THis is a remarkable inquiry into the history of one family, from the rise of one member 900 years ago - a confucian scholar noticed his fine caligraphy in an exhibition and took him on - to martyrdom in Mao's CHina and the career of the writer as a journalist.

It takes this kind of story sometimes to bring the lessons of history out, in particular the impact of the confucian tradition on a civilisation. The book is peopled with exremely vivid characters, almost all striving to honor their family in the records that survive. To Westerners, the view into an alien and vanished worled is as fascinating as it is surprising. THere are sons who were honored as having true "filial piety" because every day for years they licked the pus out of their mother's wounded knee; the difficult father who ruined the family with gambling and sloth - a typical selfish "Asian man" - only to spur his son to greater effort; the local official who spent a huge part of the family fortune to build a splendid garden for the emperor to see as he passed their home once.

Nonetheless, this history gets a bit lugubrious with detail, particularly personal. SOme of it could only be of interest to members of the immediate family, in my view.

REcommended for those who want a quirky perspective on Chinese history.

Frank Ching has done a remarkable job of tracing his family tree back over 900 years of Chinese history and uncovering the stories of the many notable figures that he found there. I was struck by the continuity of Chinese life over the years and the value placed on remembering and honoring those who have gone before. The individual biographies and the overall picture of Chinese history that emerges are very interesting.

Even though this book claims to be a history of one Chinese family, it is actually a thoughly engrossing history of the China from the viewpoint of the members of one Chinese family -- one that had many famous people thoughout the years. I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand China or Chinese people better.