An Intellectual History of Modern China (Cambridge Modern China Series) 1st Edition

by Merle Goldman (Editor), Leo Ou-fan Lee (Editor)

3 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0521797108

ISBN-10: 0521797101

Why is ISBN important?

Other Sellers

from

Other Sellers

See all 3 versions

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Einstein's Corner

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

FREE delivery Thursday, July 14. Order within 9 hrs 44 mins

Or fastest delivery Tuesday, July 12

Select delivery location

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

FREE delivery Thursday, July 14

Or fastest delivery Saturday, July 9. Order within 9 hrs 44 mins

Select delivery location

Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.

An Intellectual History of Modern China is the only comprehensive book on modern China's intellectual development from the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century.While existing studies tend to focus on individual Chinese thinkers, this book includes all the major Chinese thinkers, as well as political figures who have influenced China's modern history. Merle Goldman and Leo Ou-fan Lee introduce this this collection of essays, drawn from the later volumes (Volumes 12, 13, 14, 15) of The Cambridge History of China. The chapters, authored by eminent historians and social scientists in the field of Chinese studies, together trace the transformation of Confucian ideas, the introduction of Western views and the resulting, uniquely Chinese view of the world. By linking key intellectual developments and figures to emerging political movements, they explain the profound impact of changing ideas and values on Chinese politics and revolution. Merle Goldman brings the history up to date with a new, concluding chapter on the post-Mao era and China's intellectual scene at the end of the twentieth century.

Create your FREE Amazon Business account to save up to 10% with Business-only prices and free shipping. Register today

Frequently bought together

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

One of these items ships sooner than the other.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

by Merle Goldman Paperback
$48.99
Get it as soon as Thursday, Jul 14 FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
by Timothy Corrigan Paperback
$89.93
Get it as soon as Thursday, Jul 14 FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Super Hero Books and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.

Products related to this item
Sponsored Hide feedback

Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload video

Customer reviews

5 star		100%
4 star 0% (0%)		0%
3 star 0% (0%)		0%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Verdent Liu

Good!

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2019

Good.

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2022

“An Intellectual History of Modern China (Cambridge Modern China Series)”; 1st Edition by Merle Goldman and Leo Ou-fan Lee (Editors); © 2002; 607 pages, softcover.

Eight chapters follow the introduction by the editors.

The first chapters by Charlotte Furth addresses the reform movement to the May Fourth Movement (1895–1920). The second chapter by Benjamin I. Schwartz picks up with the May Fourth Movement and discusses the implications of this hallmark time that still echoes in modern times. Leo Ou-fan Lee discusses literary trends in the next two chapters, divided between 1895–1927 and 1927–1949. Stuart Schram describes Mao Tse-Tung’s thought up to 1949 in Chapter 5 and will continue this focus in Chapter 7 for 1949–1976. In between, Merle Goldman discusses the Party and intellectuals in Chapter 6 and then describes the relationships with intellectual after Mao’s death in the final Chapter 8. While there are plenty of references back to the earlier Chinese Imperial history and Confucian thought, the focus is nearly all on the 1900s, and therefore does not reference scholars of early Chinese history such as Herrlee Glessner Creel or Derk Bode.

Throughout the book, the Western reader will be surprised and impressed with the extent that Chinese society focuses on intellectuals. While the later chapters discuss the anti-intellectual actions of Mao in the Cultural Revolution era, it should be noted that modern China has bounced back and will never make that mistake again. In the West, intellectualism can hardly risk mentioning its name. With the fall of the Imperial system comes a brief questioning of traditional values and some who would totally discard the Chinese heritage and language in order to Westernize in full. Thus, the May Fourth movement of 1919 forever remains an event in the near background of modern thinking today. Confucianism views public assemblies as a way to achieve common consensus. Yet, some saw the “materialist West” as inferior to the “Spiritual East.” Confucianism is clearly seen as unrelated to religious views, no concern for any after-life, and based on a compatibility with science. Neotraditionalism is therefore seen as a “...gradual ‘Westernization’ of Confucian philosophy.” A major factor in Chinese disfavor of the West was the 1919 Versailles Treaty that maintained colonial intrusion into China.

The May Fourth (1919) movement is triggered by 3,000 students from various Beijing universities rallying at the Gate of heavenly Peace. Western readers will not likely understand the respect that China has for student protests, but it underlies not only this event but also the student protests to the official Chinese reaction to the Japan advance on Beijing before WWII, and likewise explains why the student protest at Tiananmen Square in 1989 was tolerated for so long. Some factions argued for a “positivistic evolutionism” to pull away from traditional culture that inhibited creativity, while others looked to “dialectic revolutionism” Sun Yat-sen pointed to the existence of village democracies as a model to be enlarged. Some of this discussion of the “New Culture movement” was driven by “New Literature” that si well-discussed throughout this book. John Dewey had come to China to lecture in 1919 and his view that science and democracy were inseparable had a following. This resulted in the May Fourth movement being a push to educate the masses, emancipate women and reform schools, and a protest against foreign imperialism. But China was unique in lacking the “class antagonism found in the West. While some Chinese were against all Chinese tradition, other groups looked for Chinese equivalents in Western ideas.
I personally find the debate enlightening in understanding modern Chinese perspectives of science to be heavily slanted towards a paradigm built by observation and experiment and far less on mathematico-deductive hypothesis construction. I often lecture on “you don’t get Nobel prizes for memorizing the science textbook, but for asking new questions.” This gains better response from those young professors who have spent time in Western science labs, but the view of science as known certainty dates back to this earlier cultural perspective on science.

In the chapter on literary trends, Lu Hsun looms large among the many authors surveyed in Chapter 3. By Chapter 4, the collective orientation of Communist literature enters during a more ‘mature’ phase of literary creativity in the 1930s. Lu Hsun also points out that the illiterate poor cannot enjoy literature and it is unreasonable to demand or expect “immediate products from the proletariat.” Various societies form among intellectuals with “nationalist literature” by the Left-wing League, etc. It is interesting that “literary control policies” had little impact on CCP writers. The Japanese invasion in 1937 re-focused all writing to national resistance. But as the Kuomintang targeted CCP writers in the KMT “white terror,” the intellectuals flocked to the CCP. In addition, the CCP home camp in Yenan becomes center stage for building their new message. I have been fortunate enough to spend a week at that historical region, the destination at the end of the Long March and the CCP command base for fighting the Japanese, and the printing presses and many B&W photos show the churning of ideas. Lu Hsun, who died in 1936, is quoted: “literature is never content with the status quo, while politics always seeks to preserve it.”

The first focus on Mao’s thought up to 1949 in Chapter 5 reveals he does not consider all of Western or Chinese ancient thought to be correct. Mao writes: “Wherever there is repression of the individual, wherever there is a violation of individuality, there can be no greater crime.” Here I discover that no less than Bertrand Russell had just lectured at Changsha. At this time, Mao writes that “...the political organization of a country [countryside] and the political organization of a factory are different in nature....” This would become a key difference between Mao’s communism and that of Lenin. Mao considered the peasantry to have more revolutionary potential, which was critical to his future success in China, and makes Maoism quite different from the Marxism of Lenin and Stalin. This would of course lead to much post-1949 disruption as peasants were able to speak their bitterness and “stand up as men at last.”

Chapter 6 proceeds to the Anti-Rightist campaign, anti-intellectualism and the Great Leap Forward disaster. Here we see expressed the declaration that “As long as experts show results in their profession and contribute to the construction of socialism, their should be no objection to their taking only a small part in political activity.” This of course would soon change. But today, I find that 50 to 70 percent of my
science colleagues at universities are not party members and today do not attend any political activities. There is also a trend (to be totally ignored during the later Cultural Revolution) to alter strategies during the many common thought reform sessions: “...instead of reforming the intellectual by coercion, they were to wash him with ‘gentle breezes and mild rain.’” Going further: “”...in reforming another individual, one must ‘not hurt his feelings or deal blows to his soul. One must be patient and understanding. ...The discussions in these groups were to be conducted as informal chats rather than a confessions extorted by the cadres. If ideological ‘mistakes’ were made in the course of a chat, the individual was not bo be ostracized but was to remain part of the group and be treated in a comradely fashion.” Nevertheless, many scholars remained silent since their views on academic subjects might contradict Party positions. Chapter 7 continues Mao’s thought from 1949 until his death in 1976.

The final chapter discusses the relationships with intellectuals in the post-Mao era up through the actions of Jiang Zemin. Here it is necessary to understand Hu Yaobang and his work under Deng Xiaoping. Hu called for end of lifelong tenure, limiting terms in office, and adoption of more specific rules of law. A few adherents even considered “rights” to be universal rather than culturally derived. A most insightful quote is “democratic elections may not necessarily choose leaders of the best quality, but they ensure that bad leaders will not be able to remain in power.” A view of “neo-authoritarianism” is described. While various schools of thought are working at high levels, from neo-Maoists to Liberals, there is little support that a “Western democratic path would lead China to the stable, harmonious future they were all seeking.” The greatest fear is that chaos [luàn] would result, a fear that can find full justification in the U.S. political situation of today.

Helpful

An Intellectual History of Modern China (Cambridge Modern China Series) 1st Edition

Special offers and product promotions

Frequently bought together

Products related to this item
Sponsored Hide feedback

Videos

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

An Intellectual History of Modern China (Cambridge Modern China Series) 1st Edition

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Buy used: $30.64

Buy new: $48.99

Special offers and product promotions

Frequently bought together

Videos

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Buy used:

$30.64

Buy new:

$48.99