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Title: Sources of Chinese Tradition by William Theodore De Bary, Irene Bloom, Joseph Adler ISBN: 0-231-10939-3 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Ancient Chinese History: Vol. 1
Comment: This book is a collection of readings dealing with ancient Chinese history, especially focusing on philosophy and religion. The readings are organized into chapters related to various stages in Chinese history. Early chapters cover antiquity, Confucius, Mo Tzu, and Taoism. Then comes Confucian tradition, the Legalists, the Imperial Order, the Universal Order, and the Economic Order. This is followed by the Great Han Historians, Neo-Taoism, and Buddhism. This volume is rounded out with the Confucian revival and neo-Confucianism. Each chapter begins with a short introduction essay that introduces the context and events of the time and goes to a selection of original texts on the topic at hand. At the beginning of the book is a chronological table of Chinese history from 2852 BC to 1849 AD that highlights various events in Chinese political philosophy.
This book is a great resource for the serious student of Chinese philosophy and culture. The essays and readings provide a unique window into Chinese thought. The authors assume that the reader will have a basic familiarity with the overall picture of Chinese history, and provide many details and insights into why history took the course that it did. I found the reading selections, drawn from such documents as the Analects of Confucius or historical documents like Ma tuan-Lin's Introduction to the Survey on the Land Tax, particularly illuminating. To find so many documents such as these presented in English, together with essays that explain their context and importance, is invaluable for the serious Asian studies scholar.
Rating: 5
Summary: Absolutely essential
Comment: I'll make this short...For anyone interested in Chinese history, literature, or culture, this volume is an absolutely essential collection of primary sources, and includes prefaces and explanations by China scholars. There is no one better than de Bary, and this new edition includes everything from the 1960 edition up through the Jiang Zemin era.
Rating: 5
Summary: all the classics and essentials
Comment: I've read a little of this and that about Chinese history and religion, and I needed a book to fill in the basics and the details. This was perfect.
First, the selections included excerpts of almost everything I'd ever heard of: Shang Oracle Bones, the Analects of Confucius and the Confucian classics including the I Ching; Mozi; the Tao Te Ching; Zhuangzi (who famously dreamed that he was a butterfly); Mencius; Xunzi; the Zuozhuan; Sun Tzu's art of war; all kinds of stuff about Chinese schools of Buddhism including the Lotus Sutra and the Flower Garden Sutra and the history of Guanyin and Wutai Shan; Li Po (Li Bo) and Tu Fu (Du Fu); and neo-Confucianism (which was so influential in Korea). In short, this is really, practically the "Eatern Canon" and the selections are deserving of such a label. I was in turns morally and intellectually challenged, uplifted, informed and surprised; but rarely bored and never disappointed.
Second, the introductory essays were exactly what I wanted to know: who might have written it, and when, and who read, and what it meant to them. For all that information, they were still brief and the bibliography was sufficient to help me chase the points that left me curious. An important thing these essays did was to cover the political, historical and social backgrounds (and foregrounds) of the texts, so I learned about Chinese history as well as literature and religion. If that is what you want to do, this book will serve you well.
The binding is excellent, and while the price might look steep I have to say it's a bargain considering what you get.
I didn't read Volume Two, and so I don't know if it is as good. It is certainly a lot smaller!
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Title: Sources of Japanese Tradition: Volume 2 by Wm. Theodore De Bary, Donald Keene, George Tanabe, Paul Varley, William Theodore de Bary ISBN: 0231121393 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.50 |
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Title: The Cambridge Illustrated History of China by Patricia Buckley Ebrey ISBN: 052166991X Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 13 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Anthology of Chinese Literature from Early Times to the Fourteenth Century by Cyril Birch, Donald Keene ISBN: 0802150381 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: December, 1989 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Sources of Korean Tradition, Vol. 2 by Yong-Ho Ch'Oe, Peter H. Lee, Wm. Theodore De Bary, Yongho Ch'oe, William Theodore de Bary, Ch', Wm. Theodore de Bary, Yôngho oe ISBN: 0231120311 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $25.50 |
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Title: Chinese Civilization : A Sourcebook, 2nd Ed by Patricia Buckley Ebrey ISBN: 002908752X Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 10 May, 1993 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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