Seven Bamboo Tablets of the Cloudy Satchel

equel to the author's The Wandering Taoist ( LJ 6/1/83) continues the life of Kwan Saihung, his martial arts teacher and Taoist adept. It is China in the 1940s, and Saihung is continuing his study of esoteric Taoism, first as a student at Huashan monastery, then as a martial arts practitioner and actor in Chinese Opera, and finally as disciple of two accomplished masters. The exotic language and action immediately bring to mind Lobsang Rampa and Carlos Castaneda but, despite that caveat, there is much here that serious martial arts devotees will find absorbing. Students of Chinese philosophy will be less keen. Further, the ``Chinese'' English cloys after a few pages: Names like ``Sick Crane''and ``Immortal Turtle'' might best be left in the original; and what on earth is an ``apple hat''? Donald J. Pearce, Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth, Lib.