What do you think?
Rate this book
Zhu XI's Reading of the "Analects": Canon, Commentary and the Classical Tradition (Asian Studies) (Paperback) - Common
Excellent Book
- GenresPhilosophy
184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
3 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 11, 2023
In the author’s own words, "This book is both a study of the commentarial genre and an intellectual history, showing what is distinctive about Zhu Xi’s understanding of the Confucian tradition."
The problem with this approach is that Zhu Xi’s Collected Commentaries on the Analects is not an analysis of Zhu Xi’s commentarial style; it’s an outward-facing text, written by Confucians to transmit the way to would-be Confucians. It aims to influence its readers, both emotionally and intellectually, and inspire them to put the teachings into practice. And so Gardener’s book ends up entirely intellectual, distanced and clinical, and not at all like reading Zhu Xi’s famous book in the native language.
The translations are fairly accurate in terms of intellectual meaning. However, they lack the persuasive writing style that Zhu Xi used, a style that influenced billions of people in East Asia. And these translations are also nestled between the author's extensive commentary (which, although useful and insightful, alters the overall feel).
This book covers only a small portion of the 500 Analects verses, and instead of presenting them in their original order, they are grouped by topics, making navigation challenging. For each verse that is covered, both He Yan and Zhu Xi’s commentaries are presented in full, with the classical Chinese for both provided in the appendix, followed by an analysis by the author.
If you’re interested in Western academic analysis, then this might be for you.
The problem with this approach is that Zhu Xi’s Collected Commentaries on the Analects is not an analysis of Zhu Xi’s commentarial style; it’s an outward-facing text, written by Confucians to transmit the way to would-be Confucians. It aims to influence its readers, both emotionally and intellectually, and inspire them to put the teachings into practice. And so Gardener’s book ends up entirely intellectual, distanced and clinical, and not at all like reading Zhu Xi’s famous book in the native language.
The translations are fairly accurate in terms of intellectual meaning. However, they lack the persuasive writing style that Zhu Xi used, a style that influenced billions of people in East Asia. And these translations are also nestled between the author's extensive commentary (which, although useful and insightful, alters the overall feel).
This book covers only a small portion of the 500 Analects verses, and instead of presenting them in their original order, they are grouped by topics, making navigation challenging. For each verse that is covered, both He Yan and Zhu Xi’s commentaries are presented in full, with the classical Chinese for both provided in the appendix, followed by an analysis by the author.
If you’re interested in Western academic analysis, then this might be for you.
Displaying 1 of 1 review