Synopsis
At once profound, spiritual, and witty, Master of the Three Ways is a remarkable work about human nature, the essence of life, and how to live simply and with awareness. In three hundred and fifty-seven verses, the author, Hung Ying-ming—a seventeenth-century Chinese sage—explores good and evil, honesty and deception, wisdom and foolishness, and heaven and hell. He draws from the wisdom of the “Three Creeds”—Taoism, Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism—to impress upon us that by combining simple elegance with the ordinary, we can make our lives artistic and poetic. This sense, along with a particular understanding of Zen that makes art from the simple in everyday life, has permeated Chinese and Japanese culture to this day.
The work is divided into two books. The first generally deals with the art of living in society and the second is concerned with man's solitude and contemplations of nature. These themes repeatedly spill over into each other, creating multiple levels of meaning.
About Hung Ying-Ming
See more books from this AuthorWorking variations on such classics as Moby-Dick, Robinson Crusoe, and A Wizard of Earthsea, this massively imaginative and frequently playful novel features eccentric characters, amazing monsters, and, at its heart, an intense sense of wonder.
Read Full Review of Master of the Three Ways | See more reviews from Publishers WeeklyClever, funny, exciting, action-packed, jam-packed with a great original worldview, vivid descriptions ...combined with a typically Miévillian narrative style, but what the heck, this is a story, a yarn, just sit back and enjoy a bumpy, thrills and spills ride
Read Full Review of Master of the Three WaysRailsea is a great book that has the potential to be the kind of classic that others will mimic – like Dune and Moby Dick before it.
Read Full Review of Master of the Three WaysOver the past number of years, Miéville has become something of a poster boy for science fiction, and consistently produces some of the finest work in the genre. His latest is a wonderful showcase for an imagination that knows no bounds and has few equals.
Read Full Review of Master of the Three WaysRailsea is ridiculous, but the respect and authority that Miéville gives to his characters in the story therein left me completely enraptured, enamored, and on the edge of my seat wanting more. To me, Railsea was hilarious.
Read Full Review of Master of the Three WaysBecause this is a Mieville, the actual plot is just the tip of the iceberg. Under the waterline is the pandora’s box of the language itself...Mieville surrounds us with his environments instead of just describing them.
Read Full Review of Master of the Three WaysRiveting, clever, and gorgeously realized, this salty sci-fi ferronautical tale is one of the best novels I've read so far this year, YA or otherwise. Not to be missed.
Read Full Review of Master of the Three WaysRailsea feels almost like it does belong on a ‘boy’s own adventure’ shelf with Robert Louis Reviews Stevenson books, but of course, in China Mieville’s deft hands, its appeal is much wider, and its ideas greater and stranger.
Read Full Review of Master of the Three WaysAn aggregated and normalized score based on 10 user ratings from iDreamBooks & iTunes