Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy

by Bryan W. Van Norden, Philip J. Ivanhoe

The third edition of Ivanhoe and Van Norden's acclaimed anthology builds on the strengths of previous editions with the addition of new selections for each chapter; selections from Shen Dao; a new translation of the writings of Han Feizi; selections from two texts, highly influential in later Chinese philosophy, the Great Learning and Mean; and a complete translation of the recently discovered text Nature Comes from the Mandate. Each section of this volume begins with a brief Introduction and concludes with a lightly annotated Selective Bibliography. Also included are four Important Figures, Important Periods, Important Texts, and Important Terms. Additional materials, including study questions for selected chapters, will be available on the Title Support Page for this volume on the Hackett Publishing Company www.hackettpublishing.com/rccp-support in spring 2023.

Genres: Philosophy, China

435 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2023

Reviews

[Patricia Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feels weird to be rating foundational ancient texts, but 5 stars. Despite a decent amount of exposure to its precepts I still find Daoism decently inscrutable. I think that’s baked into the philosophy itself, with the Dao being ultimately unknowable. Nonetheless, I love to read its literature. The Dao De Jing in particular is pure poetry.

[Jason Catalano · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a comprehensive review of foundational Chinese philosophical texts.

Van Norden and Ivanhoe are successful in delivering a thorough understanding of Chinese philosophy. However, the book could have benefited from a little more editorial commentary throughout the chapters. Additionally, there are some translations of words that I do not necessarily agree with. However, most Western translations of Chinese philosophy tend to be biased because of differences in understanding of Chinese thought. As a result, it is justifiable that many consider this one of the best sets of translations in the West.

[Corwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for GenEd: Chinese Ethical and Political Philosophy. Might just be me or the translation but it's difficult for me to take these ideas and the ways in which they are phrased seriously. The translations seem so repetitive and all over the place, like a jumble of poor prose. I enjoyed the variety of the ideas but seemed to be missing the depth of the texts in many ways. Potentially going through the raw sources instead of a selection of each and going line by line will serve me better.

[Leonardo Vasquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

The school of names and Zhuangzi changed the way I view the world, very refreshing and underrated philosophy. Also pretty comedic, enjoyable read.

"All existing things are really one. We regard those that are beautiful and rare as valuable, and those that are ugly as foul and rotten The foul and rotten may come to be transformed into what is rare and valuable, and the rare and valuable into what is foul and rotten."

[Angelo Cupo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Translations are (from what I can tell) very good and the selection of texts is interesting and spans multiple schools of Chinese philosophy. Both a good reference text and makes for interesting casual reading.

[Quentin Kinnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great textbook for Chinese ethics.

[Brandon Chin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a decent translation for understanding Chinese thought of the warring states period. The introduction along with annotations help provide much needed context to understanding the ideas of such thinkers.

However, if you're reading this without the goals and context of each thinker, you will extract the wrong ideas for which they are conveying. Reading this text alongside an online lecture provides the best understanding of the material.

A criticism would be that some of the selection passages make no sense within the wider context of ideas, and on its own simply adds confusion to the thoughts of said thinkers.
Some of the translations, especially regarding xin (the heart), cannot be understood as it is. You have to translate later warring states passages of xin (heart) to xin (heart-mind) or xin (mind). The philosophy between translating for understanding vs a faithful translation is debated, but as a reader it would be helpful for it to be translated as mind with an annotation stating it as xin.

I have seen criticisms of passages being contradictory or repetitive, but keep in mind that some of these thinkers are quite intentional in expressing certain concepts. One of Mozi's concepts in the beginning, when unpacked into English, takes up several sentences when in Mandarin it's one word. Laozi and the Zhuangzi are full of intentional contradictory passages.

Translations are difficult but I feel like the translation team did an excellent job. Zhuangzi was definitely my favourite, while Xunzi and Mengzi provide a more understandable framework coming from Western Philosophy.