Illustrated Treasury Edition of a Concise History of Chinese Philosophy

Author: Fung Youlan
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
Features: A seminal work by the philosophy master Fung Youlan, the English edition has been a bestseller for over half a century. First translated into Chinese in the 1980s, the first edition sold 100,000 copies. The preferred reading for understanding Chinese philosophy. This book is the crystallization of Fung Youlan's philosophy and thoughts. With a limited number of pages, this monograph on the history of philosophy connects knowledge from ancient and modern China and the West, filled with wisdom and insights of a philosopher. Especially the author's concern for real-world issues demonstrates a great scholar's spirit of "never forgetting to save the country while reading, and never forgetting to read while saving the country." For today's Chinese readers, this book remains an exemplary classic of profound discourse.
In 1947, the contemporary philosopher Fung Youlan was appointed as a Lecturer in Chinese Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. His English lecture notes were later compiled into A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, published by the renowned U.S. publishing company Macmillan in 1948. Upon its release, the book immediately became a super introductory text for Westerners to understand and study Chinese philosophy. Subsequently, translations in French, Italian, Spanish, Yugoslav, and Japanese were published. For over five decades, this book has been a standard textbook for Chinese philosophy in universities worldwide, exerting significant influence in the West. Critics argue that this book is the crystallization of Fung Youlan's philosophy and thoughts. With a limited number of pages, this monograph on the history of philosophy connects knowledge from ancient and modern China and the West, filled with wisdom and insights of a philosopher. Especially the author's concern for real-world issues demonstrates a great scholar's spirit of "never forgetting to save the country while reading, and never forgetting to read while saving the country." For today's Chinese readers, this book remains an exemplary classic of profound discourse.
For a long time, this book was not available in Chinese. It was only in the 1980s that it was translated into Chinese by Fung Youlan's student based on the English edition and published by Peking University Press in 1985. The first printing of the Chinese edition was 100,000 copies, which quickly sold out and became a bestseller in academia at the time.