Handbook of Chinese Mythology

Compiled from ancient and scattered texts and based on revelatory new research, Handbook of Chinese Mythology is the most comprehensive English-language work on the subject ever written from an exclusively Chinese perspective.||This work focuses on the Han Chinese people but ranges across the full ethnic spectrum of ancient and modern China, showing how key myths endured and evolved over time. A quick reference section covers all major deities, spirits, and demigods, as well as important places (Kunlun Mountain), mythical animals and plants (the crow with three feet; Fusang tree), and appurtenances (Xirangoa kind of mythical soil; Bu Si Yaoomythical medicine for long life). No other work captures so well what Chinese mythology means to the people who lived and continue to live their lives by it.