Description
Book SynopsisOver the course of the eighteenth century, European intellectuals shifted from admiring China as a utopian place of wonder to despising it as a backwards and despotic state. That transformation had little to do with changes in China itself, and everything to do with Enlightenment conceptions of political identity and Europe’s own burgeoning global power.
China in the German Enlightenment considers the place of German philosophy, particularly the work of Leibniz, Goethe, Herder, and Hegel, in this development. Beginning with the first English translation of Walter Demel’s classic essay “How the Chinese Became Yellow,” the collection’s essays examine the connections between eighteenth-century philosophy, German Orientalism, and the origins of modern race theory.
Trade Review'The book collects eight remarkably coherent essays by historians, philosophers, and Germanists... After reading these well-crafted essays, we cannot help feeling the gratification afforded by new historical knowledge.' -- Chenxi Tang The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory vol 92:02:2017
Table of ContentsIntroduction Daniel Purdy and Bettina Brandt 1. How the Chinese became Yellow: A Contribution to the Early History of Race Theories Walter Demel 2. Leibniz on the Existence of Philosophy in China Franklin Perkins 3. Leibniz between Paris, Grand Tartary, and the Far East: Gerbillon's Intercepted Letter Michael C. Carhart 4. The Problem of China: Asia and Enlightenment Anthropology (Buffon, de Pauw, Blumenbach, Herder) Carl Niekerk 5. Localizing China: Of Knowledge, Genres, and German Literary Historiography Birgit Tautz 6. Eradicating the Orientalists: Goethe's Chinesisch-deutsche Jahres- und Tageszeiten John K. Noyes 7. China on Parade: Hegel's Manipulation of His Sources and His Change of Mind Robert Bernasconi 8. Neo-Romantic Modernism and Daoism: Martin Buber on the Teaching as Fulfillment Jeffrey S. Librett
