Focusing the Familiar - Softcover

Roger T. Ames; David L. Hall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0824824601 ISBN 13: 9780824824600

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press, 2001

Synopsis

The Zhongyong--translated here as Focusing the Familiar--has been regarded as a document of enormous wisdom for more than two millennia and is one of Confucianism's most sacred and seminal texts. It achieved truly canonical preeminence when it became one of the Four Books compiled and annotated by the Southern Song dynasty philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200). Within the compass of world literature, the influence of these books (Analects of Confucius, Great Learning, Zhongyong, and Mencius) on the Sinitic world of East Asia has been no less than the Bible and the Qu'ran on Western civilization.

With this new translation David Hall and Roger Ames provide a distinctly philosophical interpretation of the Zhongyong, remaining attentive to the semantic and conceptual nuances of the text to account for its central place within classical Chinese literature. They present the text in such a way as to provide Western philosophers and other intellectuals access to a set of interpretations and arguments that offer new insights into issues and concerns common to both Chinese and Western thinkers. In addition to the annotated translation, a glossary of terms gives in concise form important senses of the terms that play a key role in the argument of the Zhongyong. An appendix addresses some of the more technical issues relevant to the understanding of both the history of the text and the history of its English translations. Here the translators introduce readers to the best contemporary textual studies of the Zhongyong and make use of the most recent archaeological discoveries in China to place the work within its own intellectual context.

About this title

From the Author:

Roger T. Ames (Editor, Translator)
Roger T. Ames is professor of philosophy at the University of Hawai‘i and editor of Philosophy East and West.

About the Author:

Roger T. Ames is Humanities Chair Professor at Peking University, a Berggruen Fellow, and professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Hawai‘i.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0824824601
• ISBN 13: 9780824824600
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 182