Spirit of Chinese Classics - Five Histories (II)

Author: Feng Tianyu / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: This book conducts a concise textual examination of the Chinese classics such as the Book of Songs, Book of Changes, Book of Documents, Spring and Autumn Annals, the Three Rites, as well as the Analects, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi from the perspectives of cultural studies and cultural history. It further employs hermeneutic methods to observe how the fundamental spirit embedded in these Chinese classics has been repeatedly elucidated and re-carved throughout the course of history. The book also investigates the dialectical process by which the spirit of the Chinese classics follows the "law of cultural recapitulation" to achieve an modern transformation, and the role this evolving spirit plays in China's modernization movement. The work examines the generative mechanisms and ideological characteristics of the Chinese classics (such as poetry, books, rites, changes, spring and autumn, arguments, mencias, lao, zhuang, etc.), explores the modern transformation of the spirit of the Chinese classics, such as the shift from the consciousness of crisis to modern social revolution theory, the transformation of the concept of "changeability" to modern reform theory, the transition from primitive democracy and democratic thought to modern democracy, and the evolution of the distinction between "China and the barbarians" to modern nationalism. It also analyzes the modern value of the spirit of the Chinese classics.