A Selection of Materials on the History of Chinese Social Thought: Pre-Qin Volume

Author: Lu Xueyi, Wang Chuanghui, Editors
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-12-01
Features:
1. The positioning of the selected materials in this volume is not as a reference book but as a reference book for the teaching and research of the history of Chinese social thought, aiming to help readers expand their research horizons.
2. This volume of selected materials is primarily targeted at professionals engaged in the study of Chinese social thought, undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students in sociology, as well as other professionals or laypersons interested in the history of Chinese social thought. Readers should have a medium to advanced reading ability in classical Chinese and a basic theoretical foundation in sociology and the history of Chinese social thought.
3. The selected materials in this volume are primarily based on classic literature and the works of classic thinkers as the subject of Chinese social thought research. Through the social thought reflected in classic writings, it guides researchers and other readers to explore the broader range of social thought within the selected documents.
4. The arrangement of the documentary materials is generally in chronological order, with disputes over the birth dates of thinkers resolved based on the majority view. This aims to reflect a sense of historical era and, within a broader framework, to showcase the evolution of Chinese social thought.
5. To facilitate readers' understanding, we provide brief introductions to the authors' lives, historical context, and major academic achievements before each section of the original text, as well as a summary of each thinker's social thought. Such introductions may seem incomplete, but our purpose is to guide readers to understand the perspectives from which the compilers interpret the works or the social thought of the thinkers.
6. Social thought is a product of social life practices. Different social thoughts of the same era are the result of different social strata or social values held by thinkers. Due to space constraints, we cannot systematically introduce or select the historical context related to the formation of thought. If readers are interested in studying the deeper causes of a social thought or the intellectual background of certain concepts or propositions, they need to read the history of the relevant era, especially the history of social life.
7. For content from ancient eras that is difficult to understand due to its obscurity, we have provided necessary annotations, striving for brevity and accuracy. We have annotated rare characters with phonetic transcriptions and definitions and provided explanations for obscure sentences. In our annotations, we do not rely solely on the annotations of predecessors but draw from a wide range of sources, selecting the best among differing views.
8. When selecting materials on social thought, we strive to maintain the completeness of the thought. All selected materials are annotated with the author's name, the title of the work, and the title of the chapter. If there is in the same chapter before the appearance of a documentary segment, ellipses are not added.
9. Pre-Qin classics are relatively difficult to understand and have varying versions. We have attempted to select good editions as the working basis and have indicated the version of the base text. Different versions may differ in sentence segmentation and the grasp of the main idea. For textual variations between different versions, we adhere to the base text used in this book.
Volume I: Pre-Qin Period
1. This volume of Selected Materials on the History of Chinese Social Thought strives to comprehensively reflect the basic features of Chinese social thought from ancient times to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The book is divided into six volumes: Volume I (Pre-Qin Period), Volume II (Qin, Han, Wei-Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, and Tang Periods), Volume III (Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Periods), Volume IV (Modern Period), and V and VI (Contemporary Period).
2. All materials in this selection are extracted from original documents. If there are annotated editions, they are based on them; if multiple publishing houses have issued annotated editions, we prioritize those published by Zhonghua Book Company or other versions recognized as authoritative by academia. For works without annotated editions (such as Tan Qiao's Hua Shu), we have annotated them ourselves.
3. To facilitate readers, we provide brief introductions to the authors' lives and the basic characteristics of their social thought before the works of all selected thinkers. Due to differences in ancient texts, we also indicate the version used for the selection. Some materials in the contemporary section are derived from journal articles, and we specify their original sources to aid readers in further reference when reading the original works of social thinkers. At the same time, to preserve the original form, the selected texts remain unaltered.
4. Due to disputes in academia over the authors of works from the Pre-Qin period, such as the Zhuangzi, where the "Inner Chapters" are generally considered to be by Zhuangzi himself, while the "Outer Chapters" and "Miscellaneous Chapters" are works of his followers; or the Mozi, where most scholars believe the bulk was written by Mozi, while some chapters (such as Xiao Qu) are considered later works of the Mohists. To avoid disputes, the Pre-Qin volume adopts a selection method based on works, such as the Mohist social thought materials, which are titled Mozi, without distinguishing between Mozi himself or the later Mohist school. Works after the Qin and Han dynasties generally do not have such disputes, so they are titled with both the author and the work, such as "Dong Zhongshu: Chunqiu Fanlu" or "Wang Fu: Qianfu Lun." However, for works with unknown authors (such as Taiping Jing), they are still titled only by the book name. Under these titles, the selected materials do not indicate the book title but only the chapter title.
5. When selecting original documents, we adhere to the principle of maintaining the relative completeness of each chapter, avoiding-style excerpts. Short and important chapters are selected in full, while longer ones are appropriately excerpted. If there are deleted sections within the same document, we insert . However, if there is before the selected text or after the selected text, we do not add .
6. To facilitate the reading of young students, we have provided concise annotations for the selected texts. Volume I and Volume II have more detailed annotations, Volume III has relatively brief annotations, and the modern and contemporary sections are relatively easy to understand and thus lack annotations. The annotations primarily explain terms and do not interpret the meaning of the social thought.
7. China has a long history with extremely rich social thought, which can be classified into at least Confucian, Taoist, Legalist, Mohist, and Buddhist social thought based on schools, or at least intellectual social thought and folk social thought based on social strata. We strive to reflect the full picture of various social thought systems, but due to the overall capacity of this selection, we can only select representative parts from the four million words of original materials that we believe have had a significant impact on the development of Chinese social thought. In fact, even beyond the original materials we possess, there is still much social thought material waiting to be unearthed and published. We specially urge readers that when studying and researching the history of Chinese social thought, they should not limit themselves to the materials included in this selection.
[Editor's Recommendation]
1. The positioning of the selected materials in this volume is not as a reference book but as a reference book for the teaching and research of the history of Chinese social thought, aiming to help readers expand their research horizons.
2. This volume of selected materials is primarily targeted at professionals engaged in the study of Chinese social thought, undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students in sociology, as well as other professionals or laypersons interested in the history of Chinese social thought. Readers should have a medium to advanced reading ability in classical Chinese and a basic theoretical foundation in sociology and the history of Chinese social thought.
3. The selected materials in this volume are primarily based on classic literature and the works of classic thinkers as the subject of Chinese social thought research. Through the social thought reflected in classic writings, it guides researchers and other readers to explore the broader range of social thought within the selected documents.
4. The arrangement of the documentary materials is generally in chronological order, with disputes over the birth dates of thinkers resolved based on the majority view. This aims to reflect a sense of historical era and, within a broader framework, to showcase the evolution of Chinese social thought.
5. To facilitate readers' understanding, we provide brief introductions to the authors' lives, historical context, and major academic achievements before each section of the original text, as well as a summary of each thinker's social thought. Such introductions may seem incomplete, but our purpose is to guide readers to understand the perspectives from which the compilers interpret the works or the social thought of the thinkers.
6. Social thought is a product of social life practices. Different social thoughts of the same era are the result of different social strata or social values held by thinkers. Due to space constraints, we cannot systematically introduce or select the historical context related to the formation of thought. If readers are interested in studying the deeper causes of a social thought or the intellectual background of certain concepts or propositions, they need to read the history of the relevant era, especially the history of social life.
7. For content from ancient eras that is difficult to understand due to its obscurity, we have provided necessary annotations, striving for brevity and accuracy. We have annotated rare characters with phonetic transcriptions and definitions and provided explanations for obscure sentences. In our annotations, we do not rely solely on the annotations of predecessors but draw from a wide range of sources, selecting the best among differing views.
8. When selecting materials on social thought, we strive to maintain the completeness of the thought. All selected materials are annotated with the author's name, the title of the work, and the title of the chapter. If there is in the same chapter before the appearance of a documentary segment, ellipses are not added.
9. Pre-Qin classics are relatively difficult to understand and have varying versions. We have attempted to select good editions as the working basis and have indicated the version of the base text. Different versions may differ in sentence segmentation and the grasp of the main idea. For textual variations between different versions, we adhere to the base text used in this book.