Daniel Bell’s new book, Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters: Four Dialogues on China’s Past, Present, and Future, has just been published by Princeton University Press. You can learn more about it here, and there is a review of it in the Financial Times here.
Category Archives: Books of Interest
New Book: Harris, Meritocracy in Early Chinese Political Thought
Cambridge has published Eirik Harris’s new book, Meritocracy in Early Chinese Political Thought, in its Elements series. The book can be accessed here, and is free to download until June 3. For a summary, see below.
New Book: Kim, A Confucian Theory of Power
Sungmoon Kim’s A Confucian Theory of Power has been published by Manchester University Press (https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182661/). The book contains a lead essay by Kim, responses from several theorists, and Kim’s replies.
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.
New Book: Ivanhoe and Wang, Readings in Korean Confucian Philosophy
Philip J. Ivanhoe and Hwa Yeong Wang’s collection of translations of Korean Confucian thinkers Readings in Korean Confucian Philosophy (Hackett, 2026) has been published recently. Continue reading →
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.
Confucian Web 《儒家网》 Top 10 Books of 2025
The website Confucian Web 《儒家网》 has published a list of their top 10 books (in two categories: academic and popular) from 2025, together with brief descriptions. Please read more to see the full list. Continue reading →
New Book: Fuyarchuk, Linguistic Quandary of Environmental Hermeneutics
Andrew Fuyarchuk’s book Linguistic Quandary of Environmental Hermeneutics: Applications from Heidegger, Li Zehou, Gadamer and Zhuangzi has been published recently by Bloomsbury. Please see here to access the book. Continue reading →
New Book: Blake, Standards and Reference in Early Chinese Philosophy of Language
Season Blake’s book Standards and Reference in Early Chinese Philosophy of Language: Mohist Concepts, Practices, and Texts has been published by Bloomsbury; see here. Congratulations, Season!
