Category Archives: Books of Interest

New Book: Fan, Between Shanshui and Landscape

Jiani Fan (范佳妮) has published a new book: 山水风景之间——中西诗画中的风景再现与美学 / Between Shanshui and Landscape: Toward a Comparative Aesthetics of Chinese and Western Poetry and Visual Arts (Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company (生活·读书·新知三联书店), April 2026).

The book focuses on Ancient Greek, Roman, Chinese, and modern French poetry and visual arts, and engages with aesthetic concepts such as Stimmung (mood/attunement), the Sublime, Ruins, and Emptiness (Vide), as well as their Chinese counterparts. A comparative journey across traditions and media.

Bell Reviews Bruya and Li, trans., Dialogues of Confucius

A review by Daniel Bell of Brian Bruya and Wenwen Li, trans., Dialogues of Confucius: The Complete Text (Princeton, 2026) has been published in the Times Literary Supplement. An excerpt:

…A magnificent new translation by Brian Bruya and Wenwen Li introduces this treasure of intellectual history to the anglophone world. We now know much more about Confucius the person, and about the context for some of the puzzling quotes in the Analects. Best of all, we learn new arguments that push the boundaries of the rich and complex Confucian tradition in new directions….

Book available: Qiu and Bunin eds., Collected Papers of Four Conferences on Democracy, Rule of Law, Human Rights, Good Governance

Nicholas Bunin has shared with me that a new book has just been published: Qiu Renzong and Nicholas Bunnin, eds, Collected Papers of Four Conferences on Democracy, Rule of Law, Human Rights, Good Governance 《政治哲学各论》 (Beijing, privately published, 2025). The PDF of this book is available free of charge for any students, colleagues and institutions that might benefit from using the text for research, teaching, study, review, printing paper copies or library acquisition. Please contact Professor Bunin with any questions.

 

 

 

New Book: Beaney, The Joy of Chinese Philosophy

Michael Beaney has just published The Joy of Chinese Philosophy (De Gruyter, 2026); see here for full-text access. The publisher’s blurb:

This book introduces some central ideas and themes in ancient Chinese philosophy through a detailed analysis of one famous passage – the happy fish dialogue – in the Zhuangzi, one of the two founding texts of Daoism. The Zhuangzi is the most exhilarating and intellectually challenging of all the texts of ancient Chinese literature, and appreciating its spirit is as important as understanding its ideas. Methodologically, this book shows how we can approach Chinese philosophy analytically, an approach that is needed if Chinese philosophy is to be recognized in Western (analytic) philosophy today. At the same time, it seeks to broaden our conceptions and practices of analysis and our methods and styles of philosophizing in learning from Chinese philosophy. Throughout the book the emphasis is on engaging the reader in thinking through the issues for themselves.

New Book: Song, Debating Transcendence: Creatio ex nihilo and Sheng Sheng

Bin Song’s Debating Transcendence: Creatio ex nihilo and Sheng Sheng has recently been published through Fordham University Press. Please read more to find the description of the book, or scan the QR code on this flyer to access the press’s website and the full book. Additionally, there is a 25% discount code DEBATING25 for purchase of both digital and the physical copies. Continue reading →