One written word is worth a thousand pieces of gold / Adeline Yen Mah.

Includes index.

"A memoir of China's past through its proverbs"--Dust jacket.

Includes index.

Loss of one hair from nine oxen -- Precious treasure worth cherishing -- One written word is worth a thousand pieces of gold -- Binding your feet to prevent your own progress -- Clapping with one hand produces no sound -- When the map is unrolled, the dagger is revealed -- Burning books and burying scholars -- Words that would cause a nation to perish -- Pointing to a deer and calling it a horse -- Little sparrows with dreams of swans -- Destroying the cooking cauldrons and sinking the boats -- This young man is worth educating -- Banquet at wild goose gate -- Dressed in the finest brocades to parade in the dark of night -- Plot to sow discord and create enmity -- The heart of the people belongs to Han -- The human heart is difficult to fathom -- Devising strategies in a command tent.

A personal account and lively history of 1st-century China, from when most Chinese proverbs are drawn, when a scholar's conversation would be studded with appropriate sayings, and a man's status in society would be defined by his use and knowledge of proverbs. Much of this is still true today.