Books are often my best sleep aid, but with Andy's book, his expertise and often a pinch of mischief, I stayed wide awake for a long time and couldn't stop reading another chapter and then another and another.
I knew that Zheng He travelled to East Africa around 1400 in huge ships, compared to which Columbus' ship looked like a nutshell, but that he was actually a landlubber from Kunming, castrated to boot, i.e. a eunuch and not just with one ship, I didn't know that he was actually a landlubber from Kunming, a castrated eunuch to boot, and that he travelled with a crew of 60 and 20,700 men and not just out of sheer wonder, but that he incorporated everything he sailed to into the Chinese empire with his armada. Nor did I know that he was a devout Muslim and didn't miss the opportunity to go ashore in Jeddah on the Red Sea and visit Mecca.
The fact that the mummies found in the Taklamakan desert had long noses, blue eyes and red hair and were Celts was also news to me, as was the fact that genetic analyses showed that the ancient Celts came from the Black Sea region and that some of them migrated westwards and others eastwards, as far as Taklamakan.
And what about the different branches of Buddhism: Hinayana, Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, great vehicle, diamond vehicle, Chan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism? In a chapter of 10 pages, everything is explained, including how Buddha was included in the canon of Christian saints and I now also know that Tina Turner is a Buddhist, or describes herself as such.
Confucius fled from Lao Zi's cave during his visit when he misinterpreted his gesture of raising his sword as an attack on him. He had already travelled here with the preconception that Lao Zi was a dangerous fellow. This man is extremely dangerous, he is a dragon, he almost killed me, Confucius told his companions.
Was acupuncture possibly brought to China from the West? Ötzi seems to be an indication of this, as tattoos corresponding to classical acupuncture points were found on his body at a time when there was no evidence of the existence of acupuncture in China.
Feng Shui? 80% logic and common sense, 20% superstition! Because a dragon lives in the mountain behind this building, it would bring bad luck if it couldn't fly through the hole in the skyscraper. With The conviction with which feng shui still dominates Chinese society today still dominates Chinese society today. The builders dispensed with 11 luxury flats, i.e. a rental price of $140,000 per month. We also learn why Singapore is so economically successful thanks to Feng Shui successful and what the Belchen triangle in Basel has to do with feng shui. has to do with Feng Shui.
The Chinese character for family "Jia" consists of the characters for pig and roof. characters for pig and roof. A pig under the roof means always to always have something to eat. And the fact that white truffles smell like sweaty feet I didn't really want to know that white truffles smell like sweaty feet, but basically I couldn't care less, because I don't have to have this luxury. Black ones do every leap year. I'm not going to ask if they smell smell like white people.
How many Chinese characters are there really? I won't give any more away now. Read for yourself!
On 430 pages, our dear TCM colleague Dr Andreas
Wirz-Ridolfi has compiled a wealth of interesting facts about China (and also about us)
that is unrivalled. Hundreds of times I was
surprised to learn new things about topics that I thought I already knew
already knew a lot about. The many cross-comparisons and connections
connections with our culture.
Christmas is still a long way off, but keep the gift tip in your head - and maybe there will be another birthday in between birthday that is worth a present. As a book of course. It would also be available as an e-book. The print edition is best ordered directly here: email hidden; JavaScript is required.
Thank you, Andy, for this true Wirzipedia!
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