A Chinese bestiary : strange creatures from the guideways through mountains and seas = 山海經 / edited and translated with commentary by Richard E. Strassberg.
"Philip E. Lilienthal Asian studies endowment."
Parallel title in Chinese characters.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-292) and index.

Illustrations; Preface; Editorial Notes; Introduction; Plates I to LXXVI from the Guideways through Mountains and Seas; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Glossary Index to Plates.

"A Chinese Bestiary presents a fascinating pageant of mythical creatures from a unique and enduring cosmography written in ancient China. The Guideways through Mountains and Seas, compiled between the fourth and first centuries, B.C.E., contains descriptions of hundreds of fantastic denizens of mountains, rivers, islands, and seas, along with minerals, flora, and medicine. The text also represents a wide range of beliefs held by the ancient Chinese. Richard Strassberg brings the Guideways to life for modern readers by weaving together translations from the work itself with information from other texts and recent archaeological finds to create a lavishly illustrated guide to the imaginative world of early China." "Unlike the bestiaries of the late medieval period in Europe, the Guideways was not interpreted allegorically; the strange creatures described in it were regarded as actual entities found throughout the landscape. The work was originally used as a sacred geography, as a guidebook for travelers, and as a book of omens. Today, it is regarded as the richest repository of ancient Chinese mythology and shamanistic wisdom. The Guideways may have been illustrated from the start, but the earliest surviving illustrations are woodblock engravings from a rare 1597 edition. All seventy-six of those plates are reproduced here for the first time, and they provide a fine example of the Chinese engraver's art during the late Ming dynasty."--Jacket.

Local access dig. pdf. [Strassberg-Bestiary.pdf]
Also in Djvu format.

Atlante della Cina di Michele Ruggieri 羅明堅, S.J. (1543-1607)

"Born in Spinazzola in Puglia (Italy), Ruggieri entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty-nine after holding official posts under Philip II, King of Naples. He was assigned to the Eastern missions and arrived in Goa on September 13, 1578. (Matteo Ricci was a fellow passenger). In July 1579 he arrived in Macau to implement the revolutionary missiological policy inaugurated by Alessandro Valignano 範禮安, S.J. (1538-1606). In 1583, after establishing friendly contacts with Chinese officials in Guangdong Province he was granted permission to build a church and residence at Zhaoqing 肇慶. In September of 1583 Ruggieri and Ricci took up residence there, establishing the first post-medieval Christian mission in China.
Like Ricci and other pioneers of the Jesuit China mission, Ruggieri was accomplished in many areas, and cartographic and linguistic skills were deemed particularly important. On Ruggieri's map (c. 1609) can be seen detailed information on terrain, cities, and waterways. Learning the Chinese language was not restricted to local dialects but also to learning guanhua 官話, the official language known in Western countries as Mandarin. Dictionaries and lexicons were created and the first semi-standard romanizations for Chinese characters were created (based on Portuguese letter values: see the Portuguese-Chinese Dictionary in this display). Published letters describing Chinese civilization sent by Ricci, Ruggieri, and others to Europe were highly popular and avidly studied by historians and philosophers."--Display placard text.

V. 1. Preliminary essay on the intercourse between China and the western nations previous to the discovery of the Cape route -- v. 2. Travels of Friar Odoric of Pordenone -- v. 3. Missionary friars. Rashiduddin's History. Pegolotti's Notices. Marignolli's Recollections -- v. 4. Ibn Batuta's Travels. Journey of Benedict Goes.

Contents: A treaty between the states of Lu, Sung, Wei, Cheng, Hsu and Chao -- The superior man / Confucius -- Confucius, the master / Disciples -- Some words of advice for rulers / Mencius -- The expedition of Li Ling and its aftermath / Ssu-ma Ch'ien -- The perfection of art in china / Abu Zeid al Hansan -- Letter to Chu Kang-Shu, chief magistrate of ochow / Su Tung-po -- The great khan / Marco Polo -- The feasts that the khan keepeth -- The land of china / Ibn Battuta -- Of the apparel and customs of the women / Father Gaspar de Cruz -- Some highlights of a trip from Canton to Peking / M. John Nieuhoff -- The emperor Kang-Hi travels to eastern Tartary / Father Ferdinand Verbiest -- Hunting with the emperor Kun-Hi / Father Pereira -- From Nimpo to Pekin / Louis Le Comte -- The great wall / Louis Le Comte -- The annual festival / E. Yshants Ides -- The Chinese people / Dionysius Kao - Some Chinese customs / Father Matteo Ripa -- Gardens for diversion / Captain Charles Gustavus Eckeberg -- Joss / Major Samuel Shaw -- The Chinese junks / Aeneas Anderson -- Breakfast with the emperor of China / André Everard Van-Braam Houckgeest -- A letter to Queen Victoria / Commissioner Lin -- The capture of the island of Chusan / Lord Jocelyn -- A captive in China / Captain Denham -- A tea dealer's home / W. H. Medhurst -- An old Chinese recipe for making tea / Tüng-po -- The manufacture of tea / Robert Fortune -- Punishment in China / John Scarth -- Fishing with cormorants / Abbé Armand David -- Opium smoking / W. H. Medhurst -- A question of etiquette / Wu K'o-tu -- The great famine in northern China / British Medical Officer -- The condition of the Chinese people / Dr. Sun Yat-sen -- The boxer attack on Tientsin / Rev. Frederick Brown -- The aftemath of the boxer rebellion / Wilbur J. Chamberlain -- Underlying causes of the boxer rebellion / H.C. Thomson -- Her emperial majesty, the empress dowager of China, gets dressed / Princess Der Ling -- The advance of modernism / Sheng Cheng -- An imperial decree - Small Japan and big China / Ten-year-old Chinese boy -- Mao Tse-Tung and I were beggars / Siao-yu -- Examinations in old China / John and Alice. C. Dewey -- The beast of burden / Somerset Maugham -- A girl rebel in the people's army / Hsieh Ping-ying -- Real China / Lin Yu-t'ang -- The young vanguards / Dr. Chi P'eng-fei -- A Chinese village / Nikos Kazantzakis -- Early incidents that influenced my life / Mao Tse-tung.

Siam e Cina :  l'incoronazione del re del Siam [e] I giorni della rivoluzione cinese / Salvatore Besso.

Reprint of 1913 edition. "Copia Anastatica Finita di stampare nel mese di gennaio 2006, Nuova editrice grafica srl."--t.p. verso.