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
An eye-opening and thought-provoking read.
Antisemitism is alive and well and worth talking about.
Fersko, senior rabbi at the Village Temple in Manhattan and vice president of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, argues that Americans of all backgrounds must discuss antisemitism. The author notes that many people view antisemitism as a problem of the past, an issue that is rare and isolated in 21st-century America. She demonstrates convincingly that this mindset is misinformed and that antisemitism is on the rise. Early on Fersko provides a lengthy explanation of antisemitism as “the longest-held, farthest-reaching conspiracy theory in the world.” She explains that antisemitism is a belief in a variety of lies and stereotypes about Jews and Judaism, which manifests in everything from seemingly innocuous remarks to outright physical violence. Fersko points to seven points of dialogue that Jews and non-Jews need to address in order to help battle antisemitism, including race, Christianity, microaggressions, the Holocaust, and Israel. Throughout, she urges readers to educate themselves about the past and to learn to recognize the prejudices about Jews that many Americans inherit unknowingly. Though Fersko addresses such obvious sources of antisemitism as right-wing and racially based extremist groups, she makes it clear throughout the book that the American left is also a major source of antisemitism today. In some cases, this is seen in virulent anti-Israel stances, where left-wing activists portray Jews as racists and oppressors. In other cases, American liberals simply perpetrate tropes and stereotypes about their Jewish friends and neighbors, often through microaggressions, misplaced humor, miseducation about the Holocaust, etc. Though there are certainly points for debate, the text serves as a meaningful starting point for dialogue. If nothing else, she provides the important reminder that the age-old specter of antisemitism is not extinct; in many ways, it’s stronger and more dangerous than at any time since the Holocaust.
An eye-opening and thought-provoking read.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781541601949
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Seal Press
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
This rewarding literary Baedeker will inspire readers to discover new places.
A modern-day Phileas Fogg circumnavigates the globe in books.
Damrosch, chair of the department of comparative literature at Harvard and founder of its Institute for World Literature, mimics Jules Verne’s ambitious itinerary of world travel from east to west as he delves into 16 geographical groups of five books “that have responded to times of crises and deep memories of trauma,” navigating “our world’s turbulent water with the aid of literature’s map of imaginary times and places.” As he moves along, delving into plots, characters, and themes, and both prose and poetry, over centuries, he creates a vast, fascinating latticework of books within books. He begins in London, with “one of the most local of novels” and “one of the most worldly books ever written,” Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, which depicts a city that “bears more than a passing reference to Conrad’s heart of darkness.” Paris and Krakow are followed by “Venice–Florence,” with the old (Marco Polo, Dante, and Boccaccio) and the modern, Italo Calvino’s “magical, unclassifiable” Invisible Cities. Just like Damrosch’s own book, Calvino’s work views “the modern world through multiple lenses of worlds elsewhere.” Orhan Pamuk’s My Name Is Red is “a vibrant hybrid that re-creates a vanished Ottoman past for present purposes,” while Jokha Alharthi’s Celestial Bodies “portrays life in a fully globalized Oman.” Traveling along at a brisk pace, Damrosch takes us to the Congo, Israel/Palestine, Calcutta and “Shanghai–Beijing,” before arriving in Tokyo, where he examines Japan’s “greatest, and strangest” writer, Yukio Mishima, and the “incommensurability of ancient and modern eras, Asian and European traditions, that fuels” his work. Brazil is home to one of the “most worldly of local writers,” Clarice Lispector, whose “remarkable short story collection,” Family Ties, the author admires. In Robert McCloskey’s One Morning in Maine, Damrosch fondly revisits a book he enjoyed as a child. Other writers serving as stops on his international tour include Joyce, Atwood, Voltaire, Rushdie, and Soyinka.
This rewarding literary Baedeker will inspire readers to discover new places.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-29988-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
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