The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought

A monumental contribution to the debate in China about how to respond to the civilizational challenge of the West. -- David K. Schneider * Law & Liberty * An important book…In his account of Chinese history, Wang aims to dissolve the binary between two views: one sees China as an empire opposed to the modern Western nation-state; the other argues that an early nation-state structure built upon a system of centralized administration (junxian zhi) appeared long ago in Chinese history. -- B.V.E. Hyde * Intellectual History Review * This is the long story of modern Chinese intellectual and philosophical scholarship, with a cast of thousands and an array of conceptual categories…and yet somehow Hill makes it all inviting reading. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Review * Reading The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought is a little like sitting down for a hundred-course banquet. Wang Hui’s Summa Theologica for China helps us better understand how the historical glide path of Chinese culture (about which even many ‘China specialists’ have gaps to fill) somehow led to the embattled twentieth century. -- Orville Schell, Director of the Center on U.S.–China Relations at the Asia Society and author of <i>Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-First Century</i> Wang Hui’s masterful work guides the reader through more than a thousand years of China’s intellectual, philosophical, and political discourse with sophistication and nuance. Its analytical power is evident on almost every single page. -- Jude Blanchette, author of <i>China's New Red Guards: The Return of Radicalism and the Rebirth of Mao Zedong</i> A deliberately paradoxical, remarkably sourced, magical history of ideas. After finishing this fastidiously edited English translation, you may concur with or take distance from the categories Wang Hui uses, but there is no question that your basic assumptions about writing Chinese intellectual history will have shifted. Wang's challenge cannot be ignored. -- Tani Barlow, author of <i>In the Event of Women</i> This translation is a monumental achievement, and not only for bringing the work to new audiences. This masterful and comprehensive book effectively mobilizes Chinese political and social thought—including Wang’s own ideas as well as the historical texts he engages, some of which are presented in English for the first time—as a living resource for addressing the global dilemmas of our time. -- Leigh K. Jenco, author of <i>Making the Political: Founding and Action in the Political Theory of Zhang Shizhao</i> After almost two decades, Wang Hui’s magnum opus finally arrives in the English-speaking world with this fine translation. The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought has been important in China. The volume before you now promises to change the global conversation on Chinese intellectual history. -- Isabella M. Weber, author of <i>How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate</i> Through historical analysis Wang not only uncovers resources that could be useful in envisioning a new future, but also attempts to redefine China…This is an extremely important gesture in contemporary China because Wang is one of the rare intellectuals who combine critical thought about modernity with serious reflection on tradition. -- Viren Murthy * Modern Intellectual History *