Customer Reviews

Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book gets the majority of its bulk from direct translations of actual Chinese texts, and as such it is an indespensible tool for any student interested in Chinese religions and philosohpies. There is very little input on the part of the editors and I, personally, was very thankful this. It can be dreadfully difficult trying to find sources that aren't mired in thousands of pages of theory and speculation, and sometimes a person just needs the root text! An awesome book.

I'll make this short...For anyone interested in Chinese history, literature, or culture, this volume is an absolutely essential collection of primary sources, and includes prefaces and explanations by China scholars. There is no one better than de Bary, and this new edition includes everything from the 1960 edition up through the Jiang Zemin era.

Bought it for a college course and surprise (!) ended up reading it! It can be a bit dry of course, but its a pretty interesting read if you're into that kind of stuff. If you have no interest in history well then obviously this book is not for you.

Also it is HUGE. I definitely did not read the entire textbook. At whatever price you are paying for this book, the price per page is less than a penny. It weighs about 5 pounds and is fatter than a two cheeeseburgers stacked on top of each other.

Still, decent read, heavy, and if you can get it for under 10 dollars you are probably getting a good deal.

I think the book is excellent and it is exactly what is meant for. However, the Chinese historical sources are so far away from my mindset that I found it difficult and quite boring.

Try first the second volume first (it is more meant for non-historians or non-philosophers). In case you love it you can try the first one.

Bought this book for a course. Comprehensive - very detailed accounts of history and philosophy. The professor doesn't really "teach," so this book has been an invaluable resource.

I wanted to love this -- I mean, it has everything there to love it: history, primary documents, and analysis by leading scholars on the subjects.

Unfortunately there were a few things that I found really disturbing. For example, the author spells "tao" as "dao" or he spells "Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching" as "Laozi's Daodejing" - furthermore, although I've never read the analects or the Xunzi or the Mencius before, etc... These are just minor gripes -- disturbing, however, knowing that if he spells these things differently he might spell everything else differently as well....

Furthermore, I have read the Tao Te Ching before and thought that (a) the excerpts here were poorly selected and (b) the translations were mediocre. I would not be surprised if the same held true for the other selections in the rest of the book.

Part of me wishes to say: Get this book and introduce yourself to these great traditions of thought!! It covers such a wide expanse of history and goes into surprising detail.

But another part of me wants to say: get the best translations of the primary documents and study these traditions individually.

I think, actually, the latter option would be far more rewarding. There's nothing worse than reading a poor selection of a poor translation and then thinking to yourself: this is terrible -- when really it is a work that, had you read a better selection and a better translation, you would have fallen in love with.