Spirit of the Chinese Classics

Author: Feng Tianyu
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 then employs hermeneutic methods to observe how the fundamental spirit embedded in these classics has been repeatedly interpreted and redefined throughout history. The book also investigates the dialectical process by which the spirit of the Chinese classics follows the "law of cultural recurrence" to achieve modern transformation, and examines the role this evolving spirit plays in China's modernization movement. The work analyzes the formation mechanisms and ideological characteristics of the Chinese classics (such as poetry, books, rites, changes, spring and autumn, arguments, mo, lao, and zhuang), explores the modern transformation of the classics' spirit, such as the shift from the consciousness of crisis to modern social revolution theory, the transition from the concept of "changeability" to modern transformation theory, the evolution from primitive democracy and democratic thought to modern democracy, and the transformation of the "distinction between the Chinese and the barbarians" into modern nationalism. It further examines the modern value of the spirit of the Chinese classics.