Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power

by Xuetong, Yan; Bell, Daniel A.; Zhe, Sun; Ryden, Edmund

• ISBN13: 9780691148267
• ISBN10: 0691148260
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-14
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

The rise of China could be the most important political development of the twenty-first century. What will China look like in the future? What should it look like? And what will China's rise mean for the rest of world? This book, written by China's most influential foreign policy thinker, sets out a vision for the coming decades from China's point of view. In the West, Yan Xuetong is often regarded as a hawkish policy advisor and enemy of liberal internationalists. But a very different picture emerges from this book, as Yan examines the lessons of ancient Chinese political thought for the future of China and the development of a "Beijing consensus" in international relations. Yan, it becomes clear, is neither a communist who believes that economic might is the key to national power, nor a neoconservative who believes that China should rely on military might to get its way. Rather, Yan argues, political leadership is the key to national power, and morality is an essential part of political leadership. Economic and military might are important components of national power, but they are secondary to political leaders who act in accordance with moral norms, and the same holds true in determining the hierarchy of the global order. Providing new insights into the thinking of one of China's leading foreign policy figures, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in China's rise and international relations.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
A Note on the Translation	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power
A Comparative Study of Pre-Qin Interstate Political Philosophy	p. 21
Xunzi's Interstate Political Philosophy and Its Message for Today	p. 70
Hegemony in The Stratagems of the Warring States	p. 107
Comments
An Examination of the Research Theory of Pre-Qin Interstate Political Philosophy	p. 147
The Two Poles of Confucianism: A Comparison of the Interstate Political Philosophies of Mencius and Xunzi	p. 161
Political Hegemony in Ancient China: A Review of ôHegemony in The Stratagems of the Warring Statesö	p. 181
Response to the Commentators
Pre-Qin Philosophy and China's Rise Today	p. 199
The Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods and the Pre-Qin Masters	p. 223
Yan Xuetong: A Realist Scholar Clinging to Scientific Prediction	p. 229
Why Is There No Chinese School of International Relations Theory?	p. 252
Notes	p. 261
Select Bibliography	p. 283
Contributors	p. 291
Index	p. 293
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