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阿富汗 AFGHANISTAN

（以前称为呼罗珊）

(Formerly known as Khorasan)
Pata Khazana – 隐藏的宝藏，用普什图语写成，是一本普什图诗歌选集，其根源可能可以追溯到大约 8 世纪。

Pata Khazana – The Hidden Treasure, written in Pashto, is an anthology of Pashto poetry, which may have roots going back to about the 8th Century.

Amir Kror Suri（卒于 771 年）也被称为 Jahan Pahlawan，是 Ghor 的第一任国王，根据 Peta Khazana 的说法，他是一位著名的战士，也是普什图语的第一位诗人。Amir Kror Suri (d. 771) also known as Jahan Pahlawan was the first king of Ghor, and according to the Peta Khazana was a renowned fighter, and first poet in the Pashto language.

Khattak 的 Khushal Khan – 战士和诗人出生于 Hijrah (ACE) 1613 的 1022 年
Khushal Khan of the Khattak – Warrior and poet was born in the year 1022 of the Hijrah (ACE) 1613

由于亚美尼亚教会几个世纪以来为根除“异教传统”所做的共同努力，在 4 世纪初亚美尼亚基督教化之前的最古老的亚美尼亚文学传统中，只有少数残片得以幸存。 基督教亚美尼亚文学始于大约 406 年，梅斯罗普发明了亚美尼亚字母，目的是将圣经书籍翻译成亚美尼亚语。

亚美尼亚 Armenia

Only a handful of fragments have survived from the most ancient Armenian literary tradition preceding the Christianization of Armenia in the early 4th century due to centuries of concerted effort by the Armenian Church to eradicate the “pagan tradition.” Christian Armenian literature begins about 406 with the invention of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop for the purpose of translating Biblical books into Armenian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_literature
Grigor Narekatsi 951 – 1011 (translated by Thomas J. Samuelian) http://www.armenianhouse.org/grigor-narekatsi/tenets.html
http://www.stgregoryofnarek.am/
Armenian Poems http://www.armenianhouse.org/blackwell/armenian-poems/grigor-narekatsi.html

阿塞拜疆 Azerbaijan

“The 7th century epic (dastan), the “Book of Dede Qorqud” (Kitabi Dədə Qorqud), written in Azerbaijani, remains an original source for the culture and history of the Azerbaijani people. This dastan describes in 12 tales the struggle for freedom and independence by the Oghuz Turks, the ancestors of Azerbaijanis. Currently, two original manuscripts of the dastan are preserved in the Vatican Library and in the Saxon State Library in Dresden.

The “Book of Dede Qorqud” in English can be downloaded from:
https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://media.turuz.com/Turkologi/Dedekorkut/2011/20-Book_of_Dede_Qorqud-ingilisce(51)(253KB).pdf (Registration is required.) Amazing and powerful stories of the ancient world, love and treachery, honor and sacrifice; a treasury of stories of the real Silk Road.

https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/the-book-of-dede-korkut

中国 CHINA

The Hundred Schools of Thought (諸子百家/诸子百家) is the name given to philosophers and schools that flourished from 770 to 221 B.C.E., an era of great cultural and intellectual expansion in China. It is also known as the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy because a variety of thoughts and ideas were freely developed and discussed. Below is a short list of some of the most famous 100 Schools of Thought.

孟子（公元前 371-289 年）或孟子。 他的工作的一个主要原则是人性是正义的和人道的。 公民对统治者政策的反应体现了这一原则，一个有正义和仁慈政策的国家自然会繁荣。 公民有自由，有良好的统治，就会有时间照顾他们的妻子、兄弟、长辈和孩子，受到礼节教育，自然会成为更好的公民。Mencius (371–289 BC), or Mengzi, who formulated his teachings directly in response to Confucius. One primary principle of his work is that human nature is righteous and humane. The responses of citizens to the policies of rulers embodies this principle, and a state with righteous and humane policies will flourish by nature. The citizens, with freedom from good rule, will then allocate time to caring for their wives, brothers, elders, and children, and be educated with rites and naturally become better citizens.

Taoism or Daoism (道家; Dàojiā; Tao-chia; “School of the Way”) developed into the second most significant stream of Chinese thought. Its formulation is often attributed to the legendary sage Laozi (“Old Master”), who is said to predate Confucius, and Zhuangzi (369–286 BC). Painting on right: “The subject deals with the story of Laotzu riding an ox through a pass. It is said that with the fall of the Chou dynasty, Laotzu decided to travel west through the Han Valley Pass. The Pass Commissioner, Yin-hsi, noticed a trail of vapor emanating from the east, deducing that a sage must be approaching. Not long after, Laotzu riding his ox indeed appeared and, at the request of Yin-hsi, wrote down his famous Tao-te ching, leaving afterwards. This story thus became associated with auspiciousness.”

Mozi Photo of paining by Vjacheslav Rublevskiy, CC0

Mozi taught that everyone is equal in the eyes of heaven. He believed that the decision of who is in power should be based on meritocracy, or those who are worthy of power should receive power. Mozi invoked heaven and called upon the Sage Kings to support his precedents. Mozi’s philosophy emphasized universal love, social order, the will of heaven, sharing, and honoring the worthy. During the Warring States period, Mohism was actively developed and practiced in many states, but later fell out of favor when the legalist Qin dynasty came to power in 221 BCE.

– The Art of War by Sun Tzu (Sunzi)

• Lionel Giles translation is most famous. Free download here.
• Samuel Griffith translation can be downloaded here.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is traditionally attributed to Luo Guanzhong, a playwright who lived sometime between 1315 and 1400 (late Yuan to early Ming period) known for compiling historical plays in styles which were prevalent during the Yuan period.

The story begins like this: In You Province, a man named Liu Bei saw a poster recruiting men who could join a volunteer army to surpress the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Liu Bei was of the Imperial Family, but his father died when he was young and he was very poor, living off selling straw sandals. He sighed, thinking that he could not do anything. A man named Zhang Fei heard the sigh and questioned Liu Bei furiously why he had sighed. Liu Bei and Zhang Fei expressed their thoughts about wanting to join. United by a common cause, they went to the bar to drink and met another like-minded soul in Guan Yu. The three of them then became sworn brothers. Due to their ages, Liu Bei became the eldest, Guan Yu the second and Zhang Fei the youngest.

This book has it has a total of 800,000 words and nearly a thousand dramatic characters (mostly historical) in 120 chapters. The novel is among the most beloved works of literature in East Asia, and its literary influence in the region has been compared to that of the works of Shakespeare on English literature.

Corruption in government leads a group of men to become outlaws though they remain forever loyal to the emperor. This is an all too real novel with extraordinary characters, settings, action and drama.

Those who haven’t fallen in love with reading, might do so reading this book. A free PDF version can be downloaded here.

Journey to the West (西遊記; pinyin: Xī Yóu Jì) is a Chinese fantasy novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng’en. The story is about “Stone Money” (Sun Wu Kong) who accompanied Silk Road traveler Xuanzang to India to collect Buddhist scriptures. This is a great novel for young readers to jump from a low-intermediate level to life-long reader.

Free download here.

Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou Meng) is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century.

Honglou meng is a book about enlightenment [or awakening]. … A man in his life experiences several decades of winter and summer. The most sagacious and wise is certainly not submerged in considerations of loss and gain. However, the experiences of prosperity and decline, coming together and dispersing [of family members and friends] are too common; how can his mind be like wood and stone, without being moved by all this?  - A commentary on the novel by writer Jiang Shunyi, dated 1869

Qu Yuan (343 BC-278) was unquestionably one of the greatest poets in world history. He was author of the anthology Chu Ci, or Songs of the South, and Shi Jing, or Classic of Poetry, also called the Book of Songs, though perhaps his most famous poem was “The Lament” which admonishes corruption. After his exile upon the order of the king, he is said to have committed suicide by way of jumping in a river to protest corruption.

Cao Cao was the antagonist in the classic book “Romance of the Three Kingdoms referred to above. And yet 1) he was the ultimate victor of those wars and he and his progeny went on to become China’s emperors, and 2) in China he is revered without rancor alongside the three heroes he ultimately defeated. http://kongming.net/poetry/caocao/

辞别杜副省长赴蜀 Farewell To Vice-Prefect Du Setting Out For His Official Post In Shu
By Wang Bo
“By this wall that surrounds the three Qin districts,
Through a mist that makes five rivers one,
We bid each other a sad farewell,
We two officials going opposite ways….
And yet, while China holds our friendship,
And heaven remains our neighborhood,
Why should you linger at the fork of the road,
Wiping your eyes like a heart-broken child?” https://www.chinawhisper.com/top-10-most-influential-chinese-poems-in-history/

Even his biography is poetic:
“A Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty, Li Po (also known as Li Bai, Li Pai, Li T’ai-po, and Li T’ai-pai) was probably born in central Asia and grew up in Sichuan Province. He left home in 725 to wander through the Yangtze River Valley and write poetry. In 742 he was appointed to the Hanlin Academy by Emperor Xuanzong, though he was eventually expelled from court. He then served the Prince of Yun, who led a revolt after the An Lushan Rebellion of 755. Li Po was arrested for treason; after he was pardoned, he again wandered the Yangtze Valley. He was married four times and was friends with the poet Tu Fu.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/li-po
http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?no=-1&l=Tangshi&auteur=Li_Bai
http://www.chinese-poems.com/lb.html

A very useful article for students of Zen Buddhism is: “How to think with Chan Gōng​’àn” (如何用 禅公案 思考 禅公案 ) by Robert H. Sharf, in a book titled: 案例思考——中国文化史专业知识 Thinking with Cases – Specialist Knowledge in Chinese Cultural History, Edited by Charlotte Furth, Judith T. Zeitlin, and Ping-chen Hsiung, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 2007. 您可以从这里索取全文： You can request the full-text from here. I did and received a free copy.

“Georgian literature starts with the fifth century hagiographic work, The Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik. The hagiographic works, historical chronicles and hymns are followed by that gem of twelfth century secular literature The Knight in the Panther’s Skin. It anticipates the historical-cultural epoch of the fourteenth to fifteenth century, the European Renaissance with its humanistic ideals, and furthermore, contemporary European ideas (“The lion’s whelps are equal, be they male or female”).

The Rāmāyana is a Sanskrit epic composed in India over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars’ estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE,[4][5] and later stages extending up to the 3rd century CE. Ramayana is one of the two important epics of Hinduism, the other being the Mahābhārata. The epic, traditionally ascribed to the Maharishi Valmiki, narrates the life of Rama, a legendary prince of Ayodhya city in the kingdom of Kosala. The epic follows his fourteen-year exile to the forest urged by his father King Dasharatha, on the request of Rama’s stepmother Kaikeyi; his travels across forests in the Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana – the king of Lanka, that resulted in war; and Rama’s eventual return to Ayodhya to be crowned king amidst jubilation and celebration. This is one of the great classics of world philosophy and literature.

犍陀罗佛教典籍是迄今发现的最古老的佛教手稿，可追溯到公元前 1 世纪至公元 3 世纪，也是最古老的古印度手稿。 它们代表了现今巴基斯坦西北部和阿富汗东部的犍陀罗佛教文献，并以犍陀罗语书写。

The Gandhāran Buddhist texts are the oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered, dating from about the 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE, and are also the oldest ancient Indian manuscripts. They represent the literature of Gandharan Buddhism from present-day northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan, and are written in Gāndhārī.

“The ancient roots of yoga philosophy and  practice lean on three main texts: The Bhagavad Gita, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and The Hatha Yoga Paradipika. The latter two are the primary source for the practical knowledge of the Yoga technique.” https://www.sirayoga.com/three-ancient-texts/