An approachable edition of Mencius’ philosophy that makes his wit and wisdom relevant for a new age.
An annotated edition of a classic Chinese philosophical treatise, which aims to explain ancient wisdom to modern readers.
Li, who previously published an edition of Confucius’ analects, presents a new translation of a collection of Confucian teachings and dialogues, written by the sage Mencius and his disciples around the year 300 B.C.E. Composed during China’s Warring States period when the country was divided into petty squabbling kingdoms, the text consists mainly of conversations between Mencius and various interlocutors, including some teachers of other philosophical traditions and some kings and feudal lords seeking—and often then ignoring—Mencius’ advice on ethics and policy. Mencius’ replies flesh out his version of Confucian morality, centered on the four virtues of Ren (love and humanity), Yi (righteous action), Li (observation of morally edifying social norms) and Zhi (wisdom); he teaches that people are innately drawn to these virtues, but that they must also be cultivated through education and reflection. Other topics include filial piety and devotion to family, good governance—stressing that a ruler must serve the people rather than the people serving the ruler—and tax policy that focused on keeping taxes as low as possible. Li’s introduction presents Mencius’ biography in the context of his time, and he follows each section of the original text with annotations explaining Mencius’ references and the historical background of the philosopher’s encounters with intellectuals and potentates. He also restates Mencius’ more obscure points in terms that modern readers will recognize: “You…see a pregnant woman entering the [subway] car. Ren tells you to prevent her from falling. Yi tells you to give up your seat and give it to the woman. Li tells you to politely invite the woman to take your seat.”
Although there are sometimes infelicities in his wording—“Emperor Shun wanted to have a kind father who wanted to kill him instead”—Li’s straightforward, workmanlike translation ably conveys Mencius’ style over the course of this book, which ranges from Delphic moralizing to tart aphorisms (“a gift without a valid reason is a bribe”) and exasperated lectures (“what you are currently doing is like trying to find fish by climbing up a tree”). When writing in his own voice, Li’s commentary is informative and lucid, though sometimes dry and repetitive: “According to Mencius, human beings…can act according to their instinct like animals, and can also act against it according to their moral conscience....Human beings are superior to animals because they have the autonomy and freedom to act beyond their animal instincts and according to their moral conscience.” However, he also has his eye out for droll applications of Mencian lore to up-to-date concerns. (“He was a man of limited talents…this was enough to cost his life,” Mencius muses of one figure, prompting Li’s punchline that it’s “a reminder for corporate executives”). The end result presents readers with a nice blend of scholarly erudition and occasional flights of imaginative interpretation.
An approachable edition of Mencius’ philosophy that makes his wit and wisdom relevant for a new age.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2021
ISBN: 979-8985120400
Page Count: 579
Publisher: PublishDrive
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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