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 absorbing history illuminates a bleak landscape.
Across the vast expanse of Siberia, pianos brought culture and consolation.
British journalist Roberts makes an engaging book debut with a chronicle of her travels through Siberia searching for pianos. Guided by a history of 19th-century Russian piano makers, the author was aware of the proliferation and distribution of pianos, some manufactured by Western companies, far from Russia’s major cities. By the end of the 19th century, one workshop in St. Petersburg alone had built more than 11,000 pianos, many of which were hauled by sledge to outposts in Siberia. “East of the Urals,” Roberts writes, “music teachers were paid two to three times the amount they earned in Western Russia. In these new towns of the expanding Empire, the piano played an even more important social role than it did in a Moscow drawing room.” In the town of Tomsk, for example, a place Chekhov found boring, a chapter of the Imperial Russian Music Society incited a flourishing musical culture. Its grand piano was chosen by the brother of famed pianist Anton Rubinstein. Besides forming the center of cultural life for residents who settled in Siberia hoping for fortune, freedom, or a new beginning, pianos were crucial to the region’s many penal colonies, where classical music elicited “a keen sense of European identity and pride.” In Kolyma, near the Sea of Okhotsk, Roberts recalls the “political dissidents, hardened criminals, recidivist killers, invalids half dead with dystrophy, poets, pianists, and starving women” brought by Stalin’s gulag ships. Even in that harsh colony, there was a grand piano, housed in a building constructed by prisoners. Roberts describes vividly the “bald, scarred, austere” landscapes that make up much of Siberia as well as the often eccentric individuals—many of them piano tuners—who assisted in her quest. Aiming “to celebrate all that is magnificent about Siberia,” Roberts realized that often the pianos she found were “tied up with a terrifying past.”
An absorbing history illuminates a bleak landscape. (b/w illustrations; maps)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8021-4928-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Unsurprising but perfectly competent and seamlessly of a piece with her Living History (2003). And will Hillary run? The...
Former Secretary of State Clinton tells—well, if not all, at least what she and her “book team” think we ought to know.
If this memoir of diplomatic service lacks the preening self-regard of Henry Kissinger’s and the technocratic certainty of Dean Acheson’s, it has all the requisite evenhandedness: Readers have the sense that there’s not a sentence in it that hasn’t been vetted, measured and adjusted for maximal blandness. The news that has thus far made the rounds has concerned the author’s revelation that the Clintons were cash-strapped on leaving the White House, probably since there’s not enough hanging rope about Benghazi for anyone to get worked up about. (On that current hot-button topic, the index says, mildly, “See Libya.”) The requisite encomia are there, of course: “Losing these fearless public servants in the line of duty was a crushing blow.” So are the crises and Clinton’s careful qualifying: Her memories of the Benghazi affair, she writes, are a blend of her own experience and information gathered in the course of the investigations that followed, “especially the work of the independent review board charged with determining the facts and pulling no punches.” When controversy appears, it is similarly cushioned: Tinhorn dictators are valuable allies, and everyone along the way is described with the usual honorifics and flattering descriptions: “Benazir [Bhutto] wore a shalwar kameez, the national dress of Pakistan, a long, flowing tunic over loose pants that was both practical and attractive, and she covered her hair with lovely scarves.” In short, this is a standard-issue political memoir, with its nods to “adorable students,” “important partners,” the “rich history and culture” of every nation on the planet, and the difficulty of eating and exercising sensibly while logging thousands of hours in flight and in conference rooms.
Unsurprising but perfectly competent and seamlessly of a piece with her Living History (2003). And will Hillary run? The guiding metaphor of the book is the relay race, and there’s a sense that if the torch is handed to her, well….Pub Date: June 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-5144-3
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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