asian &amp; Asian American Studies. History. The court paintings of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) were artwork created for the appreciation of the king, his family, and high-ranking officials. The type of the court paintings hardly deviated from those pieces created for the common people; in essence, court painters did not adhere to any particular genre, though pictorial style would vary over time. Unlike pieces created for the general public, however, court paintings served a more speci c function than those done outside the palace. One of the major functions of Joseon court paintings was education. Pictures of significant moments of history were used to help the king and prince learn from the past and cultivate a heightened sense of morality and leadership. Another crucial function of court paintings was both the documentation and conservation of the visual culture of the eras in which they were created. During the Joseon Dynasty, a period whose philosophical foundation rested on Confucian ideals, images played an essential role in the efficient management of the state. The Joseon court paintings are the pinnacle of contemporary artwork of their time, produced by anonymous court painters to meet the tastes of the commissioners while abiding by past customs.

Court Paintings from the Joseon Dynasty (Visual Korean Heritage)

Park, Jeong-Hye

Poetry. Translated from the Korean by Brother Anthony, President of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch and translator who has introduced international readers to several Korean works. An English rendition of a collection of poetry by Do Jonghwan, one of Korea's most beloved poets. Do's literary career started in 1984, when he released Age of Division while teaching Korean language and literature to highschool students. His second poetry collection, You the Hollyhock, sold over a million copies and was made into a film, and he became one of Korea's most influential poets during the 1980s, popular among critics and readers alike. Through poetry, Do found beauty in the poverty of his youth and in the sadness and pain from losing his wife to illness. He portrays flowers, trees, creeks, wind, mountains, and other shifts in nature through a unique poetic sensibility. Having accepted poetry as his "fate and companion," he conveys simple truths and wisdom, such as how life matures and finds beauty amid pain and suffering.

No Flower Blooms Without Wavering

Do, Jong-Hwan

Poetry

Literary Nonfiction. Asian &amp; Asian American Studies. History. Since the concept of the Silk Road as an avenue of inter- civilizational exchange emerged more than 130 years ago, scholars from both Eastern and Western societies have conducted persistent research to advance the field. Still, however, not nearly enough research has been conducted, and scholars present conflicting theories. This book, written and compiled by Jeong Su-il, a prominent Silk Road expert of South Korea, aims to rectify the common misconception of the Silk Road being a simple trade route and shed light on the aspect of an interconnected global circuit of inter- civilizational exchange. The more than 2,000 entries in this encyclopedia explore all the exchanges that occurred between civilizations as a direct result of the Silk Road, showing artifacts and written records to track the paths of such exchange along the Silk Road and its neighboring regions. To write this book, the author has consulted a wide range of material, including overseas texts concerning Silk Road civilizations, world-renowned travelogues, and data extracted from on-site studies.

THE SILK ROAD ENCYCLOPEDIA

Business & Money

Jeong, Su-il

Economics

Literary Nonfiction. Asian &amp; Asian American Studies. This book is a complete guide for people who want to learn the Korean language, starting from the very beginning, and learn the alphabet and the correct sounds of vowels, consonants, and diphthongs. It was written for people who want an easy but systematic approach to the language. The writer is a non-native speaker who started learning the language from ZERO, just like you, and spent years in Korea trying to reach a better level of proficiency in Korean. After a few weeks of study, you will study to recognize words, make sentences, and have simple (but miraculous) conversations with other Korean speakers!

Korean Language for Beginners

De Benedittis, Andrea

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