Publisher's Synopsis
Across a set of three volumes spanning more than three thousand years, this is a survey of thinkers central to the development of philosophical thought in China.
From the origins of Chinese thought in the Zhou dynasty to the contemporary Chinese environmental philosophy and bioethics, the three volumes, totalling 1,440 pages and bringing together a team of experts, cover:
Volume I Chinese Ancient and Early Imperial Philosophy
Volume II Chinese Imperial Philosophy After Buddhism
Volume III Chinese Philosophy from the Eighteenth Century to the Present
Alongside the giants of Chinese philosophy, such as Confucius, Zhu Xi, and Li Zehou, the selection includes philosophers often neglected from traditional surveys, figures such as Huan Tan, Cheng Xuanying, Ye Shi, Jiao Xun, Zhang Shenfu, and Li Xiaojiang. A focus on the rhetoric form and cultural background of Chinese philosophical thought runs through each volume, together with a discussion of seismic political, social, and economic events: the fall of dynasties, the rise of the imperial examination system, the modernization of Chinese academia, up to post-1978 politics.
Thinkers and traditions are connected to broader, topical themes - Zhuangzi and the idea of perspectivism; Tiantai and the problem of evil; Zhang Junmai and models of democracy - and interconnections between theories and meditative, moral, and medical practices are explored.
This is a history of Chinese philosophy that handles recently excavated bamboo texts, women philosophers in ancient China, Buddhist logic, medieval aesthetics, Sino-Muslim thought, and modern ethnic minority philosophy. Close attention is paid to the mutual exchange of ideas between China, East Asia, and Europe, providing a much-needed perspective that captures the monumental contribution of Chinese thinkers and builds a truly global history of philosophy.
