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[Boydie]

I'm getting a Kindle for my Christmas so I'm wondering if you guys can suggest some good books about anything on the Three Kingdoms,  I noticed Romance of the Three Kingdoms is selling for about £2 in the Amazon Store, so that will be one of my first buys for the Kindle since I've never read it.

Any suggestions?

[Nick]

read it for free at threekingdoms.com!

[Boydie]

I know I can read it for free online; but I don't enjoy reading novels on my laptop screen, plus its very cheap. So its win win for me.

[Yue Fei]

Look for (though I don't know if there are any e-book versions), for the multiple books by Ralph D. Sawyer.

Some specific ones would be;

The Tao of Deception
Seven Military Classics
Sun Bin's The Art of Warfare

[Nick]

I actually read part of the tao of deception.  I found the part on Zhuge Dan to be particularly interesting.

[Yue Fei]

I actually read part of the tao of deception.  I found the part on Zhuge Dan to be particularly interesting.

Yeah, I thought so too. There's quite a lot more in the entire book, and it's quite amazing how warfare goes from unconventional tactics becoming conventional, and former conventional tactics become unconventional throughout China's history.

There's quite a lot of creativity in the way stratagems are set up by numerous different generals. The part about Li's Black Crows during the later Tang dynasty is also very interesting as well.

In my opinion, Ralph D. Sawyer is the premiere military historian concerning Chinese warfare. Also, do you remember Yun from CHF? I remember him saying that he was planning to write a book concerning the Age of Fragmentation. I'm attempting to find out if he has written it, or is working on it. If he has, I'll let you know.

Another good book to pick up (but new copies are rare I believe, or non-existent and used copies are fairly pricey), is

"Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery and Siege Weapons of Antiquity, an Illustrated History" by Leong Kit Meng. He was another member at CHF, who went by the username Liang Jieming. As an engineer, he has quite a lot of knowledge of siege weapons, and this book is quite detailed.

If you can find it, it's definitely a great investment to have (and if you can find it brand new at it's original price of $29.99, that's even better. I believe there are some places which still have it). The other option would be to potentially contact Leong Kit Meng, and see if you could purchase one direct from him. Although it may take a while to be delivered since it will be shipped from Singapore.

[Boydie]

I could only find "Seven Military Classics" in the eBook store unfortunately. But I have suggested to Amazon to make these books available to the eBook market, luckily they have said they would contact the Author to ask if they could become available on the eBook store.

I found "Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery and Siege Weapons of Antiquity, an Illustrated History" on Amazon too, but its selling at £195. So I might give that a miss just now lol.

I seen this eBook too: "The Essence Of War: Leadership And Strategy From The Chinese Military Classics." Has anyone read that? I know its not about the three kingdom era but it looks interesting.

[Yue Fei]

Yeah, Chinese Siege Warfare is great, but £195 is hard to justify (especially at this time of the year). I'll do some more looking, and if I can find it at it's original price, I'll be sure to let you know.

As for "The Essence of War: Leadership And Strategy From The Chinese Military Classics", It's a good book, but it is primarily a book of quotations from other Military works. It's great for that purpose, but it's not a comprehensive book about strategy in general.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Hundred-Unorthodox-Strategies-Tactics/dp/0813328616/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_5

This one might be more what you're looking for. And the good news is that it is in kindle format.

[Boydie]

Yeah, Chinese Siege Warfare is great, but £195 is hard to justify (especially at this time of the year). I'll do some more looking, and if I can find it at it's original price, I'll be sure to let you know.  

Thank you Yue Fei, please do.

I will have a look at the book you suggested too, once I get my Kindle I'll have a lot of reading about the history of the Royal Navy and Chinese history too lol. I've grown a particular interest in the first and second Opium war, especially the naval combat between the Royal Navy and Qing Dynasty and how Lord Elgin almost ordered the destruction of the Forbidden City, only to change his mind and burn down the Summer Palaces as punishment. So yeah, I'm interested in that side of the Opium war too lol.

[Kong Rong]

I would very highly recommend Farmer's book about Qiao Zhou and the intellectual currents of Shu-Han. David A. Graff also wrote a book that deals with the military side of things from the Wei dynasty into the Tang. Anything by Dr. Rafe de Crespigny is worth looking at. Lastly, Killigrew has articles on the Fall of Shu-Han, Zhuge Liang's Northern Campaigns and otherwise. They are worth a look...

Yue Fei, would you mind elaborating upon Sawyer's Tao of Deception? You've piqued my interest substantially--to the point where I registered onto this forum to learn a bit more. I'm also eager to know if you've learned anything about Yun from CHF. I've followed his posts on that board for years. I would pick up a book by the man on Day 1.