The Art of Self Cultivation and The Art of Attainment, contain some 500 individual quotations respectively, drawn from over 2,000 years of Chinese history. Quotations range from the early philosophers such as Confucius and the Daoist philosopher Li Er, to early historians like Ban Gu and Sima Qian, through the poets and officials of the brilliant Tang and Song dynasties and on to the writers that flourished in the 17th to 19th centuries. The Art of Self Cultivation addresses individual behavior and conduct from the essentials of character such as morality, through activities like the acquisition of knowledge.
