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Table of Contents
About The Book
A thoughtful and authoritative biography of Confucious—a philosopher whose ongoing relevance is unparalleled and who is just as current in China today as he was one thousand years ago.
For more than two thousand years, Confucius has been an inseparable part of China's history. Yet despite this fame,Confucius the man has been elusive. Now, in The Authentic Confucius, Annping Chin has worked through the most reliable Chinese texts in her quest to sort out what is really known about Confucius from the reconstructions and the guesswork that muddled his memory.
Chin skillfully illuminates the political and social climate in which Confucius lived. She explains how Confucius made the transition from court advisor to wanderer, and how he reluctantly became a professional teacher as he refined his judgment of human character and composed his vision of a moral political order. The result is an absorbing and original book that shows how Confucius lived and thought: his habits and inclinations, his relation to the people of the time, his work as a teacher and as a counselor, his worries about the world and the generations to come.
In this book, Chin brings the historical Confucius within our reach, so that he can lead us into his idea of the moral and to his teachings on family and politics, culture and learning. The Authentic Confucius is a masterful account of the life and intellectual development of a thinker whose presence remains a powerful force today.
For more than two thousand years, Confucius has been an inseparable part of China's history. Yet despite this fame,Confucius the man has been elusive. Now, in The Authentic Confucius, Annping Chin has worked through the most reliable Chinese texts in her quest to sort out what is really known about Confucius from the reconstructions and the guesswork that muddled his memory.
Chin skillfully illuminates the political and social climate in which Confucius lived. She explains how Confucius made the transition from court advisor to wanderer, and how he reluctantly became a professional teacher as he refined his judgment of human character and composed his vision of a moral political order. The result is an absorbing and original book that shows how Confucius lived and thought: his habits and inclinations, his relation to the people of the time, his work as a teacher and as a counselor, his worries about the world and the generations to come.
In this book, Chin brings the historical Confucius within our reach, so that he can lead us into his idea of the moral and to his teachings on family and politics, culture and learning. The Authentic Confucius is a masterful account of the life and intellectual development of a thinker whose presence remains a powerful force today.
Product Details
- Publisher: Scribner (November 6, 2007)
- Length: 288 pages
- ISBN13: 9781416552635
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Raves and Reviews
"Confucius even now remains the mind of China, and always returns again, whatever the regime. But he can be difficult for Westerners to apprehend, because our cultures and his are so different. It is one of the strengths of Annping Chin's The Authentic Confucius that she clears away most of the difficulties, and allows us to approach an understanding of the sage's life, work, and sayings. Like Socrates and Jesus, Confucius relied upon the spoken word, with all its nuances of enigmatic wisdom. Annping Chin helps us to recover those nuances, as no one else has." -- Harold Bloom
"The life of Confucius, China's 'Sage for Ten-Thousand Generations,' began like all others -- in a particular time and place. Although Annping Chin is clearly impressed with the timeless quality of Confucius' teaching, she strives to show us Confucius as he traveled through his life. As she says of his teaching, so too might we say of this book: 'it mirrors a life unfolding, and it is natural.' This may not be 'the' authentic Confucius forever and always, but it is an authentic one -- of his time and place, and for ours." -- Edward L. Shaughnessy, professor of Early Chinese Studies, The University of Chicago
"The teachings of Confucius have survived through periods of political upheaval and brutal suppression for some twenty-five hundred years. Gleaned from her years of study of fragments of ancient texts, Annping Chin has sketched a highly readable and thought-provoking portrait of the life and times of Confucius." -- Henry A. Kissinger
"Meticulously researched and finely judged, Annping Chin's The Authentic Confucius is a perfect companion to the Analects and a wonderful introduction to early Chinese Confucianism." -- Sarah Allan, 1107 professor of Asian Studies, Dartmouth College
"This is a passionate biography of a man who, as Annping Chin puts it, strove 'to keep the idea of the moral within human reach.' It is a fascinating attempt to recover the actual historical figure who did so much to shape one of the world's great civilizations; but it is also a gripping portrait of that rare person who both faced up to 'human form and fate' -- and lovingly embraced what he saw." -- Jonathan Lear, Committee on Social Thought, The University of Chicago
Awards and Honors
- CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): The Authentic Confucius eBook 9781416552635
