Beautifully explains the origins of Chinese characters, February 20, 2001
　

If you only have the time and patience to learn forty Chinese characters in your lifetime, you should learn the ones in this book. Concepts such as "spirit", "benevolence", "harmony", "loyalty", and "wisdom" characterize so much of traditional Chinese thought and culture. The authors illustrate each of these characters with beautiful brush and ink calligraphy on rice paper background. There is a short explanation accompanying each character telling why it is written just so. For example the strokes making up the character "love" show us that the word means "breathing into the heart with a gracious motion". The character "enlightenment" shows the two components "sun" and "moon" which together light the world. Students who wish to practise writing these characters can follow the useful stroke order guide next to the explanations. This is a beautiful gift for the student or scholar, or just for those who appreciate Chinese culture.

Beautiful, March 28, 2002
　

This book is wonderful. It was what kinda got me started into the research of Chinese characters and such. Until I read this book I never knew how beautiful and interesting and deep the chinese character is. The stories and describtions just captivate you. The in depth design of every single character and the story behind it is very interesting and fascinating. Though not as long as I would have hoped, I reccomend it.


　

Spirit of the Chinese Character, January 21, 2001
Reviewer: A reader
This beautifully designed book is a little gem. There is a clear breadth of understanding of Chinese culture and language. The text is eloquent and if you are learning to write Chinese characters, the stroke-by-stroke instructions make it seem easy and less intimidating.

good for learning to draw about 40 characters, January 1, 2000
　

great for learning a limited number of characters - 40. step by step illustration to create each character in the order they should be formed. also a brief description of the concept/meaning for each.

The book gave some cool ides for tatoos., April 21, 1999
Reviewer: A reader
I found the book to be a great rep. of what chinese art is like. The meaning are like words we want to hve written know you can write they with a different look to keep people guessing. I now have 4 tatoos that look and mean something cool.

Elegant, poetic, and stimulating, September 1, 1998
　

This fine little book reveals how dozens of chinese characters are assembled from simple graphic ideas. The illustrations engage the learner in an elegant discovery of how characters for love, grace, spirit, destiny and others are drawn. The text accompanying each character is beautifully written. I am really enjoying discovery of chinese with this lovely book.