Rafe de Crespigny is an Australian sinologist, now aged 90. He specialises in the history of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. His…
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Month: April 2026
The Halberd at Red Cliff
The Halberd at Red Cliff by Tian Xiao Fei (2018) is an excellent addition to my library of literature on The Three Kingdoms. Tian is…
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Dust on the Throne
Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India (2023) by Douglas Ober, unfortunately, did not begin with an analysis of why Buddhism…
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First impressions of Mount Lu/Lushan, Jiangxi tour—Part 3
“The True Face of Mt. Lu” is a famous idiom. It is a phrase written in 1084 by the Song Dynasty poet Su Shi (Su…
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Day 2—Jiangxi
Donglin Temple Today we visited this historic temple. Tour brochures invariably highlight the fact that this temple has the world’s tallest Buddha statue on a…
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Day 1 & 2 Jiangxi tour (18 – 25 April 2026)—Part 1
The Soong Sisters are the most famous sisters in Chinese history. Sadly, the three sisters became estranged because of their husbands’ political beliefs. For that…
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Japanese War Crimes and Chinese Justice
For all the publicity given to the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, only 7 were actually hanged. These included General Doihara Kenji for drug trafficking in…
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The Many Voices of Lynn Pan
Lynn Pan, to me, is arguably the second most famous female Chinese writer in Chinese history and culture after Han Suyin. Her most popular work…
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The Israel Lobby—Part 1
The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt (2007) posits that this powerful American interest group has created…
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Chin Woo—Part 2
The myth—Most Chinese are brought up believing that the great martial arts practitioner Huo Yuan Jia founded Chin Woo. This is incorrect according to the…
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