Five Mountains
Martin Collcutt
Hardcover 1981 / Paperback
The History of Imperial China
Endymion Wilkinson
This is the most comprehensive introduction in English to Sinelogical methods and traditional Chinese historical writing. The time span ranges from earliest times to 1911, with special emphasis on the years between the third century B.C. and the eighteenth century. The author includes introductions to major reference works and biographical information, and explanations of such matters as converting traditional dates. In addition to standard histories, the survey covers biographical writing, historical and administrative geography, works on statecraft, archival sources, and Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist writings.
Paperback
Ideas Across Cultures
Paul A. Cohen, Editor
Merle Goldman, Editor
Hardcover 1990
Lost Soul
John Makeham
Since the mid-1980s, Taiwan and mainland China have witnessed a sustained resurgence of academic and intellectual interest in ruxue—“Confucianism”—variously conceived as a form of culture, an ideology, a system of learning, and a tradition of normative values. This study aims to show how ruxue has been conceived in order to assess the achievements of this enterprise.
Hardcover 2008
Reading Tao Yuanming
Wendy Swartz
Tao Yuanming (365?–427), although dismissed as a poet following his death, is now considered one of China’s greatest writers. This study of the posthumous reputation of a central figure in Chinese literary history, the mechanisms at work in the reception of his works, and the canonization of Tao himself and of particular readings of his works sheds light on the transformation of literature and culture in premodern China.
Hardcover 2008
Transmitters and Creators
John Makeham
The Analects (Lunyu) is one of the most influential texts in human history. As a foundational text in scriptural Confucianism, it was instrumental in shaping intellectual traditions in China and East Asia. But no premodern reader read only the text of the Analects itself. Rather, the Analects was embedded in a web of interpretation that mediated its meaning. Modern interpreters of the Analects only rarely acknowledge this legacy of two thousand years of commentaries. This book attempts to redress our neglect of commentaries by analyzing four key works dating from the late second century to the mid-nineteenth century.
Hardcover 2004
The World of Thought in Ancient China
Benjamin I. Schwartz
Paperback / Hardcover