Lectures on the History of Chinese Scholarship

Author: Yang Dongchen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: This book is one of the representative works of the renowned historian of academic thought, Professor Yang Dongchen. In this work, Professor Yang provides a sweeping overview of China's five thousand years of cultural heritage and meticulously traces the origins and transformations of Chinese scholarship: from the divination and magic of ancient times to the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, to the Confucian dominance in the Han Dynasty, the introduction of Buddhism, and the rise of Taoism. It then explores the Xuanxue (Neo-Daoist metaphysics) that blended Daoist and Confucian thought in the Jin and Southern Dynasties, the Neo-Confucianism that integrated Buddhist ideas into Confucianism during the Song and Ming Dynasties, the supplementary studies of the Qing Dynasty, the introduction of Western learning in modern times, the revival of Jinwen literature, and the New Culture Movement. In the end, it presents a clear and comprehensive outline of the development of Chinese scholarship.