Learning to Be A Sage: Selections from the "Conversations of Master Chu," Arranged Topically

by Zhu Xi, Daniel K. Gardner (Translator)

Students and teachers of Chinese history and philosophy will not want to miss Daniel Gardner's accessible translation of the teachings of Chu Hsi (1130-1200)—a luminary of the Confucian tradition who dominated Chinese intellectual life for centuries. Homing in on a primary concern of our own time, Gardner focuses on Chu Hsi's passionate interest in education and its importance to individual development.

For hundreds of years, every literate person in China was familiar with Chu Hsi's teachings. They informed the curricula of private academies and public schools and became the basis of the state's prestigious civil service examinations. Nor was Chu's influence limited to China. In Korea and Japan as well, his teachings defined the terms of scholarly debate and served as the foundation for state ideology.

Chu Hsi was convinced that through education anyone could learn to be fully moral and thus travel the road to sagehood. Throughout his life, he struggled with the philosophical questions underlying What should people learn? How should they go about learning? What enables them to learn? What are the aims and the effects of learning?

Part One of Learning to Be a Sage examines Chu Hsi's views on learning and how he arrived at them. Part Two presents a translation of the chapters devoted to learning in the Conversations of Master Chu .

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, China, History

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Zhu Xi or Chu Hsi (Chinese: 朱熹, October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200) was a Song Dynasty Confucian scholar who became the leading figure of the School of Principle and the most influential rationalist Neo-Confucian in China. His contributions to Chinese philosophy including his assigning special significance to the Analects of Confucius, the Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean (the Four Books), his emphasis on the investigation of things (gewu), and the synthesis of all fundamental Confucian concepts, formed the basis of Chinese bureaucracy and government for over 700 years.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jake · Rating 2 out of 5]

um...would be interesting for someone during their freshman year. says a lot about education systems and styles, both imposed and self-imposed.

[Sol 솔 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zhu Xi is the sage of learning, who everyone knows in East Asia, but nobody knows in the West. So, just to correct that massive selection bias, this book deserves some stars.

It covers a very small part of Zhu Xi’s massive writings, specifically focusing on his writing on learning. The selections come from the “Recorded Sayings of Master Zhu, Categorized” (朱子語類), and the translations are pretty decent. There is also a massive 80-page narrative introduction, which seems a bit long-winded, but has some good historic information.

[Arthur Rosenfeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not easy reading, but I love the juice footnotes and details.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 4 out of 5]

old, but still meaningful to read

[Craig]

Cautionary note: Archive.org's scan of this text is too light to easily read.