Sources of Chinese Tradition: Volume I (Unesco Collection of Representative Works. Chinese Series) - Softcover

Debary, William T. (editor)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231086024 ISBN 13: 9780231086028

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1964

Synopsis

For four decades Sources of Chinese Tradition has served to introduce Western readers to Chinese civilization as it has been seen through basic writings and historical documents of the Chinese themselves. Now in its second edition, revised and extended through Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin–era China, this classic volume remains unrivaled for its wide selection of source readings on history, society, and thought in the world's largest nation. Award-winning China scholar Wm. Theodore de Bary―who edited the first edition in 1960―and his coeditor Richard Lufrano have revised and updated the second volume of Sources to reflect the interactions of ideas, institutions, and historical events from the seventeenth century up to the present day.

Beginning with Qing civilization and continuing to contemporary times, volume II brings together key source texts from more than three centuries of Chinese history, with opening essays by noted China authorities providing context for readers not familiar with the period in question.

Here are just a few of the topics covered in this second volume of Sources of Chinese Tradition:

Early Sino-Western contacts in the seventeenth century;

Four centuries of Chinese reflections on differences between Eastern and Western civilizations;

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century reform movements, with treatises on women's rights, modern science, and literary reform;

Controversies over the place of Confucianism in modern Chinese society;

The nationalist revolution―including readings from Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek;

The communist revolution―with central writings by Mao Zedong;

Works from contemporary China―featuring political essays from Deng Xiaoping and dissidents including Wei Jingsheng.

With more than two hundred selections in lucid, readable translation by today's most renowned experts on Chinese language and civilization, Sources of Chinese Tradition will continue to be recognized as the standard for source readings on Chinese civilization, an indispensable learning tool for scholars and students of Asian civilizations.

About this title

Book Description:

The single most valuable collection of English-language readings on China past and present for more than thirty years―now thoroughly revised and updated to reflect the changing currents of recent Chinese history. Stretching from the founding of the Qing dynasty to the aftermath of the crackdown at Tiananmen Square, Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume II is a rich treasury of primary source readings illuminating the past three and a half centuries of Chinese culture.

From the Inside Flap:

A COLLECTION OF seminal primary readings on the social, intellectual, and religious traditions of China, Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 1 has been widely used and praised for almost forty years as an authoritative resource for scholars and students and as a thorough and engaging introduction for general readers. Here at last is a completely revised and expanded edition of this classic source-book, compiled by noted China scholars Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom. Updated to reflect recent scholarly developments, with extensive material on popular thought and religion, social roles, and women's education, this edition features new translations of more than half the works from the first edition, as well as many new selections.

Arranged chronologically, this anthology is divided into four parts, beginning at the dawn of literate Chinese civilization with the Oracle-Bone inscriptions of the late Shang dynasty (1571-1045 B.C.E.) and continuing through the end of the Ming dynasty (C.E. 1644). Each chapter has an introduction that provides useful historical context and offers interpretive strategies for understanding the readings.

The first part, The Chinese Tradition in Antiquity, considers the early development of Chinese civilization and includes selections from Confucius' Analects, the texts of Mencius and Laozi, as well as other key texts from the Confucian, Daoist, and Legalist schools. Part 2, The Making of a Classical Culture, focuses on Han China with readings from the Classic of Changes (I Jing), the Classic of Filiality, major Han syntheses, and the great historians of the Han dynasty. The development of Buddhism, from the earliest translations from Sanskrit to thecentral texts of the Chan school (which became Zen in Japan), is the subject of the third section of the book. Titled Later Daoism and Mahayana Buddhism in China, this part also covers the teachings of Wang Bi, Daoist religion, and texts of the major schools of Buddhist doctrine and practice. The final part, The Confucian Revival and Neo-Confucianism, details the revival of Confucian thought in the Tang, Song, and Ming periods, with historical documents that link philosophical thought to political, social, and educational developments in late imperial China.

With annotations, a detailed chronology, glossary, and a new introduction by the editors, Sources of Chinese Tradition will continue to be a standard resource, guidebook, and introduction to Chinese civilization well into the twenty-first century.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 1964
• ISBN 10: 0231086024
• ISBN 13: 9780231086028
• Binding: Paperback