Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe editors and translators of this volume have masterfully rendered into English the works of the fascinating-and highly controversial-Li Zhi, who significantly impacted late Ming thought. We will never look at the diversity of Chinese culture the same way again. -- Kang-i Sun Chang, Yale University A rich translation of essays revealing Li Zhi as the epitome of dissent. His tragic suicide culminated Li's life as a free thinker, but at the same time his enemies immortalized him as someone who had defrocked Ming autocracy of its elegantly woven orthodoxies. He also provided Ming precedents for political repression under the Republic of China and the People's Republic. The PRC ironically appropriated Li Zhi's rhetoric, pretending that everyone was now liberated, as long as they towed the party line. Later Pierre Bourdieu honored him as China's homo academicus! -- Benjamin A. Elman, Princeton University This volume of judiciously selected and aptly translated works by Li Zhi provides clear glimpses of his mental landscape and the ambient world of late Ming thought. The expert translators have revised hackneyed conventional interpretations of Li, enabling readers to form their own views of this early modern savant. -- On-cho Ng, Pennsylvania State University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Conventions and Abbreviations Introduction Selections from A Book to Burn (Fenshu) Part I: Prefaces Part II: Letters Part III: Miscellaneous Writings: Short Essays and Discourses Part IV: Readings of History Part V: Poetry Selections from Another Book to Burn (Xu fenshu) Part I: Prefaces Part II: Letters Part III: Miscellaneous Writings: Short Essays and Discourses Part IV: Poetry From A Book to Keep (Hidden) (Cangshu) (1599) The Historical Record Chronology of Li Zhi's Life Bibliography List of Contributors Index
