Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773-819

by Jo-Shui Chen

Overview

This is the first comprehensive study in a Western language of Liu Tsung-Yüan, one of the finest prose stylists China has ever produced. Liu was not only a leading writer of T'ang China (618-906) but also an important thinker of his time. Examining every major aspect of his life and thought, the book also discusses the relationship of his thought to mid-T'ang intellectual changes and offers a new interpretation of the origins of a key intellectual watershed, the rise of Neo-Confucianism in the eleventh century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521419642
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/27/1992
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Maps; Chronology; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Literati and thought in the early and middle T'ang; 2. Liu Tsung-yüan and the circumstances of Ch'ang-an; 3. 805: the abortive reform; 4. Declaration of principles: Tao and antiquity; 5. Heaven, the supernatural, and Tao; 6. Literary theory, canonical studies and beyond; 7. Sources of Liu's Confucian thought; 8, The private sphere; Conclusion; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Chen's copious documentation is impressive on the whole... ...Chen's book is a strong and solid contribution to T'ang intellectual history, going beyond two previous studies in western languages..." Canadian Journal of History

"It is competent, creative, and ambitious in concept....Scholars of the T'ang will be grateful for this work and will learn much from it." R. W. L. Guisso, Pacific Affairs

"...a thorough and scholarly study and a valuable addition to the small body of material that is available on the subject in English." Edwin G. Pulleyblank, China Review International

From the Publisher