'The Master Swordsman & The Magic Doorway: Two Legends from Ancient China' is a retelling of the two aforementioned myths. Alice Provensen is the illustrator and the one who reimagined both The Master Swordsman and The Magic Doorway. Every culture and its people have their own legends that helps to keep their ways passed down to each generation. For others unfamiliar with the culture it shows us what is important to them. The Master Swordsman about the ancient tale of a boy from a terrorized village seeking help from a master. He is the only one who steps up and goes on a long journey in search for this master. The master tells him he will not train him, but he can use help in his chores. The master is constantly and randomly throws objects the boy's way. The boy is constantly hit by these items for years until one day he learns to anticipate and dodge them. The boy learned what it meant to never give up. He learns more than what he had originally come to the master for and learns about why it is strong to not have to always use force. The Magic Doorway is about a famous painter in all of ancient China, Mu Chi, brought to an emperor's palace to paint his hearts desire using a gigantic canvas, which is a wall longer than a hundred feet. Mu Chi spends years on this piece and he'show the emperor loves his art so much that he wants no one else to have this kind of work repeated for them, only himself. He plans to kill the painter once finished, but in the beautiful painting of mountains, streams, trees and animals, that looks so real it all looks to come alive, Mu Chi leaves a door. Mu Chi is not willing to let someone as selfish as the emperor to kill him just so he can show of the painter's masterpiece. He escapes through this magical door he's painted on his living tapestry and is able to continue spreading beauty and magic throughout ancient China. ( )

Book Description: NY: Simon & Schuster, 2001. First printing. Fine in a fine dust jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" Tall Oblong. MISPRINTED copy

-->>This book is a misprint. The cover of this fine book is printed upside down and backward to the text inside the book.