I became interested in this book when I watched the movie Ghost Dog. When I looked it up, it was presented as a philosophical book with musings that are useful to consider even now. I found that every useful passage in this book is accompanied by two or three useless, confusing, or downright harmful ones. For example: “As for a girl, it is most important to teach her chastity from the time she is a child. She should not be in the company of a man at a distance of less than six feet, nor should she meet them eye to eye, nor should she receive things from them directly from hand to hand. Neither should she go sightseeing or take trips to temples. A woman who has been brought up strictly and has endured suffering at her own borne will suffer no ennui after she is married.”
Perhaps someone interested in this period of history will find this book more useful or enjoyable, but I found that looking up the places or people mentioned provided little context to help me understand their significance. And I do not think it is so useful to know how to pee on someone’s face to remove the skin, or to know that such and such were put to death for adultery because he took his clothes off in front of her when he was going to the toilet.