Discernible in the very opening pages of Chinese Philosophy of History: From Ancient Confucianism to the End of the Eighteenth Century is the fact that, within a single work, Dawid Rogacz will be providing us with two services normally regarded as oppositional. On the one hand, clear from the very title is the discreteness of his undertaking. In other words, he will be straightforwardly addressing a subject that philosophers as well as historians of China frequently refer to but, (...) nonetheless, so very seldom subject to critical examination--namely, the uniquely Chinese, as distinguished from that which subsequently developed in the West, philosophy of history. Yet, on the other hand, even as he is intent on... (shrink)

Li Zehou is widely regarded as one of China's most influential contemporary thinkers. He has produced influential theories of the development of Chinese thought and the place of aesthetics in Chinese ethics and value theory. This book is the first English-language translation of Li Zehou's work on classical Chinese thought. It includes chapters on the classical Chinese thinkers, including Confucius, Mozi, Laozi, Sunzi, Xunzi and Zhuangzi, and also on later eras and thinkers such as Dong Zhongshu (...) in the Han Dynasty and the Song-Ming Neo-Confucians. The essays in this book not only discuss these historical figures and their ideas, but also consider their historical significance, and how key themes from these early schools reappeared in and shaped later periods and thinkers. Taken together, they highlight the breadth of Li Zehou's scholarship and his syncretic approach-his explanations of prominent thinkers and key periods in Chinese intellectual history blend ideas from both the Chinese and Western canons, while also drawing on contemporary thinkers in both traditions. The book also includes an introduction written by the translator that helpfully explains the significance of Li Zehou's work and its prospects for fostering cross-cultural dialogue with Western philosophy. A History of Chinese Classical Thought will be of interest to advanced students and scholars interested in Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy, and Chinese intellectual and social history. (shrink)

An Outline History of Chinese Philosophy has been jointly written and compiled by over 20 specialists and scholars from nine renowned universities in China, including Wuhan University and Sun Yat-sen University. It provides a concise introduction to the origin and development of Chinese philosophy from antiquity to 1949, the year the People's Republic of China was founded, expounding its status and features at different historical stages. It gives a historical and logical delineation of the development of (...) class='Hi'>Chinese philosophy by highlighting its origin and development during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the golden age of philosophical thought during the Warring States Period, and the strides made by the Chinese philosophical system from Qin-Han times to the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as new visions brought by social reforms since the mid-Ming Dynasty. This book presents readers with a detailed and accurate text, lucid discussions and simple explanations of complex ideas. It is not only a monograph with academic and textual value, but also a must-have for readers to better understand and study Chinese philosophy and culture. (shrink)

Since its original publication in Chinese in the 1930s, this work has been accepted by Chinese scholars as the most important contribution to the study of their country's philosophy. In 1952 the book was published by Princeton University Press in an English translation by the distinguished scholar of Chinese history, Derk Bodde, "the dedicated translator of Fung Yu-lan's huge history of Chinese philosophy". Available for the first time in paperback, it remains the most complete (...) work on the subject in any language. Volume I covers the period of the philosophers, from the beginnings to around 100 B.C., a philosophical period as remarkable as that of ancient Greece. Volume II discusses a period lesser known in the West--the period of classical learning, from the second century B.C. to the twentieth century. (shrink)

公孫龍 철학과 대립하는 중국 고대철학사의 맥락에서 『公孫龍子』의 사유방식과 세계이해를 재조명해 보는 데에 본 연구의 목적이 있다. 『공손룡자』를 중국 고대철학사의 맥락에서 떼어내어 그것 자체만 연구해서는 공손룡이 어떤 방식으로 ‘白馬非馬’와 ‘離堅白’을 논증하는지는 알 수 있지만 공손룡이 왜 ‘백마비마’와 ‘이견백’을 주장해야만 했는지는 알 수 없기 때문이다. 논의는 중국 고대철학사 흐름에서 공손룡 철학과 가장 대조되는 혜시 철학을 살펴보는 것으로 시작하였다. 이는 혜시가 ‘천지일체’를 주장하기 위해 인식과 개념 그리고 차이의 상대성을 어떻게 강조하였는지를 밝히는 작업이었다. 다음으로는 『공손룡자』의 사유방식을 ‘백마비마’를 통해 재조명하였다. 이때 「白馬論」에서 ‘백마비마’를 입증하는 네 (...) 가지 논증 방식에 입각해 논의를 끌어가지 않았다. 「通變論」의 핵심 논제인 ‘二無一’을 통해 ‘白馬非馬’의 성립을 규명하고 나아가 이의 의미를 해독하였다. 끝으로 『공손룡자』의 세계이해를 재조명하였다. 논의는 ‘指物論’에 의해 ‘堅白石二’의 성립과 그것의 의미를 해독하는 방식으로 진행되었다. 결론적으로 공손룡은 조목조목 혜시 철학을 반박하고 비판하면서 자신의 철학을 형성해나간 것이라 말할 수 있다. 혜시가 강조한 인식의 상대성에 대해 공손룡은 인간에게 지시된 것으로서의 세계만을 인정함으로써 인식의 절대성을 강조하였다. 또한 혜시는 개념의 추상성에 의지해 이것을 이것이면서 저것이라고 하고 저것을 저것이면서 이것이라 함으로써 개념을 무차별적으로 통용시킨 반면, 공손룡은 백마는 백마이고 마는 마라고 함으로써 개념의 무차별적인 혼용을 반대하였다. 뿐만 아니라, 혜시는 사물들 사이의 차이를 상대화하여 ‘천지일체’의 세계상을 주장한 반면, 공손룡은 사물들 사이의 차이를 절대화함으로써 모든 것들이 분리ㆍ독립되어 있는 세계상을 주장하였기 때문이다. (shrink)

Chinese Philosophy provides a clear, accessible conception of the Chinese philosophical sensibility and its evolution throughout history.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy and History, Customs and EthicsHui-Chieh Loy (bio)Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China: Contestation of Humaneness, Justice, and Personal Freedom. By Tao Jiang. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.Tao Jiang's Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China is a serious tour de force of a study. In many ways, I am reminded of Angus Graham's Disputers of the Tao and Benjamin Schwartz' The World of Thought in (...) Ancient China—but updated. A signal difference is that it is more constrained in its coverage of figures, texts, and especially in having the topical focus upon moral-political philosophy. At the same time and within the chosen (narrower) confines, it often examines its subject in greater detail and draws on more recent discussions.One neat thing that Jiang does is to deliberately weave in explicit discussions of how each subsequent thinker or text incorporated or criticized ideas associated with earlier thinkers. (I formulated it this way since there isn't enough historical evidence about who-actually-read-what in the ancient world, citation practices being what they were.) In this regard, I am especially heartened to read, for example, the sections on "Traces of Mohist Elements in the Laozi" (3.3.2), and "Mohist Elements in Han Feizi's Thought" (7.3.3).By no means should the desultory remarks below be counted as a full review or assessment (impressionistically, this is the sort of book I will recommend that my grad students read—there, I've said it). Think of them as humble shards of pottery thrown in the hope for some jade in response. To make my task more focused, I will comment on the Sinology versus Philosophy distinction, and Jiang's treatment of the Mohists.I. Philosophy and History of PhilosophyAn important part of Jiang's Introduction is devoted to discussing the situation of Chinese Philosophy as a field in the Western Academy, caught between Sinology on the one hand and academic Philosophy on the other. Due to the different scholarly objectives and norms in the two disciplines, scholars working on Chinese Philosophy often find themselves caught [End Page 420] between two distinct audiences who demand different things. Jiang's aim is to propose an "interpretive model to distinguish two sets of scholarly objects operative in Sinology and philosophy. These objects are related and at times overlap, but they are also often irreducibly distinct, i.e., original text versus inherited text, historical author versus textual author, and authorial intent versus textual intent, with the former in the pairs belonging to Sinologists and the latter to philosophers" (p. 7). In general, I am highly sympathetic to the distinctions Jiang draws. But I do wonder if we need to step back and start from a wider context involving what is potentially a deeper divide.Now, it is entirely a caricature but the joke around the water cooler is that philosophers—especially those of a more "analytic" bent—often exude the attitude that they are not in the business of reading old books. Their project is one focused on issues and problems and puzzles that are ultimately about the natural and human world, rather than about texts and their interpretation, or even the historical thinkers themselves. To give some obvious examples, the intellectual questions they see themselves as answering are the likes of:• Can we know that God exists, if God exists at all?• What is the nature of moral claims? Do they admit of truth and falsity?• How is causation related to possibility?• Is a logic that dispenses with the law of non-contradiction viable?• What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge?• Is abortion morally justifiable?Sometimes the questions they ask even infringe on the results and insights from nearby fields, for instance linguistics and the natural and empirical sciences:• What is time?• Can a presentist conception of time be made consistent with contemporary physics?• What is the nature of consciousness? How is it related to physical neural states or informational computational processes?• Can computers be sentient?• How is morality related to the passions?• In what sense is a political order that does justice to diversity of moral beliefs... (shrink)

The History of Chinese Philosophy is a comprehensive and authoritative examination of the movements and thinkers that have shaped Chinese philosophy over the last three thousand years. An outstanding team of international contributors provide seventeen accessible entries organised into five clear parts: Identity of Chinese Philosophy Classical Chinese Philosophy : Pre-Han Period Classical Chinese Philosophy : From Han Through Tang Classical Chinese Philosophy : From Song Through Early Qing Modern Chinese Philosophy: From (...) Late Qing Through 21st Century This outstanding collection is essential reading for students of Chinese philosophy, and will be of interest to those seeking to explore the lasting significance this rich and complex philosophical tradition. (shrink)

The articles in this collection were all selected from the first five volumes of the Journal of Dialectics of Nature published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences between 1979 and 1985. The Journal was established in 1979 as a comprehensive theoretical publication concerning the history, philosophy and sociology of the natural sciences. It began publication as a response to China's reform, particularly the policy of opening to the outside world. Chinese scholars began to undertake distinctive, original research (...) in these fields. This collection provides a cross-section of their efforts during the initial phase. To enable western scholars to understand the historical process of this change in Chinese academics, Yu Guangyuan's `On the Emancipation of the Mind' and Xu Liangying's `Essay on the Role of Science and Democracy in Society' have been included in this collection. Three of the papers included on the philosophy of science are discussions of philosophical issues in cosmology and biology by scientists themselves. The remaining four are written by philosophers of science and discuss information and cognition, homeostasis and Chinese traditional medicine, the I Ching (Yi Jing) and mathematics, etc. Papers have been selected on the history of both classical and modern science and technology, the most distinctive of which are macro-comparisons of the development of science in China and the west. Some papers discuss the issue of the demarcation of periods in the history of science, the history of ancient Chinese mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, machinery, medicine, etc. Others discuss the history of modern physics and biology, the history of historiography of science in China and the history of regional development of Chinese science and technology. Also included are biographies of three post-eighteenth-century Chinese scholars, Li Shanlan (1811-1882), Hua Hengfang (1833–1902), and Cai Yuanpei (1868–1940), who contributed greatly to the introduction of western science and scholarship to China. In addition, three short papers have been included introducing the interactions between Chinese scholars and three great western scientists, Niels Bohr, Norbert Wiener, and Robert A. Millikan. (shrink)

Recent anglophone scholarship on Chinese philosophy provides students and scholars with a great variety of introductory materials, especially when it comes to encyclopedias and manuals on the history of Chinese philosophical traditions. It is therefore increasingly difficult for scholars to produce innovative studies on the subject that can provide a significant and original contribution to the field, especially when addressing both specialists and enthusiasts. In this context, The History of Chinese Philosophy Through its Key Terms (...) by Nanjing University’s Wang Yueqing 王月清, Bao Qinggang 暴庆刚, and Guan Guoxing 管国兴 certainly represents a valuable and innovative contribution. Instead of presenting the history of... (shrink)

The history of philosophy is the history of cognition in its entirety; this was Lenin's definition. At the same time, Lenin also pointed out that, throughout 2,000 years of philosophical development, the struggle between idealism and materialism, between the trends or lines of Plato and Democritus, has never become outdated.

This Source Book is devoted to the purpose of providing such a basis for genuine understanding of Chinese thought (and thereby of Chinese life and culture, ...

I have been engaged in teaching and research on the history of Chinese philosophy for a total of not less than thirty years. During the War of Resistance against Japan, it was at the Southwest Associated University in Kunming that I first began lecturing and became engaged in specialized studies on the history of Chinese philosophy. However, I should note that I only began using the truly scientific method to study the history of Chinese (...) philosophy in 1949. Actually, the history of Chinese philosophy as a scientific discipline was only established gradually under the care and concern of the Communist Party after Liberation. During its development, this scientific discipline, while achieving important successes, also traveled a winding circuitous path. How to correctly evaluate the history and present condition of this scientific discipline, and how to promote its further development, is a problem that deeply concerns every comrade engaged in this field of scientific study. This article proposes to discuss a few of my own personal feelings on this subject. (shrink)

Philosophical ideas of different schools such as Confucian, Taoist, Legalist, Mohist, Nominalist, Military Strategist, Yin and Yang, and Agriculturist in periods prior to the Qin Dynasty (221-202 B.C) are expounded and analyzed against their times in the book. Advantages and disadvantages of different theoretical functions are also investigated from a critical perspective. In addition, the book presents the authors'personal views on the category of Chinese philosophy and the relations between traditional Chinese thoughts and modern sciences.

A provocative defense of a forgotten Chinese approach to identity and difference Historically, the Western encounter with difference has been catastrophic: the extermination and displacement of aboriginal populations, the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism. China, however, took a different historical path. In Chinese Cosmopolitanism, Shuchen Xiang argues that the Chinese cultural tradition was, from its formative beginnings and throughout its imperial history, a cosmopolitan melting pot that synthesized the different cultures that came into its orbit. Unlike (...) the West, which cast its collisions with different cultures in Manichean terms of the ontologically irreconcilable difference between civilization and barbarism, China was a dynamic identity created out of difference. The reasons for this, Xiang argues, are philosophical: Chinese philosophy has the conceptual resources for providing alternative ways to understand pluralism. Xiang explains that “Chinese” identity is not what the West understands as a racial identity; it is not a group of people related by common descent or heredity but rather a hybrid of coalescing cultures. To use the Western discourse of race to frame the Chinese view of non-Chinese, she argues, is a category error. Xiang shows that China was both internally cosmopolitan, embracing distinct peoples into a common identity, and externally cosmopolitan, having knowledge of faraway lands without an ideological need to subjugate them. Contrasting the Chinese understanding of efficacy—described as “harmony”—with the Western understanding of order, she argues that the Chinese sought to gain influence over others by having them spontaneously accept the virtue of one’s position. These ideas from Chinese philosophy, she contends, offer a new way to understand today’s multipolar world and can make a valuable contribution to contemporary discussions in the critical philosophy of race. (shrink)

The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Philosophy is a collection of essays on important texts and figures in the history of Chinese thought. The essays cover both well-known texts such as the Analects and the Zhuangzi as well as many of the lesser-known thinkers in the classical and post-classical Chinese tradition. Most of the chapters focus on thinkers or texts in one of three important historical movements: Classical ("pre-Qin") Chinese philosophy, Chinese Buddhism, and the Confucian (...) response to Buddhism ("neo-Confucianism" broadly construed). (shrink)

In this volume, distinguished philosopher Antonio S. Cua offers a collection of original studies on Xunzi, a leading classical Confucian thinker, and on other ...

This book deals with the basic views of those philosophers and their influence on Chinese history and culture.

Thought of the people in modern China has experienced three different stages of historical evolution: the Opium War to Sino ideology before people began to shake the stage; Hundred-dimensional people thought of the decay phase of the new era; people during the 1911 Revolution and the demise of political ideology end of life stage. There are three characteristics of its evolution: First, the thought of the people has always been the evolution of the principal contradiction in Chinese society with (...) modern developments and changes linked; Second, the democratic ideas of development in modern China, and indeed the people of the gradual collapse of the disintegration of the ideological and theoretical system, functional the process of shrinking role; Third, the evolution is always thought of the people and the ruling class and the advanced Chinese people's ideals and beliefs, linked to theory and practice. The waning stage, which lasted from the Opium Wars until the time before the Sino-Japanese war . The declining stage, during the year of the Reform Movement of 1898. The decaying stage, during the year of The Revolution of 1911. There are three features of their decay: They were interwoven with the escalation of the principal social problem of modern China. The development of democracy in modern China contributed to the gradual collapse of these ideologies. The decline of these ideologies was interwoven with the ideals, beliefs, theories, and practices of the ruling class and progressive Chinese people. (shrink)

History of ideas "duality" is Mr. Li Jinquan the focus of attention problems. Articles by examining his case studies the history of thought, school of analysis, the overall concept through the three levels of detailed analysis, to explore his object throughout the study in the "philosophy of integrating" approach orientation and the "heritage and innovation" cultural standpoint, and shows that he contemplation of the modern practice of traditional character, the close integration of academic learning and social spirit of (...) the people. Mr. Jin-quan Li pay close attention to a focal question which is "dual nature" of history of thinking. The article will review the detailed analyse about three arrangments of ideals which consists of individual research, analyse on school of thought and the whole history of thought. And will search for the method of the fusion of philosoghy and history, the successive arid innovative cultural stand which ran through his research. And will delineate his practical character of using tradition take care of modernization and the scholcal spirit of combining study with life and society. (shrink)

Featuring contributions from the world's most highly esteemed Asian philosophy scholars, this important new encyclopedia covers the complex and increasingly influential field of Chinese thought, from earliest recorded times to the present day. Including coverage on the subject previously unavailable to English speakers, the _Encyclopedia_ sheds light on the extensive range of concepts, movements, philosophical works, and thinkers that populate the field. It includes a thorough survey of the history of Chinese philosophy; entries on all major thinkers (...) from Confucius to Mou Zongsan; essential topics such as aesthetics, moral philosophy, philosophy of government, and philosophy of literature; surveys of Confucianism in all historical periods and in key regions outside China; schools of thought such as Mohism, Legalism, and Chinese Buddhism; trends in contemporary Chinese philosophy, and more. (shrink)

As the final work by Ye Xiushan, one of the most famous philosophers and scholars of philosophy in China, this two-volume set scrutinizes the historical development of both Chinese and Western philosophy, aiming to explore the convergence between the two philosophical traditions. Combining historical examination and argumentation based on philosophical problematics, the author discusses the key figures and schools of thought from both traditions. Far from being a cursory comparison between different philosophical concepts and categories, the author discusses the (...) logical paths and conceptual approaches of the two traditions on the same philosophical issues, thus giving insights into conceptual categories commonly used in both Chinese and Western philosophies. The two volumes illuminate the different core spirits and dilemmas of Western philosophy and Chinese philosophy, encouraging a constructive dialogue between the two and a new transformation of Chinese philosophy in itself. The title will appeal to scholars, students, and general readers interested in philosophical history, comparative philosophy, Chinese philosophy, and Western philosophy ranging over Greek philosophy, German classic philosophy, and contemporary continental philosophy. (shrink)

In Sino-Theology and the Philosophy of History Leopold Leeb presents the ideas of an influential Chinese intellectual, Liu Xiaofeng, whose approach to the question of a Christian theology for China is both controversial and inspiring.

Should studies of social history engage in questions of important socio-political changes? The answer is undoubtedly affirmative. So far as the important changes in 19th century China are concerned, some case studies in regional social history have presented a picture of greater complexity and diversity. The Ningbo case, for example, shows that when a port that has had a history of foreign trade becomes embroiled in conflict between Chinese and foreigners, this conflict may simply become one (...) mode of interaction amongst many between Chinese and foreigners. The case of Turmot is an important turning point in Chinese history, since it marks the reversal of 2000 years of frequent attempts by nomadic tribes to expand southward. This trend is completely reversed by the Han nationalities’ northward immigration and reclamation, a development as significant as the Western invasion of China in terms of consequent social transformations. These historical traces revealed from within regions deepen our comprehension of these social transformations; consequently, such studies in social history may manage to provide answers different from those offered by the traditional model of political history. (shrink)

This book starts with the classification of the main views of different thinkers after the study of the original materials, which covers all the thinkers’ thoughts and conceptions. A major objective of this book is to reveal the ideas of the philosophers. Key ideological opinions are stated with the former discussion of exact questions and further clarification of their philosophical meaning, which enables the readers to better understand the meaning and value of the philosophical thoughts. Since the logic and (...) class='Hi'>history are in accordance with each other, a frame of conception is formed then. Then, the author clearly explains the logical relationship in the frame mentioned before, as well as the formation of the key concepts and their relationship. (shrink)

In _Sino-Theology and the Philosophy of History_ Leopold Leeb presents the ideas of an influential Chinese intellectual, Liu Xiaofeng, whose approach to the question of a Christian theology for China is both controversial and inspiring.

The development of modern Chinese thought involves an ongoing interaction between internal processes and impacts of foreign ideas. Several intellectual controversies are interwoven into its history and among these one of the more philosophical ones began some 90 years ago, in 1923. In this controversy, supporters of science or scientism and supporters of metaphysics or Confucian tradition debated issues of what both sides referred to as "the view of life." The study of the view of life controversy by (...) Gad C. Isay discusses the positions of the view of life supporters who upheld metaphysics against scientism. It focuses on both the philosophical merit of their views and the relevance of these views to the question of culture in modern China. Considering the sources of the view of life problem in traditional Chinese thought and the discussions that followed after the controversy, it is argued that the view of life question was a central theme in Chinese thought from its beginning. In this respect, modern discussions of this problem indicate continuity with the past. However, these discussions demonstrate too, the dynamics of changing conceptions regarding the context of human relationships that are related directly to the meeting with the West. Isay's study traces the development of these discussions from their beginning up to our days giving a comprehensive survey of the philosophy of the view of life in modern Chinese thought. (shrink)

The _History of Chinese Philosophy_ is a comprehensive and authoritative examination of the movements and thinkers that have shaped Chinese philosophy over the last three thousand years. An outstanding team of international contributors provide seventeen accessible entries organised into five clear parts: Identity of Chinese Philosophy Classical Chinese Philosophy : Pre-Han Period Classical Chinese Philosophy : From _Han_ Through _Tang_ Classical Chinese Philosophy : From _Song _Through Early _Qing_ Modern Chinese Philosophy: From Late (...) _Qing _Through 21st Century This outstanding collection is essential reading for students of Chinese philosophy, and will be of interest to those seeking to explore the lasting significance this rich and complex philosophical tradition. (shrink)

Originally published in Peking in 1958, this work covers four thousand years of Chinese philosophy, into the Marxist philosophy of Mao, which it calls the culmination of the wisdom of the Chinese people.

Since its original publication in Chinese in the 1930s, this work has been accepted by Chinese scholars as the most important contribution to the study of their country's philosophy.