Two exciting new translations: Yang Xiong’s Fa Yan, by Michael Nylan; and the Mozi, by Knoblock and Riegel. Read on!
Exemplary Figures / Fayan
Yang Xiong. Translated and Introduced by Michael Nylan
- paperback not available
- $75.00s hardcover (9780295992891)
- Published: March 2013
- Subject Listing: Asian Studies, Chinese Literature
- Bibliographic information: 368 pp., 2 maps, text in Chinese and English, notes, glossary, bibliog., index, 6 x 9 in.
- Territorial rights: World
- Series: Classics of Chinese Thought
http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/NYLEXE.html#contents
Exemplary Figures (sometimes translated as Model Sayings) is an unabridged, annotated translation of Fayan, one of three major works by the Chinese court poet-philosopher Yang Xiong (53 BCE-18 CE). Yang sought to “renew the old” by patterning these works on earlier classics, drawing inspiration from the Confucian Analects for Exemplary Figures. In this philosophical masterwork, constructed as a dialogue, Yang poses and then answers questions on philosophical, political, ethical, and literary matters. Michael Nylan’s rendering of this text, which is laden with word play and is extraordinarily difficult to translate, is a joy to read-at turns wise, cautionary, and playful.Exemplary Figures is a core text that will be relied upon by scholars of Chinese history and philosophy and will be of interest to comparativists as well.
Michael Nylan is professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of The Five “Confucian” Classics and Yang Xiong and The Pleasures of Reading and Classical Learning, coauthor of Lives of Confucius, and translator of The Canon of Supreme Mystery by Yang Xiong.
“Fayan is one of the most important early Chinese texts. Carefully wrought and rich with historical insights and philosophical ruminations, it provides an invaluable window to the extraordinary mind of its creator, Yang Xiong, and the cross currents of his cultural moment. Nylan’s masterful translation is a great stylistic and philological achievement. She renders Yang Xiong’s prose with wit, fluency, and accuracy and provides the necessary contexts for understanding the text in her copious and helpful notes.” – Wai-Yee Li, Harvard University
Mozi: A Study and Translation of the Ethical and Political Writings
Institute of East Asian Studies
2013. 501 pp.
ISBN 10: 1-55729-103-9
ISBN 13: 978-1-55729-103-5
$40.00
The authors of the Mozi, an anthology of enormous scope and great importance, can be credited with having produced, during the Warring States period (453–221 BCE), the earliest extended philosophical discourse in China on a varied set of topics that range from aggressive warfare and prolonged mourning for the dead, to frugality, love for others and belief in divine agency. Professor Riegel’s study and translation offers a new interpretation of the Mozi’s thirty six chapters on political and ethical philosophy. Based on an initial translation by the late John Knoblock, Riegel’s groundbreaking work attempts to understand the Mozi in light of excavated manuscripts and recent scholarship on ancient Chinese philosophy.
Contents
Tables — x
Preface — xi
Abbreviations and Conventions — xvi
Introduction — 1
I. Portrayals of Mozi — 1
- Dates and Birthplace — 1
- Master Mo and Master Kong — 2
- Master Mo and the Xia Legacy — 2
- Mozi as a Baseborn Artisan — 4
- Mozi the Magician — 5
II. The Mohist School — 7
- The Three Branches of Mohism — 7
- The First-Generation Disciples — 9
- The Grand Master — 9
- The “Law” of the Mohist Community — 11
III. The Creation of the Text of the Mozi — 14
IV. Mohism’s Fate — 16
- Dates and Birthplace — 16
- Mozi’s Daoist Persona — 18
- Knowledge of Mozi during the Tang and Song — 21
- The Ming and Qing Reassessment — 23
- Mozi in the Twentieth Century — 24
V. The Philosophy of the Political and Ethical Chapters — 26
- The Chapters of Group 2 — 27
- The Chapters of Group 1 — 36
- The Chapters of Group 4 — 39
Group 1: The Syncretic Writings
Chapter 1: Cherishing Gentlemen — 41
Chapter 2: Cultivate the Self — 47
Chapter 3: On Dyes — 51
Chapter 4: On the Proper Model — 56
Chapter 5: Seven Worries — 61
Chapter 6: Avoiding Excess — 67
Chapter 7: Three Disputes — 75
Group 2: The Ten Doctrines
Exalt the Worthy — 79
Chapter 8: Exalt the Worthy (Upper) — 82
Chapter 9: Exalt the Worthy (Middle) — 87
Chapter 10: Exalt the Worthy (Lower) — 100
Exalt Conformity — 108
Chapter 11: Exalt Conformity (Upper) — 112
Chapter 12: Exalt Conformity (Middle) — 116
Chapter 13: Exalt Conformity (Lower) — 129
Impartial Love — 139
Chapter 14: Impartial Love (Upper) — 145
Chapter 15: Impartial Love (Middle) — 149
Chapter 16: Impartial Love (Lower) — 155
Condemn Aggression — 169
Chapter 17: Condemn Aggression (Upper) — 171
Chapter 18: Condemn Aggression (Middle) — 174
Chapter 19: Condemn Aggression (Lower) — 180
Moderate Consumption — 192
Chapter 20: Moderate Consumption (Upper) — 193
Chapter 21: Moderate Consumption (Middle) — 196
Moderate Burials — 201
Chapter 25: Moderate Burials (Lower) — 203
Heaven’s Will — 219
Chapter 26: Heaven’s Will (Upper) — 223
Chapter 27: Heaven’s Will (Middle) — 229
Chapter 28: Heaven’s Will (Lower) — 241
Explaining Ghosts — 252
Chapter 31: Explaining Ghosts (Lower) — 254
Condemn Music — 273
Chapter 32: Condemn Music (Upper) — 275
Condemn Fatalism — 284
Chapter 35: Condemn Fatalism (Upper) — 289
Chapter 36: Condemn Fatalism (Middle) — 297
Chapter 37: Condemn Fatalism (Lower) — 302
Group 4: Condemn the Ru and the “Mohist Analects”
Chapter 39: Condemn the Ru (Lower) — 312
Chapter 46: Master Gengzhu — 326
Chapter 47: Valuing Righteousness — 340
Chapter 48: Master Gongmeng — 352
Chapter 49: The Lord of Lu Asks a Question — 369
Chapter 50: Master Gongshu — 387
Appendix A — 391
Appendix B — 393
Appendix C — 396
Additional Notes — 401
Bibliography — 479
Index — 491
