A new book on Chinese swords

[Manouchehr M.]

Finally after all these years of waiting, Mr. Jiang Alex Huangfu has written a book on Chinese swords. I only wish I could read Chinese. I will report on this book more soon.

http://www.chinesearms.com/swordbook/swordbook.htm

Kind regards
Manouchehr

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Likely a gold mine for my studies on relationships between early japanese
and chinese blades, but language is a serious issue for me.
Anyway pictures are always welcomed and I know people that can
translate at least the captions.

Best way to purchase it ?

[Manouchehr M.]

Likely a gold mine for my studies on relationships between early japanese
and chinese blades, but language is a serious issue for me.
Anyway pictures are always welcomed and I know people that can
translate at least the captions.

Best way to purchase it ?

Thanks Carlo. I think the best way is to contact Mr. Huangfu himself.

Kind regards
Manouchehr

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

I'll try. Thanks Manouchehr.

[Manouchehr M.]

I'll try. Thanks Manouchehr.

You are welcome Carlo.

Kind regards
Manouchehr

[Alex Kakashi]

im in beijing now and can read chinese. i need a copy of this, where can i get it??

[Manouchehr M.]

Alex

Contact Mr. Huangfu on his site.

Kind regards
Manouchehr

[Ariel B.]

How do we know it is "excellent" or a "gold mine" if the reviewers do not read Chinese?

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

How do we know it is "excellent" or a "gold mine" if the reviewers do not read Chinese?

Ariel, are you able to understand what "likely" mean ?
It cover the period I'm interested in, and considering how few are
such books, then "likely" it is a gold mine, to me at least.

And I've not reviewed the book so I'm not a reviewer of it.
Great start yours. I've to assume you're trolling here ?

[Zhang Hai]

This is an excellent book. It includes Mr. Huangfu's 10 years' hard study, also you can read his soul and blood from it, besides, many top Chinese sword collecter/student in China contribute a lot to this book. It can represent Chinese collecter/student's recent years understanding of Chinese sword in some degree.

Considered that sword study was almost inhibited for HAN people ( 95% of Chinese are HAN people ) during Qing Dynasty ( since HAN was defeted, and Man Minority ruled this country ), and after Qing Dynasty we go into war time and then after new country establish in 1949 all old thing's are considered evil, most remaining swords were melt into iron at that time. So almost for 450 years in China, sword study was empty.

Then it comes to these days,
1. communication/study limit was broken by internet,
2 . because of China's big construction, we can see many sword comes out from earth and river also from remote villages
3. because more and more Chinese have spare money and time ( 30 years ago, most Chinese family are still worried about the food every months )

Now we begin to pick our history up , although it's a little bit late since most of it has already been destroyed. But fortunately, we still can find some shining piece, these piece can reflect the whole thing some times.
And through the sword study, we now wonder the handed-down-history ( official version ) may be changed in the near future, not only for Chinese history but also for Korea and Japanese history.

This book is just the beginning and not just a sword book and not just a book.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

I can't even imagine the amount of work you're facing off...
But these are really great news. Whish the best to chineses scholars
and hope more material will be available soon.

[Alexander Chin]

Based on the link pages this appears to be a decent pictorial glossary for Chinese swords, though the level of scholarship will need to be determined.

[Wu Ming]

How do we know it is "excellent" or a "gold mine" if the reviewers do not read Chinese?

Forgive me, I'm not trying to start any fights, but I think Ariel B. had an excellent point.

As I said at the beginning, I am not trying to pick a fight. Just thought some one should set the record straight.

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Forgive me, I'm not trying to start any fights, but I think Ariel B. had an excellent point....OMISSIS... It was realized a long time ago, that Mr. Huang was having his girl friend (Bonnie) post images here at SFI to get information from Philip Tom and Scott Rodell (the former moderators).

Obviously, to revitalize this old thread has nothing to do with either the fact that both the experts has been removed as moderators and that
Ariel B. has been banned for the 3rd time from SFI...

[Alexander Chin]

Bad politics trumped scholarship.

I have remained neutral regarding this "promotion" despite my reservations about Alex Huangfu's character.

Without the opportunity to review a copy of the book I can only say that it is pretty and has lots of picture. This may make it "excellent" to some, but any other claimed merits--scholarship, research, new information--must remain in question.

A first tenet of scholarship is being able to substantiate your sources. The second is being able to discuss and defend your work. So long as the discussion remains scholarly and civilized there is no reason to lock or remove this thread.