Record of Daily Knowledge and Collected Poems and Essays (Hardcover)

Hardcover. Gu Yanwu pioneered the late-Ming and early Qing-era practice of Han Learning, or Evidential Learning, favoring practical over theoretical approaches to knowledge. He strongly encouraged scholars to return to the simple, ethical precepts of early Confucianism, and in his best-known work, Rizhi lu (Record of Daily Knowledge), he applied this paradigm to literature, government, economics, history, education, and philology. This volume includes translations of selected essays from Rizhi lu and Gu Yanwu's Shiwen Ji (Collected Poems and Essays), along with an introduction explaining the personal and political dimensions of the scholar's work.Gu Yanwu wrote the essays and poems featured in this volume while traveling across China during the decades immediately after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. They merge personal observation with rich articulations of Confucian principles and are, as Gu said, "not old coin but copper dug from the hills." Like many of his contemporaries, Gu Yanwu believed the Ming Dynasty had suffered from an overconcentration of power in its central government and recommended decentralizing authority while strengthening provincial self-government. In his introduction, Ian Johnston recounts Gu Yanwu's personal history and reviews his published works, along with their scholarly reception. Annotations accompany his translations, and a special essay on feudalism by Tang Dynasty poet and scholar Liu Zongyuan (773819) provides insight into Gu Yanwu's later work on the subject. "A selection of Qing Dynasty scholar Gu Yanwu's general writings from his Rizhi lu (Record of Daily Knowledge) and his Tinglin Shiwenji (Collected Poems and Essays). Gu Yanwu is regarded as the progenitor of the dominant scholarly trend of late Ming and early Qing-era China, known as Han Learning or Evidential Learning, which placed emphasis on practical learning instead of theory. He insisted that scholars must undertake wide and varied research on practical subjects and return to the simple, ethical precepts of early Confucianism. His best known and most significant work is his Record of Daily Knowledge, a collection of his short essays on problems in the classics, government, economics, the examination system, literature, history, and philology. The writings were composed during Gu's years of travels around China after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and are based on personal observation and wide reading in the classics of Confucian thought. They are, as Gu himself said, 'not old coin but copper dug from the hills.' Like many scholars of the time, Gu believed that one of the fatal weaknesses of the Ming had been an overconcentration of power in the central government. He therefore recommended a decentralization of authority and the strengthening of local self-government in the provinces. Johnston's translation of selections from A Record of Daily Knowledge and Collected Poems and Essays includes a general introduction covering Gu's personal history, his published works and his main ideas together with some consideration of subsequent evaluations of his importance"--Provided by publisher. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…