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Confucianism and Chinese Civilization
A Stanford University Press classic.
- GenresChina
384 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1964
About the author
Arthur F. Wright
16 books2 followersArthur Frederick Wright was an American sinologist and academic. He taught at Yale University for many years, and became the Charles Seymour Professor of History in 1961. His primary area of specialisation was pre-modern Chinese social and intellectual history.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 4, 2020
The twelve essays in this book are organized into six topics; Ideas and values, Institutions, Arts and letters, Men and power, Protest and dissent, and Tradition's end. Each topic is intended to illustrate Confucianist thought and tradition has had upon various historical personalities during the dynastic period starting principally with the early middle ages to its end in the early 2oth century.
The rich Chinese historical record is used to support each of the authors, scholars in their own right, essays. The personalities of the historical individuals were presented in a manner that was credible that lent flesh and blood to how and why they behaved they did according to Confucianist principles.
As mentioned above the essays were written by Chinese scholars but their rhetorical style is accessible to the curious reader. I found the concluding essay the most difficult to comprehend even though it dealt with the most recent era in its historical overview, i.e. the interim period from the fall of the Ming dynasty to China's transition to a republic. The analysis of this topic was presented from a political-psychological perspective, possibly due to its historicity being more amenable to such an approach.
This book gave me a better understanding of the tenants of Confucianism than my earlier reading of the Analects because it provides specific examples of what Confucianism meant in daily life albeit from the perspective of the literati and the bureaucrat. My reading of the Analects of Confucius was based on Arthur Waley's translation which was more valuable from the perspective of Waley's well-written introduction than the actual sayings of Confucius which are vague and abstract.
What I did find troublesome during my reading was my paucity of knowledge of Chinese history. A basic understanding of the various dynasties, how they arose and fell would have been helpful.
The rich Chinese historical record is used to support each of the authors, scholars in their own right, essays. The personalities of the historical individuals were presented in a manner that was credible that lent flesh and blood to how and why they behaved they did according to Confucianist principles.
As mentioned above the essays were written by Chinese scholars but their rhetorical style is accessible to the curious reader. I found the concluding essay the most difficult to comprehend even though it dealt with the most recent era in its historical overview, i.e. the interim period from the fall of the Ming dynasty to China's transition to a republic. The analysis of this topic was presented from a political-psychological perspective, possibly due to its historicity being more amenable to such an approach.
This book gave me a better understanding of the tenants of Confucianism than my earlier reading of the Analects because it provides specific examples of what Confucianism meant in daily life albeit from the perspective of the literati and the bureaucrat. My reading of the Analects of Confucius was based on Arthur Waley's translation which was more valuable from the perspective of Waley's well-written introduction than the actual sayings of Confucius which are vague and abstract.
What I did find troublesome during my reading was my paucity of knowledge of Chinese history. A basic understanding of the various dynasties, how they arose and fell would have been helpful.
Displaying 1 of 1 review