Chinese History and Culture - (Masters of Chinese Studies) by Ying-Shih Yü (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The recipient of the Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the humanities and the Tang Prize for "revolutionary research" in Sinology, Ying-shih Yü is a premier scholar of Chinese studies. Chinese History and Culture volumes 1 and 2 bring his extraordinary oeuvre to English-speaking readers. Spanning two thousand years of social, intellectual, and political change, the essays in these volumes investigate two central questions through all aspects of Chinese life: what core values sustained this ancient civilization through centuries of upheaval, and in what ways did these values survive in modern times?

From Ying-shih Yü's perspective, the Dao, or the Way, constitutes the inner core of Chinese civilization. His work explores the unique dynamics between Chinese intellectuals' discourse on the Dao, or moral principles for a symbolized ideal world order, and their criticism of contemporary reality throughout Chinese history. Volume 2 of Chinese History and Culture completes Ying-shih Yü's systematic reconstruction and exploration of Chinese thought over two millennia and its impact on Chinese identity. Essays address the rise of Qing Confucianism, the development of the Dai Zhen and Zhu Xi traditions, and the response of the historian Zhang Xuecheng to the Dai Zhen approach. They take stock of the thematic importance of Cao Xueqin's eighteenth-century masterpiece Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber) and the influence of Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, as well as the radicalization of China in the twentieth century and the fundamental upheavals of modernization and revolution. Ying-shih Yü also discusses the decline of elite culture in modern China, the relationships among democracy, human rights, and Confucianism, and changing conceptions of national history. He reflects on the Chinese approach to history in general and the larger political and cultural function of chronological biographies. By situating China's modern encounter with the West in a wider historical frame, this second volume of Chinese History and Culture clarifies its more curious turns and contemplates the importance of a renewed interest in the traditional Chinese values recognizing common humanity and human dignity.

Review Quotes

The breadth and depth of knowledge presented in this collection of Ying-shih Yü essays and lectures is a treasure trove for readers interested in Chinese history. The topics range from early ideas about immortality to later ideas about the social standing of men of business. No other publication in English compares in terms of command of traditional Chinese sources and sensitivity to contemporary historiographical issues, all mobilized in the service of better understanding China's past in relation to China's present.--Willard Peterson, Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Princeton University

This anthology compiles Ying-shih Yü's many years of research on Chinese history and culture and features the most important topics and turning points in Chinese history. Yü's English publications and texts are the highlights and summaries of his best work in Chinese, and this book will allow scholars from the English-speaking world firsthand access to Yü's many accomplishments and open myriads of dialogue.--Chin-shing Huang, Academia Sinica (Taipei)

Very few people can, as Ying-shih Yü has done, so thoroughly contribute to the study of China, whether ancient times or modern times, intellectual history, social history, cultural history, or any other number of disciplines. Despite the numerous topics, Yü's essays manage to be incredibly rich, groundbreaking, and enlightening. This truly is a superb collection of his most important scholarly works in the English language.--Ge Zhaoguang, author of An Intellectual History of China: Knowledge, Thought, and Belief Before the Seventh Century C.E.

About the Author

Ying-shih Yü is a preeminent historian of China. Awarded the John W. Kluge Prize for achievement in the Study of Humanity and the inaugural Tang Prize International Award in Sinology, he has published more than thirty books and five hundred articles and essays on Chinese history, thought, politics, and culture. His most recent works include Lun tian ren zhi ji (Between Heaven and the Human: An Exploration of the Origin of Ancient Chinese Thought, 2014), Zhu Xi de lishi shijie (The Historical World of Zhu Xi: A Study of the Political Culture of Song Intellectuals, 2003, 2011), and Shi yu Zhongguo wenhua (Chinese Intellectuals and Chinese Culture, 2003, 2010, and 2013).

Josephine Chiu-Duke is associate professor of Chinese intellectual history in the Asian Studies Department at the University of British Columbia. She is the author of To Rebuild the Empire: Lu Chih's Confucian Pragmatist Approach to the Mid-T'ang Predicament (2000), editor of Liberalism and the Humanistic Tradition--Essays in Honor of Professor Lin Yü-sheng (2005), and co-translator of Ge Zhaoguang's An Intellectual History of China, Volume 1: Knowledge, Thought, and Belief Before the Seventh Century C.E. (2014).

Michael S. Duke is professor emeritus of Chinese and comparative literature at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of several books on modern and traditional Chinese literature, including Blooming and Contending: Chinese Literature in the Post-Mao Era (1985), translator of Koonchung Chan's The Fat Year (2011), and co-translator of Ge Zhaoguang's An Intellectual History of China, Volume 1 (2014).