Top 10 Books to Read Before Going to China
Books to Read before Going to China!
The books below will help you get an understanding of the history of Old China. Reading these books will make your journey more meaningful if you understand the history of the places you will be visiting!
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Twilight in the Forbidden City – Reginald Fleming Johnston.
This book was the source of historical information for the first half of the famous movie The Last Emperor. It presents a history of the end of the Qing dynasty and the fall of the boy Emperor Puyi.
This edition has all photos restored and contains a previously unpublished bonus chapter. Two “Living Buddha”s were to be in Beijing at the same time. That is not allowed to happen. How did it get resolved? the bonus Chapter tells how!
The True Story of the Empress Dowager
Der Ling became the First lady-in-waiting to Empress Dowager Cixi, as well as a translator, and was highly trusted by the Empress-Dowager to share many memories and opinions with her.In this fascinating story, Der Ling reveals the history and true story behind the character of the Empress-Dowager Cixi – not the monster of depravity depicted in the popular press. but an aging woman who loved beautiful things and had many regrets about the past.Originally published as “Old Buddha” this thoughtful and well written account reveals the tragic story of the end of the Qing Dynasty, compassionately and truthful told through the articulate writing of a trusted friend.
2. From Peking to Mandalay – Reginald Fleming Johnston
This fascinating illustrated edition details the local traditions and characteristics of China in the early 1900’s. With tales of the mystic monasteries, a 1000 year old monk, and areas not yet open to the modern railway or airplane, Johnston’s writings could easily have been the inspiration for James Hilton’s Lost Horizon. Johnston, who eventually became the tutor to the boy emperor, was district officer and magistrate of Wei-hai-wei, and was well qualified, both linguistically and by travel in other parts of China, to undertake the expedition described in the present work.
3. In Search of Old Peking –
In Search of Old Peking is much more than a classic guide book: it is both a painstakingly constructed portrait of one of the world’s great cities in the 1930’s and a lament for the end of a unique era. L.C. Arlington was an American who had served in the Customs and Postal Administrations since his arrival in China in 1879; William Lewisohn, a British Army officer turned journalist. These unlikely but happy partners had seen Peking at the pinnacle of its glory. This book is the outcome of their determination to record the delights, both major and minor, of the city they had known. The descriptions of the buildings and monuments are set within the wider context of Chinese history and are entertainingly illuminated by anecdotes about northern Chinese life and customs. First published in 1935, this book was regarded as the standard guide to Peking. It remains astonishingly evocative today, for residents and visitors alike.
Forgotten Kingdom
Peter Goullart was brought up in the Orient and spent most of his life there. Forgotten Kingdom describes his years in the ancient forgotten Chinese Kingdom of Nakhi in Yunnan, by the Tibetan border, where, as a representative of the Chinese Industrial Co-operatives, he really mixed with the people and the culture. It is is a book about paradise by a man who lived there for nine years.
It is not easy to write a good book about paradise, but people are Mr. Goullart’s forte, and when he mixes us up with the Nakhis he delivers us up to his idyll. Likiang itself, its sunlight and its owners and its rushing waters, its wine shops and caravans, its glints of danger, its swagger and its happy laughter, is beautifully captured in his story of adapting to and living in the Lijiang culture. “Forbidden Kingdom” is an incredible verbal picture painted by Peter Goullart’s first-hand account of the changes that happened during the 1940’s in the Naxi Chinese area.
4. Hundred Altars – Juliet Bredon
A chronicle of three generations of Chinese life – of Elders born under the Imperial rule and detailed descriptions of the customs and traditions established and followed for centuries, and of their grandsons born to revolution and democracy,
“Hundred Altars” is a village in Northern China, whose inhabitants are presented so convincingly that one recognises first-hand knowledge of the country. Chinese beliefs and customs are dealt with in detail here, yet all as part of a novel full of interplay of character. In this impressive novel, Juliet Bredon penetrates to the soul of that vast country, revealing its people, its customs, its struggles as they have seldom, if ever, been revealed before. Juliet Bredon has, for many years, lived in China, and it is evident that she knows China and understands her deeply.
5. The Moon Year – Juliet Bredon
The Moon Year is a facinating recording the mysterious and somewhat elusive traditions of the Chinese. Juliet 
Bredon and Igor Mitrophanow trace their way through the intimate life of Chinese religion, superstitions, philosophies, customs, and society. Only after a year’s residence in China are the authors able to gather an intimate perspective on this age-old civilization that has withstood the test of time.
Bredon and Mitrophanow unravel some of the puzzles that surround this fascinating culture, through detailed description of the everyday beliefs of the Chinese people and the festivals of their ‘Moon Calendar,’ used as a diary of daily happenings.
As the original printing of this book was in 1927, many of these rites may no longer exist, further emphasizing the importance of Bredon and Mitrophanow’s work. Much of the material for The Moon Year was gathered first-hand from people they met along their journey, as well as from rare Chinese books and texts, resulting in a refreshingly honest exploration of a great civilization.
Buddhist China – Reginald Fleming Johnston
Visiting temples? Develop and understanding of the history of Buddhism in China.
Written in 1913, this book provides a historical perspective on Buddism in China as well as detailed descriptions of legends of the past, the temples in existence in the early 1900’s, and a remarkable sense of insight into the revolutionary times and the impact on Buddhist. Johnston writes dearly of his times in China.
The early chapters of this book deal with the origin and development of some characteristic features of Mahayana Buddhism, especially in respect of the forms assumed by that branch of the Buddhist system in its Chinese environment. The sixth and seventh chapters are concerned with religious pilgrimages in China, and with those sacred mountains which are the homes of Chinese monasticism arid the radiating centres of Buddhist influence. Of these favoured seats of religious activity, the six last chapters contain detailed accounts of two which are taken as typical namely, the holy mountain of Chiu-hua, in the province of Anhui, and the holy island of Puto (Pootoo), off the coast of Chehkiang.
The author is glad to record his grateful appreciation of the unvarying courtesy and hospitality extended to him by the abbots and monks in whose romantic mountain-homes he has spent the happiest days of his fifteen years sojourn in China. Whatever may be the ultimate fate of Buddhism, he earnestly hopes that neither his kindly hosts nor their successors will ever be driven away from the quiet hermitages which they so justly love; and that it may continue to be China’s glory and privilege to provide, amid the forests and crags and waterfalls of her cloistral mountains, homes or resting-places for all pilgrims to the shrines of truth and beauty.
6. The Mystic Art of Pulse Reading in China
Lewis Charles Arlington, (author of In Search of Old Peking) is an American who worked in Beijing at the end of the 
Qing and the beginning of the Republic of China. In this essay he attempted to introduce the subject of Chinese pulses to a western audience. Strictly judging from the medical content of his work, his recitation of the various Chinese pulses is commendable as a quick summary of the basic information on the subject. Although it is not a comprehensive study of pulses that could be used to guide clinical treatment, it provides a glimpse into the vast and complex subject through western eyes.This version of his article had been skillfully edited to remove Arlington’s obvious biases against Chinese medicine and the Chinese culture. By doing so we are left with a text that conveys a basic understanding of pulses that allows the lay person to gain an understanding of this complex field of Traditional Chinese Medicine.