Ta T Ung Shu

This volume translates one of the major works of modern Chinese philosophy and in so doing makes a major contribution to the study of comparative philosophy.

First published in 1958.This volume translates one of the major works of modern Chinese philosophy and in so doing makes a major contribution to the study of comparative philosophy. The volume contains an extensive introduction structured as follows: 1. Biographical Sketch of K'ang Yu-wei2. Ta T'ung Shu: The Book3. A General Discussion of the One-W

The first full-length study in English on T'an Ssu-t'ung, a well-known scholar-reformer in late-Ch'ing China. Based on a rich variety of primary sources, it traces T'an's progress from his early years to his summary execution during the palace coup in 1898. The Introduction explains the premises and sources pertinent to this study, while the Epilogue provides an overall interpretation of T'an's life. The remaining eight chapters are organized in such a way as to allow a chronological and thematic appreciation of the book's subject matter. This is more than a biography of a remarkable individual. By placing T'an's personal experience in the larger social and political contexts, it also sheds light on an emergent intellectual community in modern China.

Covers topics related to the understanding of Chinese Confucianism. Includes entries in the following categories: arts, architecture, and iconography; astrology, cosmology, and mythology; biographical entries; ceremonies, practices, and rituals; concepts; dynasties, official titles, and rulers; geography and historical events; groups and schools; literature, language, and symbols; and texts.

Honorable Mention, 2022 Sharon Harris Book Award presented by the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute Focusing on four key Chinese intellectuals of the first half of the twentieth century, Abolishing Boundaries offers new perspectives on modern Chinese political thought. These four intellectuals—Kang Youwei, Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, and Hu Shi—were deeply familiar with the Confucian and Buddhist classical texts, while also interested in the West's utopian literature of the late nineteenth century as well as Kant and the neo-Kantians, Marxists, and John Dewey and new liberalism, respectively. Although none of these four intellectuals can simply be labeled utopian thinkers, this book highlights how their thinking was intertwined with utopian ideals to produce theories of secular transcendence, liberalism, and communism, and how, in explicit and implicit ways, their ideas required some utopian impulse in order to escape the boundaries they identified as imprisoning the Chinese people and all humanity. To abolish these boundaries was to imagine alternatives to the unbearable present. This was not a matter of armchair philosophizing but of thinking through new ways to commit to action. These men did not hold a totalistic picture of some perfect society, but in distinctly different ways they all displayed a utopian impulse that fueled radical visions of change. Their work reveals much about the underlying forces shaping modern thought in China—and the world. Reacting to China's problems, they sought a better future for all humanity.