This month’s reading theme is Japanese history and culture.

Since I am only interested in Japan, and it is not yet possible to study it in depth, the related books selected this month are mainly popular books that are close to the public.

1. A brief history of Japan - from the Stone Age to the rise of superpowers (Kenneth Henshall)

To understand the history of a country, it is best to have an understanding of the overall context. Get a preliminary understanding and build a basic knowledge framework. This can avoid reading a bunch of fragmented knowledge points, which end up scattered all over the place and cannot be organized together.

"A Short History of Japan" is such an introductory book that sorts out the historical context of Japan. It tells the story of Japan's journey from the Stone Age to a world power in a short space of time. The author is a professor of Japanese history in the UK, and his stance is relatively neutral. At the end of each chapter in the book, there is a chapter summary and summary list, which is very helpful for beginners to grasp the key points of knowledge. Overall, this book is not very interesting, but it is concise and clear.

2. The History of Japan for Adults (Tu Fengen)

200,000 words, 30 stories, 400 years of modern Japan.

The author Tu Enfeng is a doctoral candidate in the Department of East Asia at Harvard University and the founder of the website "Stories: History for Everyone". I very much agree with what he said in the preface: For experts in Japanese history, it may not be in-depth enough and too brief; but the presupposition of this book is that it is written for those who are just starting out and do not know this period of history. There are many, but curious readers. I hope that readers will have a rough impression and general understanding of the outline of Japan's modern history after reading this small book. If someone can be moved by a few of the stories and generate some interest, this book will have served its purpose. In-depth and detailed academic monographs are actually not difficult to find, but how many ordinary people want to read them? What we currently lack is this kind of interesting and reliable popular reading.

This is a "brief history", using 200,000 words to tell the story from the Battle of Sekihara to the 3.11 earthquake. The author must make the story clear, straightforward and simple; this is also a "complex history" , the author strives to present a diverse historical landscape in a limited space---in addition to emperors, generals, and business tycoons, he also tells us the stories of the aboriginal people of Hokkaido and Ryukyu, and talks about North Korea, Taiwan, and Northeast China. After being colonized by Japan.

The author said: "This book is written for readers who hope to open up different imaginations about history." I think he did it.

3. Know the sun, know the sun, and understand Japan thoroughly this time (Su Jing)

This is a set of encyclopedias about Japan. In the publisher’s own words, this is "A general humanities course for Chinese young people to get started with Japan." From the history of the Imperial family to the change of prime ministers, from Panasonic, Sony, Toyota to AKB48 Johnny boy band, it should be said that it covers all aspects of Japan. Since the book was written relatively recently (the first volume was published in 2014) and the audience is clearly targeted, the writing style of the entire book is relatively in line with the tastes of today's young people.

I personally like the Zhiri team led by Su Jing. They are really dedicated to promoting Japanese culture. In addition to this series of books, there are also regularly published "Zhiri" mooks. Each issue has a theme, and you can choose to read it based on your area of ??interest.

4. "God's Kingdom" Japan - the absurd decisive battle life (Hayakawa Tadanori)

The current process of Japan's aggressive war, overseas battlefields and the Chinese people's anti-Japanese struggle There are many books, but when Japanese soldiers trample on other people's lands and massacre innocent people overseas, what is the state like in Japan? How did the Japanese government at that time involve the entire country in the war? How did the Japanese people at that time view this war? Relatively speaking, these are relatively unfamiliar to us, and ""God's Country" Japan--Absurd Decisive Life" fills the gap in this area.

Based on a large number of physical photos, the book provides a detailed introduction to many "absurd" remarks made by the government, military and intellectuals during the war. We can see from this that almost all public opinion platforms in Japan at that time were building momentum for the war: newspapers, magazines, textbooks, songs, essays...even unified regulations on people's etiquette and daily wear , is to unify the will of the entire people to serve the war. These propaganda methods that seem extremely "ridiculous" today did affect many people at the time. Even today we can still see many remaining traces, not just in Japan.

Excerpt from a wartime Japanese propaganda quotation:

5. From the end of the Tokugawa period to the Meiji era (Sasaki Katsu)

For many people, the most important part of Japanese history is The most interesting ones are probably the Warring States Period and the end of the Tokugawa Period. This book is about the period from the end of the Tokugawa Period to the Meiji Restoration. The author breaks away from the previous practice of focusing on the "fall of the shogunate" in the history of the shogunate. From the perspective of modern national architecture, the author sorts out the nearly 40 years of history from the end of the shogunate to the Meiji. The two key words of "nationwide consensus" and "treaty revision" are implemented throughout the book. main line.

This book has changed some of my previous inherent views, such as my understanding of "rejection of foreigners" and my evaluation of Tokugawa Kexi. Of course, the statement in the book is not without problems. This requires further in-depth and extended reading to judge, but at least it gives us a different perspective.

6. Dazai Osamu’s face (Li Changsheng)

Li Changsheng has been committed to introducing Japanese culture to the country for nearly 30 years, and is a well-known "Japanese" school. He has been focusing on prose writing for so many years, and has never had any lengthy essays. In his own words: Look at it coldly, talk casually, and please read it easily.

Sanlian Bookstore published 5 volumes of "Long Sheng Gossip" for Li Changsheng, each volume has its own theme. As you can tell from the name of this book, "The Face of Dazai Osamu," the theme is literature, Japanese literature. Personal novels, mystery novels, sensual novels, samurai novels, horror novels...everything is mentioned; Murakami Haruki, Matsumoto Seicho, Nagai Kafeng, Mishima Yukio, Higashino Keigo...everyone has it share.

7. Watching Japan quietly (Xu Jingbo)

Xu Jingbo is a media person who has lived in Japan for many years. He has a very in-depth understanding of Japanese society. It can even be said that he knows Japan well. We need to go far beyond our understanding of China. According to readers who are familiar with him, his Japanese level is also much better than his Chinese level.

This book "A Quiet View of Japan" is a collection of his current reviews, divided into four parts: Sino-Japanese relations, Japanese culture, Japanese politics and Japanese economy. A common problem with most collections of current reviews is that some chapters are obviously timely and seem a bit outdated now, and this book is not exempt from the same. However, the content of the book covers a wide range of areas, the analysis is relatively accurate and the stance is objective. Since the author has a background in China and Japan, he never forgets to compare the situation in Japan with China, so it is still worth taking a look at for general readers.

8. Don’t say you can eat Japanese food (Wanwan/13:00 noon)

Actually, I don’t like eating Japanese food very much, but for the value that Japanese food carries I am quite interested in the cultural meaning and national characteristics. This book can be regarded as a "little encyclopedia of Japanese food", ranging from sushi, tempura, Japanese barbecue, sukiyaki and other dishes, to various ingredients such as salmon, tuna, ayu, hairy crab, wagyu, etc. From various combinations and condiments such as kombu, bonito flakes, soy sauce, and sake, as well as various Japanese dining etiquette, the content can be said to be quite comprehensive.

Some people say that this book is "covering all aspects but hitting the mark", and this evaluation is quite accurate. In fact, for most readers, this kind of "clicking to the end" is just the "right benefit". After all, there are still very few people who aspire to be gourmets.

9. Little Time in Japan (Mi Ya)

Tokyo, Kyoto, Kyushu --- travel texts about Japan, but the content is too thin, that is, on Mafengwo The quality of some travel notes.

10. Lin Zhu's trip to Kansai (Lin Zhu)

A girl who likes eating meat has a trip to Kansai - Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kobe, there is no literary story at all The fresh taste is just enjoying the scenery, watching the bustle and looking for something to eat, it’s simple and fun. The main body of the book is hand-drawn. I really admire this girl who can draw the daily life of travel. The round character style is very endearing.

The text in the book is very simple, so let’s attach a few hand-drawn pictures in the book

11. The Fifth Year in Kyoto (Su Zhenshu)

There is only one book This short book with 24,000 words won the first prize in the non-fiction category of Douban Reading Essay Competition. The daily life of a female international student in Kyoto for five years is as clear and detailed as the author describes the style of "Pillow". Although the text is quite comfortable to read, it is different from what I expected. Except for the last chapter "Mountain Climbing", in fact, the whole story does not reflect much of Kyoto's style.

12. When the coffee is still cold (Kawaguchi Shunkazu)

If a cafe could take you back in time, would you be willing to patronize it? I guess the cafe will be packed.

Wait a minute, traveling to the past is not that simple: first of all, you absolutely cannot change reality; secondly, you only have as long as a cup of coffee goes from hot to cold; thirdly, you cannot leave a fixed location; Fourth, if the person you want to see does not appear in the cafe at that time, then you cannot see him...

Too many restrictions have led to this coffee The business of the museum was not very good.

The book tells four stories, lovers, husband and wife, sisters and mothers and daughters. In fact, none of them can change the unpleasant reality, but after time travel, they can face life with completely different moods. This is what this book is about. This inevitably reminds people of "The Proposal Battle". Jian traveled through time and again, but still failed to change the reality that Li was going to marry someone else. So are these time travels meaningless? Of course not. On the one hand, Jian brought a lot of smiles to the past Li, and more importantly, he made his own feelings clear. Instead of hoping to change the past, it is better to be a different person from now on.

13. Magnificent Life (Kotaro Isaka)

I saw someone regard this book as one of Kotaro Isaka's "three masterpieces" (the other two are "Audubon's Prayer" " and "Golden Dream"), so I came here to watch it, but I was a little disappointed.

Because of an inexplicable case of corpse dismemberment, the life trajectories of five completely unrelated people became intertwined. The author very cleverly disrupted and reassembled the encounters of the five people within a few days. The confusion of the timeline is quite surprising. It can be regarded as a kind of "narrative trick". Although the whole book seems to contain the grand theme of finding the meaning of life, the story itself is not exciting, and both the plot and the characters are too unreasonable. I can only say that there is a reason why Isaka Kotaro is far less famous than Higashino Keigo in China.

A few notes on this month’s theme reading:

1. Among the books selected this month, there are no “Four Books on Japan” that many people talk about (Benedict’s "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", "The Way of the Bushi" by Inzo Nitobe, "On Japan" by Dai Jitao, "The Japanese" by Jiang Baili), partly because I have read these books in the past, and more importantly because these books have been written The time is too early, the content is a bit outdated, and there are obvious limitations of the times. For readers who just want to briefly understand Japan, there is no need to choose such a "classic book".

2. In the current field of popular Japanese history, there are two well-known writers whose books I did not choose: Miro Moro and Sakura Yukimaru. I'm quite interested in Muromeye's "Japan" series and "Words Explaining Japan" series, but I really don't have time, so I can only wait for next time. I chose Sakura Yukimaru's most famous book, "The Strongest History of Japan in History", but after reading a few chapters I couldn't bear it anymore and gave up. The writing and storytelling abilities are really unflattering.

3. Japan’s cultural industry is very developed. There are very good Japanese dramas, animations, movies, NHK documentaries, etc. There is no need to stick to reading books.

In addition to thematic reading this month, I also "freely hunted" 10 books:

1. "The Zen Interests of Speculation--The World under the Vision of the Tantra Sutra" Order" (Xiong Yi)

I paid attention to this person because of the mystery of Xiong Yi's identity. It's a bit incredible to think about it. In this day and age, a person who has published so many books can actually hide his true identity so well. It seems that now that his identity has been revealed, is Su Ying really his vest? The styles of their works are completely different. If this is true, it can only be said that they are indeed masters.

This book is an interpretation of the "Tan Sutra". The author made it very clear at the beginning: Such a book is obviously not suitable for devout Buddhists, but only for those who have a deep understanding of the Buddhist world. Readers who are simply curious and have a pure intellectual interest in Buddhist teachings. Therefore, while interpreting the Tan Sutra and introducing the history of Zen Buddhism, the author also singled out those histories or principles one by one that were obviously self-contradictory or fabricated by later generations from an intellectual perspective. I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but I always feel that the whole book is somewhat ironic from beginning to end.

Everyone says that Huineng's "originally nothing" gatha is better than Shenxiu's, but in what way is it better? Everyone says that "it's not the wind that moves, it's not the flags that move, it's the heart that moves." It's very wonderful, but what's so wonderful about it? Are you sure you're not trying to be clever? Xiong Yi gave detailed explanations about these things based on the historical background and Buddhist principles at that time, which made people sigh a bit "that's how it is."

In fact, Buddhist teachings are still relatively abstract and difficult to understand. The great thing about Xiong Yi is that he is very good at using daily comparisons and explanations in life. Although it is a bit nondescript, it is still very helpful for understanding those concepts.

Since I am not very fond of "A Dream of Red Mansions", I have never watched the famous "Jiang Xun Speaks of Red Mansions". However, I have read many of Jiang Xun's works on art, among which "Meditation of Beauty" is the best, while "History of Western Art for Everyone" and "Jiang Xun's Art Aesthetics Series" are very good introductory books on the history of Western art.

There are eight books in the "Jiang Xun Art Aesthetics Series". I have read five of them before, and I will read the remaining three (Michelangelo, Van Gogh, and Gauguin) this month. Jiang Xun's writing style is always clear and smooth, but what I care about more is the illustrations in the book (which is very important for art books), which are really exquisite. For example, the statue of David in "Jiang Xun Deciphers Michelangelo" not only has large pictures from four angles, front, back, left and right, but also has close-ups of the head and right hand, allowing readers to feel this to the greatest extent. Characteristics of the statue.

2. Jiang Xun deciphered Michelangelo

3. Jiang Xun deciphered the beauty of Van Gogh

4. Jiang Xun deciphered the beauty of Gauguin

(No matter how many interpretations I read, I still feel that Gauguin’s paintings are not good-looking)

5. Self-control

I personally have little interest in this type of book, because most of them Most of the time, we will not change our behavior and habits just because we have read a few books. This is the so-called "understanding a lot of truths, but still not living a good life." But since Ms. Chen’s boss recommended it, she was not willing to read it herself, so I had to read it first and then tell her about it.

The whole book is better than I expected. There is no empty talk about theory, but a so-called "willpower experiment" is set up in each chapter to give readers the opportunity to practice.

One of the more important points in the book is that willpower is not entirely a mental matter, but is also closely related to physiological structure, so we can exercise it consciously.

However, there are also many contradictory statements in the book. The most prominent point is: eating on time, exercising appropriately, and ensuring enough sleep are all conducive to enhancing self-control. But the problem is, these things themselves are manifestations of self-control. Don’t many people feel that they have no self-control because they are completely unable to do these things?

6. The Biography of Chanel (Edmond Charles Roux)

I don’t know much about fashion, but I still know the name Chanel. This book is a typical illustrated biography. It uses a large number of historical photos and has a very intuitive display of the fashion changes in the Chanel era. However, the description of Chanel's growth and rise in the book is quite thin. I feel that after reading the whole book, my understanding of Chanel is still relatively vague. Moreover, there are many descriptions of Chanel’s contemporaries in the book, which may be an attempt to show the style of an era through Chanel’s social network. However, this kind of description often seems unclear. There is less about the interactions with Chanel, but a lot about them themselves, which is completely irrelevant to the theme of the book.

7. A Guide to the Universe’s Salvation (Li Dan)

Master and disciple Kongzhou Chedan take their own small spaceships, from one place to another, to save all kinds of things. The dead, that's their business in the universe. Their spaceship is called Naihe Ship, and their customers call them soul-saving monks.

This is a collection of stories in a very "white rot" style, with various objects being saved: robots, clones, giant pandas, and even planets. While watching it, it reminds me of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", and the author also had the guts to let Comrade Ford make a cameo. Although the setting of the poisonous tongue master and the upright apprentice is cliché, it is indeed interesting, just like Gu Meimen and Dai.

8. People looking for time (Kate Thompson)

Time is becoming increasingly scarce, and everyone is getting busier and busier every day. This should be something that many people feel. But why? The little boy Jiji discovered that it turned out that time was leaked to another world - a world where the passage of time did not exist. He decided to get his time back as a birthday gift for his mother.

The family’s musical inheritance, the protection between family members, the bond between friends... This is a very warm story, and the background of Irish mythology adds a lot of warmth to the whole story. Fantasy colors.

9. Yasao (Three Idiots of Thieves)

In the 40th year of Wanli, from the Zhang family in Shanyin, there was a person named Zhang Yuan who traveled through time.

There are too many similarities in the formulas of time-travel novels. The outstanding feature of "Ya Sao" is that the writing style of "Three Idiots of Thieves" is really good, and the prosperity of the late Ming Dynasty is very tastefully copied. In the words of the Internet, it is: the elegance of "Cai Gen Tan" and the vulgarity of "Jin Ping Mei"; the old monk did business, the courtesan worshiped the Buddha; Yuan Hongdao drank tea and arranged flowers to express his spirit, Li Zhuowu made wine, meditated and continued to burn books; Dong Qichang's calligraphy and painting were outstanding, but The country squire is a bully; Zhang Zongzi, a young dandy, dreams of returning to the West Lake when he is old; elegant people see elegance, and coquettish people see coquettishness.

Although the male protagonist has a golden finger, he still passed the scientific examinations one after another, so the author has obviously put a lot of effort into the art of eight-parted part making. Not to mention anything else, this alone has gained a lot of knowledge. I guess not many people are willing to read monographs on eight-legged essays.

The Three Idiots of the Thieves attach great importance to the Battle of Sarhu. They understand that this battle is a battle that changes the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the first task of the male protagonist is to change the outcome of this battle. As a result, the book came to an abrupt end shortly after the Battle of Sarhu, and not long after the male protagonist entered the court. Although the author has some explanation at the end, believing that the butterfly's wings have already flapped, there is no need to elaborate further. In fact, this explanation is very weak. "Chen Ergou's Life of a Monster" and "Piaomiao Lu" both have similar statements after the end. This does not change the fact that the novel is unfinished at all. Due to the ending, this book is still far inferior to "Guanju Yipin" in my mind.

10. Taipei National Palace Museum (Zhou Bing)

This book is the text version of the CCTV documentary "Taipei National Palace Museum". It mainly tells the story of the national treasures in those turbulent years. The ups and downs of the country, as well as the hardships and hardships of the older generation of experts in protecting these national treasures, will be more profound when watched together with the documentary.