Plato goes to China : the Greek classics and Chinese nationalism / Shadi Bartsch.
"Do the ancient Greek classics of politics and philosophy arouse interest among the Chinese? The answer, according to Shadi Bartsch, is a resounding yes. Works by Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and to a lesser extent Cicero and Vergil, generally unknown to China during the millennia-long dynasti...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English Multiple |
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Princeton, New Jersey :
Princeton University Press,
[2023]
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| Summary: | "Do the ancient Greek classics of politics and philosophy arouse interest among the Chinese? The answer, according to Shadi Bartsch, is a resounding yes. Works by Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and to a lesser extent Cicero and Vergil, generally unknown to China during the millennia-long dynastic system, have shown themselves "good to think with" in contemporary China, both at moments of crisis and revolution, and at moments of increasing confidence and nationalism. Even as classical studies wane in Europe and America, the Chinese believe they are indispensable to an understanding of Western culture. First treated as relevant to China's problems of modernization, now more likely to be invoked in discussions of what the Chinese feel is the loss of a moral compass of contemporary Europe and the United States, the Western classics are treated as more relevant than the west has ever treated the Confucian tradition. In this book, based on her 2018 Martin Lectures given annually at Oberlin college, Shadi Bartsch aims to tell the long history of reception of classics in China. It follows an arc in time from the mid-16th century, when the Jesuits first brought classical texts to China, to the events of the tumultuous 20th century-a time of reform, revolution, and repression-and the present day. Although the book is rooted in this history, its major concern is the contemporary situation in China. Bartsch reflects on Chinese intellectual responses to a number of different "classical" topics: Athenian democracy, Plato's "noble lie," the western emphasis on Socratic rationality, the use of Leo Strauss's non-democratic interpretation of these texts, and the struggle to reappropriate the heritage of the West in favor of China's current form of government. These studies help us to see ourselves as "other," reflected in the eyes of a different culture that believes in the value of all the ancients, European and Chinese, but that is decidedly more skeptical toward the modern west"-- "The surprising story of how Greek classics are being pressed into use in contemporary China to support the regime's political agenda. As improbable as it may sound, an illuminating way to understand today's China and how it views the West is to look at the astonishing ways Chinese intellectuals are interpreting-or is it misinterpreting?-the Greek classics. In Plato Goes to China, Shadi Bartsch offers a provocative look at Chinese politics and ideology by exploring Chinese readings of Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and other ancient writers. She shows how Chinese thinkers have dramatically recast the Greek classics to support China's political agenda, diagnose the ills of the West, and assert the superiority of China's own Confucian classical tradition.In a lively account that ranges from the Jesuits to Xi Jinping, Bartsch traces how the fortunes of the Greek classics have changed in China since the seventeenth century. Before the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the Chinese typically read Greek philosophy and political theory in order to promote democratic reform or discover the secrets of the success of Western democracy and science. No longer. Today, many Chinese intellectuals use these texts to critique concepts such as democracy, citizenship, and rationality. Plato's "Noble Lie," in which citizens are kept in their castes through deception, is lauded; Aristotle's Politics is seen as civic brainwashing; and Thucydides' criticism of Athenian democracy is applied to modern America.What do antiquity's "dead white men" have left to teach? By uncovering the unusual ways Chinese thinkers are answering that question, Plato Goes to China opens a surprising new window on China today"-- |
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| Physical Description: | xv, 279 pages ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780691229591 0691229597 |