Asian Dynasties

Age Of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
$29.99
Age of Empires (AOE) III, The Asian Dynasties is just another in a series of excellent games started by Microsoft. Like other modification to older AOE series games, the Asian Dynasties expands upon the older platform by providing more civilizations to choose from, as well as creating consulates, where alliances are made between different countries. New maps and game scenarios also aid in creating variety for game-play. Finally, as with all of the AOE games, the level of historical accuracy of the combat units is impressive. Anyone looking to pit old civilizations against each other in small scale combat will enjoy this game.

How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China (Studies in East Asian Buddhism)
$48.00
How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China

by Morten Schlutter

Studies in East Asian Buddhism, No. 22
Published in association with the Kuroda Institute

In this masterpiece of modern Zen scholarship, Morten Schlutter presents a vastly important and astonishingly thorough account of the historical evidence of How Zen became Zen. While a number of studies in recent decades have revealed that the "traditional history" of Zen's (Chan's) "Golden Age" in Tang era China was actually retrospectively created in the Song Dynasty, Morten Schlutter's "How Zen became Zen" is the first book to offer a thorough explanation, complete with a detailed analysis on how and why this occurred.

By gathering together all of the various groundbreaking discoveries of Zen scholarship in recent decades, augmented by an extensive range of previously ignored source materials and weaving it together with his own profound insight and knowledge, Schulutter offers a rich tapestry that is both meticulous and accessible.

In a meticulous, step by step presentation, Schlutter offers the reader all of the recent discoveries and reveals the wide range of influencing factors. Drawing on a vast array of original sources, Schlutter leaves no rock unturned. By exploring sources from competing `schools' to governmental policies, from monastic institutions, to Chinese literati, from recently unearthed texts in Northern China to epithets of Zen masters, readers are shown how and why Chinese Buddhism culminated in the astonishingly original and distinctive form of Buddhism known as "Zen" (Chan).

This book is essential reading (as well as reference) for all serious Zen students/practitioners.

From the Flaps:

How Zen Became Zen takes a novel approach to understanding one of the most crucial developments in Zen Buddhism: the dispute over the nature of enlightenment that erupted within the Chinese Chan (Zen) school in the twelfth century. The famous Linji (Rinzai) Chan master Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163) railed against "heretical silent illumination Chan" and strongly advocated kanhua (koan) meditation as an antidote. In this fascinating study, Morten Schl���tter shows that Dahui's target was the Caodong (Soto) Chan tradition that had been revived and reinvented in the early twelfth century, and that silent meditation was an approach to practice and enlightenment that originated within this "new" Chan tradition. Schl���tter has written a refreshingly accessible account of the intricacies of the dispute, which is still reverberating through modern Zen in both Asia and the West. Dahui and his opponents' arguments for their respective positions come across in this book in as earnest and relevant a manner as they must have seemed almost nine hundred years ago.

Although much of the book is devoted to illuminating the doctrinal and soteriological issues behind the enlightenment dispute, Schl���tter makes the case that the dispute must be understood in the context of government policies toward Buddhism, economic factors, and social changes. He analyzes the remarkable ascent of Chan during the first centuries of the Song dynasty, when it became the dominant form of elite monastic Buddhism, and demonstrates that secular educated elites came to control the critical transmission from master to disciple ("procreation" as Schl���tter terms it) in the Chan School.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Chan Buddhism in the Song: Some Background
2. The Chan School and the Song State
3. Procreation and Patronage in the Song Chan School
4. A New Chan Tradition: The Reinvention of the Caodong Lineage in the Song
5. A Dog Has No Buddha-Nature: Kanhua Chan and Dahui Zonggao's Attacks on Silent Illumination
6. The Caodong Tradition as the Target of Attacks by the Linji Tradition
7. Silent Illumination and the Caodong Tradition
Conclusion
Notes
Caodong Lineage
Linji Lineage
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Kathy Ireland Asian Dynasty Ceramic Ginger Jar Table Lamp
$254.99
From the Kathy Ireland Asian Dynasty collection comes this ceramic table lamp finished in creamy beige. Faux bamboo accents and deep walnut finished base add just the right contrast. Takes one 150 watt 3-way bulb (not included). 30" high. Shade measures 9" across the top, 18" across the bottom, 11 1/2" high.

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))
$19.99
This book is not very helpfull. I don't know why they are using "Brady Games" instead of Sybex, but it was a bad choice.

The information listed in this book can all be found in the game itself. Unlike previous strategy guides which at least provide you with statistics on imporvements, such as percentages on economic upgrades. Plus, there are several mistakes.

If you want a quick reference guide for some in-game information then go ahead and buy it. But don't expect to learn anything you don't already know.