With annotations by Chen Zhi, a well known modern scholar of Chinese garden design, readers gain insight into the historical and cultural context of instructions such as, 'The wooden cross-piece of the door frame should have a strip of speckled bamboo nailed horizontally across it either with two or four nails, never six.'

Lavishly illustrated with famous Chinese paintings and photographs of Chinese gardens, furniture, and objets d'art, readers can immerse themselves in Chinese culture, history, and values, and perhaps even learn to appreciate the everyday objects in their own lives.

With the pace of modern life, we often don't stop to appreciate the little things in life. Everyday objects go unnoticed and are continuously under-appreciated. However, these individual elements come together to form a larger picture - one that defines our lifestyle.