Fundamentals of Chinese Culture / / Liang Shuming.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2021
• VerfasserIn: Shuming, Liang,
• MitwirkendeR: Ming, Li,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (416 p.)

Chinese culture, to readers of English, is somewhat veiled in mystery. Fundamentals of Chinese Culture (in pinyin, Zhongguo wenhua yaoyi), a classic of great insight and profundity by noted Chinese thinker, educator and social reformist Liang Shuming, takes readers on an intellectual journey into the five-thousand-year-old culture of China, the world's oldest continuous civilization. With a set of "Chinese-style" cultural theories, the book well serves as a platform for Westerners' better understanding of the distinctive worldview of the Chinese people, who value family life, group-centered life and social stability, and for further mutual understanding and greater mutual consolidation among humanities scholars in different contexts, dismantling common misconceptions about China and bridging the gap between Chinese culture and Western culture. As a translation of Liang Shuming's original text, this book pulls back the curtain to reveal to Westerners a highly complex and nuanced picture of a fascinating people.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- About Liang Shuming and Fundamentals of Chinese Culture -- Acknowledgements -- Preface to This Translation -- Liang’s Preface -- Chapter One Introduction -- Chapter Two “Family” to Chinese People -- Chapter Three Westerners Living as a Group -- Chapter Four Chinese People’s Lack of Group-centered Life -- Chapter Five China as an Ethics-Oriented Society -- Chapter Six Morality as Religion -- Chapter Seven Rationality – A Human Characteristic -- Chapter Eight Class Divisions and Professional Distinction -- Chapter Nine China: A Nation or Not? -- Chapter Ten Governance and Times of Peace and Prosperity -- Chapter Eleven A Cycle of Times of Peace and Prosperity and Periods of Chaos -- Chapter Twelve Human Cultural Precocity -- Chapter Thirteen China after Cultural Precocity -- Chapter Fourteen Conclusion -- Select Bibliography -- Index