The Emergence of China: From Confucius to the Empire (Ancient China in Context) - Hardcover

Brooks, E. Bruce; Brooks, A. Taeko

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1936166356 ISBN 13: 9781936166350

Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015

Synopsis

This volume offers a concise overview of the classical period. Between an introductory chapter on the preceding centuries and a concluding chapter on the Chín Dynasty, six topical chapters -- The Economy, The State, The Serving Elite, War and Peace, The People, and Transcendence -- give a multifaceted sense of the classical period proper. Each chapter includes one or more "methodological moments," which suggest how the textual problems have been solved, and 500 translated passages let the period speak with its own voice on topics from law to the mourning period for a parent, revealing both its ethnic and its philosophical diversity.

About this title

About the Author:

E. BRUCE BROOKS is research professor of Chinese and A. TAEKO BROOKS is research associate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Review:

"I will definitely use it in my course. It solves a problem I have had from the beginning: to give context for the philosophical texts.... A stylistically economical, accessible, gripping, and substantive book." -- John J. Furlong, Transylvania University

"The work of Bruce and Taeko Brooks is unique.... They have brought to the field the proven methodology of Classical philology and applied it to long unsolved problems concerning the date and structure of the Chinese classical texts... the result has been a revolution in the understanding of these texts, and in their proper use as sources for history." -- Christopher I. Beckwith, Indiana University

"The picture the Brookses have built up, piece by piece, over the years deeply alters our understanding of the classical texts, of the nature of the dialogue among thinkers, and of the actual history of early China." -- Haun Sussy, Yale University

"Through a systematic effort, we get a general chronology including all the major texts, and this effort has shown a degree of interconnectedness that few would have anticipated." -- Jörge Schumacher, Université de Genéve

"Every one of the publications planned in this series will make a major contribution in establishing a new paradigm for our understanding of the key philosophical, political, and historical texts...how these texts spoke to each other, and how they evolved in dynamic dialogue with each other." -- Paul Ropp, Clark University

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1936166356
• ISBN 13: 9781936166350
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256