Vegetable Roots Discourse: Wisdom from Ming China on Life and Living Book

"Ming China (1368-1644), a time of political intrigue and financial upheaval, was also a time of astounding accomplishments in art and literature. In 1403, when Gutenberg was seven years old, the Ming encyclopedia, Yongle Dadian (Yung Lo Ta Tien) was begun. Completed five years later, it comprised 22,937 volumes! And around 1590, when Shakespeare finished Henry VI and Edmund Spenser published The Faerie Queen, a hundred years after Columbus "discovered" the New World, an accomplished scholar and philosopher, Hong Zicheng, retired from public life and settled down to write an informal book - a compilation of his thoughts on the essence of life, human nature, and heaven and earth. He wrote other books, now lost, but this one survived, thanks largely to its continuous popularity, first in China and later in Japan and Korea. His book, Caigentan (Vegetable Roots Discourse), has been studied and cherished for four hundred years." A provocative and personal mix of Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian understanding, these 360 observations are direct and timely. Over his life-time, Hong Zicheng continued the work accomplished across centuries in China - integrating Confucian ideals with Daoist and Buddhist thought. He leads us through paths as complex, absurd, and grotesque as life itself.