蔡志忠漫画图书已经在44个国家出版，销售达到4000万册。中英文版蔡志忠漫画共10个品种，本书是其中的一册，蔡志忠用他独特而富有吸引力的画风，将中国古代典籍中博大精深的思想深入浅出地呈现给您。儒家构建和谐社会的智慧、道家崇尚自然与自由的智慧、兵家不战而胜的智慧……通过他画笔下一个个鲜活、有趣、生动的形象得到简明、精确、通俗的阐释。和以往出版物不同的是，这套丛书画面上的人物对话和情节说明全部是英文，边框里保留了古汉语原文，既满足了国外读者和英语学习者的阅读需要，也最大程度地保存了古代著作的文字精华，具有文学参考价值和收藏价值。

中国早期思想家的著作影响了中国文化和社会的方方面面，从教育到艺术，从政治和战争到日常礼节。广受欢迎的漫画家蔡志忠先生一直致力于用他独特而富有吸引力的画风将这些古代经典著作的智慧带入生活。这一中国传统思想系列漫画映射出历史上伟大思想家们的光辉；包括：

●孔子说  ●孟子说  ●菜根谭  ●六朝怪谈

●老子说I  ●论语  ●列子说  ●世说新语

●老子说II  ●韩非子说  ●聊斋志异  ●六祖坛经

●孙子说  ●庄子说I  ●史记

●禅说  ●庄子说II  ●大学·中庸

蔡志忠先生最早是因为他获奖的多部动画电影和每日连载漫画引起大众的关注的。在长期的自学之后，蔡志忠先生将创作方向转移到经典著作上。作品广受评论家的好评并快速成为畅销书。蔡先生的书已被美国知名出版社如，Princeton University Press和Knop出版。Brian Bruya是此系列书美国版的译者，拥有夏威夷大学比较哲学的博士学位。他是中国早期哲学研究领域的专家和翻译，同时还是一个关子中国哲学研究的网站“书海文苑”的总编辑。

The Roots of Wisdom

  Part the First

Know the flavor within the plain

See the wonder within the common

Urgency in leisure

Leisure in toil

In plainness is ambition realized

In richness is integrity compromised

Opened wide before you

Enduring kindness after

On a path, yield a step

In tasting, share a bite

Chivalry. in making friends

Purity in living life

To retreat is to advance

To give is to receive

Arrogance negates achievement

Repentance annuls misdeeds

Movement and stillness in harmony

are the Dao's genuine body 

Those of coaches and crowns

wish for woods and springs.

Those of hills and woods yearn for halls and temples

Do not let industry become drudgery

Do not treat others with indifference

Know to retreat a step

Try to yield a bit

Do not despise the underling

Treat the gentleman with propriety

Transcending heaven and earth

Entering among fame and fortune 

Cultivating virtue takes forgetting fame

Acquiring knowledge requires a mind of depth

The ways of truth and deceit reside in a single thought

Forget achievement but not transgressions

Forget blame hut not kindness 

An evil person's learning

Serves to abet evil

Long for sageliness in learning, practice what you preach.

Care for the people when in office,

cultivate virtue in your career.

The delight of joy is often found in the midst of hardship.

The pang of disappointment

comes in times of fulfillment

Modesty brings benefit

Complacency. courts danger

Do not envy eminence

Do not dread hunger

A hidden evil is a cardinal evil

A flaunted good is a minor good

A country, prospers through worry and toil

The self is lost through idle leisure

A single thought of selfish greed

A thousand pains without return

If the master of the mind is on alert

The bandits six shall show no trace

Pushing the present enterprise

Planning for future success

Not caught up in material things

Not keeping the sounds and shadows

Tranquillity amid tumult is genuine

tranquilhty

Pleasure amid hardship is genuine pleasure

Strive to cultivate achievement and virtue

Do not covet power and status

A perfect essay takes no nnnsual skill

A perfect character is simply natural

Life does not endure

So do not live in vain

When grasping hold of plenty

A gentleman treads lightly

Turn your eyes to the big view

Turn your hands to the details

Love too heavy turns to hate

A meager jot can turn to joy

Do not open up to the devious

Do not say much to the arrogant

Forbear much

Reveal little

People are microcosms of the universe

The universe is the parent of people

Family ethics are innate

Without the need for pride or thanks

Gone with the praise of beauty

Goes insult of the unsightly

Virtue should guide talent

without talent shirking virtue

Do not pursue a desperate enemy

Careful the object you throw at a mouse 

To flock to power and influence is common to human nature

Observe with a cool eye

Do not rashly vent your spleen

When the human heart is unresolved

The moral mind is indistinct

It is the wonder of natural transformations

That cannot be matched by human ingenuity              

When the clouds are gone, the moon appears

When the dust is cleared,the mirror shines

Bravely retreat in rapid currents

Struggle not against the world

Better to have plain simplicity than elaborate embellishment

Better to recount the ancients than discuss the moderns

Cultivating virtue within yourself is the foundation of successfid endeavor

with a good heart, children and grandchildren prosper

with strong roots, leaves and branches flourish

Do not be quick to belittle yourself

  Do not boast or act arrogantly

The Dao is a public thing

Learning is a home-cooked meal

Be severe with yourself and lenient toward others

People's feelings are warm and cold

The world's attitude is hot and cool

A mind of compassion

A motive for life

In office, fairness and integrity

At home, tolerance and thrift

In prosperity, understand poverty

In stability, think about peril

Do not antagonize the petty one

Do not flatter the gentleman

The vicissitudes of life are not worth dwelling on

Parties and pleasure, music and lust, reputation and status

Several things to be approached with temperance

Observe others coolly

Conduct affairs intelligently

A frenzied nature injures the world

Peace and harmony invite blessings

Do not immediately accept rumored evil

Do not immediately approach rumored good

Severity drives away good people

Carelessness invites wicked friends

Do not make blithe promises or lose your temper

Do not meddle in others' affairs or fail to finish

Closely guard the mouth

Staunchly check ambition

Neither troubled in hardship

Nor fearful of authority

The Roots of Wisdom

 Part the Second

Talkers rarely pay attention to actions

Debaters don't necessarily understand

Doing nothing with nothing to do

Carefree playing in purest leisure

The confines of the world are created by us

Taking joy in nature's delights

Stunning views are never far

The mind quiet, original substance appears

The water clear, the moon's reflection shines

Better to see the interior than know the exterior

The spirit employed always

 beats the form employed

The heart free of desire quiets heaven and earth

A home with books and music becomes a magic kingdom

The wonder of knowing the mysteries

The wisdom of seeing delight

The myriad appearances are empty illusions

The enlightened person must have comprehension

In the bubble that is life

Why fight over fame and fortune 

Narrow or broad, short or long ,they're all from the thoughts of the mind

I make friends with the leisurely clouds and take the scenery as my home

Recluses have no honor or disgrace

Morality knows neither hot nor cold 

The reclusive one is intelligent

Reducing tasks brings peace

To transcend splendor and solitude

To be at comfort anywhere

Enlightened ones have no attachments

Quiet and calm make no difference

Understanding is found in simplicity.

Enlightenment isn't far away 

Movement and stillness come with ease

Leaving and entering without obstruction 

Holding on means a sea of suffering

Letting go means a land of paradise

Sleeping and playing in nature

Escaping the dusty world   

A world among clouds

A universe in tranquilhty    

No hope for splendor

No fear of power

An inspirational environment

Attuning the mind, cultivating the spirit

Better the brisk air of autumn

  than the vibrancy of spring

Achieve the true sentiments of a poet

Realize the mysterious truths of Zen

An image is born, issued from the mind

An image is gone, following the mind

Coming and going at will

Dissolved in confident ease

An acquisitive mind breeds deviant thoughts

A vacuous mind breeds decent thoughts

The wealthy have many worries

The noble have many dangers

Live life hke flowing water, drooping flowers

The body and mind must always be at ease

Living in the world, forget the world

Transcending things, enjoy nature

Life itself does not endure

How can prosperity he counted on

Scorn or favor brings no surprise

Going or staying makes no difference

The sea of suffering is vast and far

Turn your head to the other shore

Seeking the Buddha on the inside

Spurning the dharmas on the outside

In the charm of the wilds and places replete

Poetical springs well up from inside

Live in the world, transcend the world

The True Emptiness is not empty

Praise and slander, libel and fame

Resigned to all the world can give 

He who knows his original nature has no patience for talk of Zen

The genuine leaves not the illusory

The refined leaves not the mundane 

A blanket of straw and vegetables plain nourish a natural harmony

To cut off all your worries

A sunny breeze, an after-rain moon

Minding the body and mind

Freedom in indulgence and restraint

Nature and the mind

Harmonize as one

Winner and loser, beautiful and ugly are just momentary illusions

Good and had fortune, suffering and joy

There is only the difference of a single thought

With quiet patience and constant

discipline

A foot of iron is ground into a pin

After a rain, the mountains seem fresh

In the night, a bell rings clear

Snowstorm studying purifies the spirit

Hilhop vistas expand the mind 

A thousand gallons, a single hair

Each exists witbin the mind

Understand the self based on the self

Allow for things to take care of themselves

Do not over work yourself

Enjoy the beauty of nature

A passing wind, the moon's reflection

Leave and then are gone

On reaching fullness, the moon wanes

One who reaches fulfillment abstains

Grasp the essentials and move gout freely

Transcend sensual desires

Achieve life' s delights