\ BooknewsIn three major, related essays (first published in French in 1987), Stein (the College de France) details and explicates a system of interlocking images and symbols that lies at the core of the Far Eastern view of the universe--a system that informs cosmology, ritual, ethics, aesthetics, and many aspects of everyday life. The 80 pages of endnotes are as interesting as the text itself. Translated by Phyllis Brooks. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \