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
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A well-rendered cowboy tale that fleshes out a larger history of the Old West.
The life of a Texas cowboy who ranged the wild frontier paints a broader picture of bygone times in the American West.
Charlie Siringo (1855-1928) herded cattle and drove livestock to slaughter, learning his cowboy skills from the age of 12. In this lively and detailed account, Ward, author of The Lost Detective and Dark Harbor, creates “a portrait of the American West through which he traveled as such a compelling witness—from the birth of the cattle trail and railroad cow town to the violence of the mining wars and the Wild Bunch’s long last ride.” Siringo captured the era in what is considered to be the first cowboy autobiography, A Texas Cowboy; or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony (1885), "a work of celebration and mourning for the raucous cowboy life that was ending." Ward devotes just as many chapters to Siringo's later career as a detective, going undercover "to track, befriend and betray" criminals ranging from anarchist bombers to Butch Cassidy. The author also recounts the tangled publishing history of Siringo's memoir A Cowboy Detective (1912), its editions repeatedly quashed due to nondisclosure agreements with the agency that employed him. Ward's consideration of his subject as a working cowboy quickly broadens into that of Siringo as a literary figure whose many books included a life of Billy the Kid, whom he knew well. Siringo was also well appreciated as a "font of authenticity" on cowboy lore during his work as a consultant on Western films in Hollywood in his later years. Illustrations, vintage photos, and maps throughout the text add atmosphere and context to this stirring, multivaried life. If Ward doesn't quite prove that Siringo helped create the foundations of the literature of the American West, he shows that this original cowboy certainly lived out the most fertile period of that time and place.
A well-rendered cowboy tale that fleshes out a larger history of the Old West.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780802162083
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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