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Limited Views: Essays on Ideas and Letters
This translation of 65 pieces from Qian Zhongshu's Guanzhui bian (Limited Views) makes available for the first time in English a representative selection from Qian's massive four-volume collection of essays and reading notes on the classics of early Chinese literature. Qian Zhongshu (b.1910) is arguably contemporary China's foremost man of letters, and Limited Views is recognized as the culmination of his study of literature in both the Chinese and the Western traditions.
- GenresChinaPhilosophy
469 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1998
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About the author
Qian Zhongshu
30 books66 followersQian Zhongshu (Chinese name: 錢鍾書 / 钱钟书) (November 21, 1910 – December 19, 1998) was a Chinese literary scholar and writer, known for his wit and erudition.
He is best known for his satirical novel Fortress Besieged. His works of non-fiction are characterised by their large amount of quotations in both Chinese and Western languages (including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin). He also played an important role in digitizing Chinese classics late in his life.
(from Wikipedia)
He is best known for his satirical novel Fortress Besieged. His works of non-fiction are characterised by their large amount of quotations in both Chinese and Western languages (including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin). He also played an important role in digitizing Chinese classics late in his life.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 23, 2018
Limited Views is a canonical achievement for humanity. Qian Zhongshu’s incisive mind touches myriad topics gleaned from millenniums of Chinese literature and philosophies, while at the same time it incorporates hundreds of Western works pertinent to his topics. To give a better idea, think an encyclopedia in which not only information is enumerated but also the author (a single author!) guides readers, expounds relations among distinct philosophical/ scholarly/ literary issues, relates one topic to another and analyzes from multiple perspectives, and finally offers a gigantic picture of knowledge that one cannot help but read in awe.
Limited Views is hard to read even though the text can be deceivingly simple. Ronald Egan has done a great job at selecting and translating some of the work. But Limited Views is a multi-volume endeavor that deserves to be fully translated into English. Sadly, for now, we are stuck with Egan’s humble contribution. Egan’s introduction is also very helpful for non-Chinese speakers. He gives two major characteristics of Qian Zhongshu’s work. First, Zhongshu had aversion to systematization. He is devoted to the particular. But as those particulars are many, they make a totality that is much like a system. The second is much more important. Zhongshu aims to connect different things by breaking barriers between them. He juxtaposes two things and exacts a kind of new meaning. When discussing a topic, he gives examples from multiple points of views, both from Western and Chinese works. This is a delicate way of finding common awareness and tendencies in human thought and language.
The topics can appear seemingly unrelated or sometimes not much important. But by amassing many small units you comprehend the entirety, while by apprehending the entirety you string together the small units. Limited Views is a solid proof that works of art feed on each other and development of some ideas may take centuries. They are like a secret society.
Limited Views offers an experience that is like gazing at a star then slowly zooming out and being stupefied by the giant galaxies. While contemplating the starry sky you get lost in a single twinkling star again. Thus going back and forth, we encounter a unique portrait of continuities and discontinuities, similarities and enmities that make up civilizations. If you are familiar with Harold Bloom’s books on Western literature, or Ernst Robert Curtius’ seminal work on European literature, then you can see how hard it is to nudge sleeping classical works, some long forgotten, some half-remembered, and call them to join forces to revivify our drowsy mind. For scholars like Zhongshu, Bloom, and Curtius, literature is the heavenly road starting with Gilgamesh and leading to the sublime.
Limited Views is a superb achievement the best of scholars can only dream of. But like many great works, it demands careful readers who can sustain prolonged attention and concentration. It doesn’t intentionally try to be hard. But nor does it sacrifice intricate ways of conveying meaning. It never falls to the level of Stephen King, who for all his good intentions, shunned the word “zest” on the ground that works should be easy-to-read and not force readers to open a dictionary. Well, Stephen King failed to see that each different word, even synonyms that appear too similar, can offer a different shade of meaning, and as readers are exposed to many words, they become more adept at thinking and imagining.
Limited Views is a masterpiece. Not just an average masterpiece. But a work that is already a canonical classic.
Limited Views is hard to read even though the text can be deceivingly simple. Ronald Egan has done a great job at selecting and translating some of the work. But Limited Views is a multi-volume endeavor that deserves to be fully translated into English. Sadly, for now, we are stuck with Egan’s humble contribution. Egan’s introduction is also very helpful for non-Chinese speakers. He gives two major characteristics of Qian Zhongshu’s work. First, Zhongshu had aversion to systematization. He is devoted to the particular. But as those particulars are many, they make a totality that is much like a system. The second is much more important. Zhongshu aims to connect different things by breaking barriers between them. He juxtaposes two things and exacts a kind of new meaning. When discussing a topic, he gives examples from multiple points of views, both from Western and Chinese works. This is a delicate way of finding common awareness and tendencies in human thought and language.
The topics can appear seemingly unrelated or sometimes not much important. But by amassing many small units you comprehend the entirety, while by apprehending the entirety you string together the small units. Limited Views is a solid proof that works of art feed on each other and development of some ideas may take centuries. They are like a secret society.
Limited Views offers an experience that is like gazing at a star then slowly zooming out and being stupefied by the giant galaxies. While contemplating the starry sky you get lost in a single twinkling star again. Thus going back and forth, we encounter a unique portrait of continuities and discontinuities, similarities and enmities that make up civilizations. If you are familiar with Harold Bloom’s books on Western literature, or Ernst Robert Curtius’ seminal work on European literature, then you can see how hard it is to nudge sleeping classical works, some long forgotten, some half-remembered, and call them to join forces to revivify our drowsy mind. For scholars like Zhongshu, Bloom, and Curtius, literature is the heavenly road starting with Gilgamesh and leading to the sublime.
Limited Views is a superb achievement the best of scholars can only dream of. But like many great works, it demands careful readers who can sustain prolonged attention and concentration. It doesn’t intentionally try to be hard. But nor does it sacrifice intricate ways of conveying meaning. It never falls to the level of Stephen King, who for all his good intentions, shunned the word “zest” on the ground that works should be easy-to-read and not force readers to open a dictionary. Well, Stephen King failed to see that each different word, even synonyms that appear too similar, can offer a different shade of meaning, and as readers are exposed to many words, they become more adept at thinking and imagining.
Limited Views is a masterpiece. Not just an average masterpiece. But a work that is already a canonical classic.
December 26, 2007
Wonderfully satirical and deeply profound, both about religious professionals (applicable to any tradition) and the art of communication through resonance. Favorite bit was the recently-converted-to-Catholicism-Turk's response to being chastised for eating meat on Friday. Seems like a great parallel for most of the absurdity that goes on in conservative theology.
January 29, 2021
This book is a showcase of a genius that comprehended Western and Chinese literary, cultural, and social traditions like probably no one before. His writing style is genial, his method of contrast/striking comparisons is immensely insightful. Definitely one of the best studies in traditional Chinese literary tradition.
July 3, 2019
A masterpiece of classical Chinese.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews