Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 2: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century

by William Theodore de Bary (Editor), Richard John Lufrano (Compilation)

For four decades Sources of Chinese Tradition has served to introduce Western readers to Chinese civilization as it has been seen through basic writings and historical documents of the Chinese themselves. Now in its second edition, revised and extended through Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin–era China, this classic volume remains unrivaled for its wide selection of source readings on history, society, and thought in the world's largest nation. Award-winning China scholar Wm. Theodore de Bary―who edited the first edition in 1960―and his coeditor Richard Lufrano have revised and updated the second volume of Sources to reflect the interactions of ideas, institutions, and historical events from the seventeenth century up to the present day.

Beginning with Qing civilization and continuing to contemporary times, volume II brings together key source texts from more than three centuries of Chinese history, with opening essays by noted China authorities providing context for readers not familiar with the period in question.

Here are just a few of the topics covered in this second volume of Sources of Chinese

• Early Sino-Western contacts in the seventeenth century;

• Four centuries of Chinese reflections on differences between Eastern and Western civilizations;

• Nineteenth- and twentieth-century reform movements, with treatises on women's rights, modern science, and literary reform;

• Controversies over the place of Confucianism in modern Chinese society;

• The nationalist revolution―including readings from Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek;

• The communist revolution―with central writings by Mao Zedong;

• Works from contemporary China―featuring political essays from Deng Xiaoping and dissidents including Wei Jingsheng.

With more than two hundred selections in lucid, readable translation by today's most renowned experts on Chinese language and civilization, Sources of Chinese Tradition will continue to be recognized as the standard for source readings on Chinese civilization, an indispensable learning tool for scholars and students of Asian civilizations.

Genres: China, History, Philosophy, Reference, Asia, Nonfiction, Taoism

656 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1964

About the author

William Theodore de Bary was an East Asian studies expert at Columbia University, with the title John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University and Provost Emeritus.

De Bary graduated from Columbia College in 1941, where he was a student in the first iteration of Columbia's famed Literature Humanities course. He then briefly took up graduate studies at Harvard before the US entered the Second World War. De Bary left the academy to serve in American military intelligence in the Pacific Theatre. Upon his return, he resumed his studies at Columbia, where he earned his PhD.

He has edited numerous books of original source material relating to East Asian (primarily Japanese and Chinese) literature, history, and culture, as well as making the case, in his book Nobility and Civility, for the universality of Asian values. He is recognized as essentially creating the field of Neo-Confucian studies.

Additionally, DeBary was active in faculty intervention during the Columbia University protests of 1968 and served as the university's provost from 1971 to 1978. He has attempted to reshape the Core Curriculum of Columbia College to include Great Books classes devoted to non-Western civilizations. DeBary is additionally famous for rarely missing a Columbia Lions football game since he began teaching at the university in 1953. A recognized educator, he won Columbia's Great Teacher Award in 1969, its Lionel Trilling Book Award in 1983 and its Mark Van Doren Award for Great Teaching in 1987.

Now the director of the Heyman Center for the Humanities and still teaching, De Bary lives in Rockland County, New York.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_de_Bary

Reviews

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an old book but invaluable for tracing Chinese history from the 17th century to Maoist China. It contains many essays by contemporary writers that offer great insight as to how the cultural machine of China operated and progressed.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an absolutely excellent book to draw primary sources from for teaching purposes. I used many passages from this volume to give to my students to read for a course on Chinese intellectual history. I will use it again. I only wish they could update it for the sources in the 21st century more.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good source of primary documents for research.

[James Violand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent synopsis of Chinese thought.

[Mesoscope · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very useful adjunct to a study of Chinese history with many excerpts from classical texts assembled and presented in highly-readable translations.