July 2023 Book Highlights
As of July 2023 I (Richard) am no longer publishing a survey of books each month. At this point in the Martial History Team project, I will highlight only a few books that I read or surveyed in a given period. This is the first post to use this new approach. I have three books to share from July. Chinese Archery, Stephen Selby, 2000 (2003 reprint) Chinese Archery is an impressive book. It features an outstanding integration of translated primary sources, along with the original Chinese text. Despite being a solid resource for domain experts, as a newcomer I was comfortable with the material. I appreciated the author's insights into Chinese culture. Here are a few I highlighted: "It is a tradition in Chinese culture to assign an 'inventor' to objects and activities which are culturally significant. Chinese society shows its respect for certain things by ascribing their invention to some character venerated in Chinese history (or respect for the person by ascribing to