Author: Shadi Bartsch

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-01-10

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0691229597

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"Do the ancient Greek classics of politics and philosophy arouse interest among the Chinese? The answer, according to Shadi Bartsch, is a resounding yes. Works by Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and to a lesser extent Cicero and Vergil, generally unknown to China during the millennia-long dynastic system, have shown themselves "good to think with" in contemporary China, both at moments of crisis and revolution, and at moments of increasing confidence and nationalism. Even as classical studies wane in Europe and America, the Chinese believe they are indispensable to an understanding of Western culture. First treated as relevant to China's problems of modernization, now more likely to be invoked in discussions of what the Chinese feel is the loss of a moral compass of contemporary Europe and the United States, the Western classics are treated as more relevant than the west has ever treated the Confucian tradition. In this book, based on her 2018 Martin Lectures given annually at Oberlin college, Shadi Bartsch aims to tell the long history of reception of classics in China. It follows an arc in time from the mid-16th century, when the Jesuits first brought classical texts to China, to the events of the tumultuous 20th century-a time of reform, revolution, and repression-and the present day. Although the book is rooted in this history, its major concern is the contemporary situation in China. Bartsch reflects on Chinese intellectual responses to a number of different "classical" topics: Athenian democracy, Plato's "noble lie," the western emphasis on Socratic rationality, the use of Leo Strauss's non-democratic interpretation of these texts, and the struggle to reappropriate the heritage of the West in favor of China's current form of government. These studies help us to see ourselves as "other," reflected in the eyes of a different culture that believes in the value of all the ancients, European and Chinese, but that is decidedly more skeptical toward the modern west"--

Download or read book Plato Goes to China written by Shadi Bartsch and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-10 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Do the ancient Greek classics of politics and philosophy arouse interest among the Chinese? The answer, according to Shadi Bartsch, is a resounding yes. Works by Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and to a lesser extent Cicero and Vergil, generally unknown to China during the millennia-long dynastic system, have shown themselves "good to think with" in contemporary China, both at moments of crisis and revolution, and at moments of increasing confidence and nationalism. Even as classical studies wane in Europe and America, the Chinese believe they are indispensable to an understanding of Western culture. First treated as relevant to China's problems of modernization, now more likely to be invoked in discussions of what the Chinese feel is the loss of a moral compass of contemporary Europe and the United States, the Western classics are treated as more relevant than the west has ever treated the Confucian tradition. In this book, based on her 2018 Martin Lectures given annually at Oberlin college, Shadi Bartsch aims to tell the long history of reception of classics in China. It follows an arc in time from the mid-16th century, when the Jesuits first brought classical texts to China, to the events of the tumultuous 20th century-a time of reform, revolution, and repression-and the present day. Although the book is rooted in this history, its major concern is the contemporary situation in China. Bartsch reflects on Chinese intellectual responses to a number of different "classical" topics: Athenian democracy, Plato's "noble lie," the western emphasis on Socratic rationality, the use of Leo Strauss's non-democratic interpretation of these texts, and the struggle to reappropriate the heritage of the West in favor of China's current form of government. These studies help us to see ourselves as "other," reflected in the eyes of a different culture that believes in the value of all the ancients, European and Chinese, but that is decidedly more skeptical toward the modern west"--