Balanced Discourses : A Bilingual Edition

by Xu Gan; English translation by John Makeham; Introductions by Dan Shengyuan andJohn Makeham

• ISBN13: 9780300092011
• ISBN10: 0300092016
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2003-06-10
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Written by the Han philosopher Xu Gan (A.D. 170-217), Balanced Discourses is an inquiry into the causes of political breakdown. It provides a unique contemporary account of the social, intellectual, and cosmological factors that Xu Gan identified as having precipitated the demise of the Han dynasty. This edition of Zhonglun (Balanced Discourses) contains the original Chinese text with annotations and, on facing pages, an English translation also with annotations.
This collection of essays spans a range of topics, from Confucian cultivation to calendrical calculation. Xu's perspectives are of not only historical but also philosophical interest, for they reveal his belief in a special correlative bond that should exist between names and actualities and his understanding of what happens when that bond is broken. The translator, John Makeham, argues in his introduction that the essays display the same quality of balance that Xu Gan sees as essential to social and political equilibrium.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Translator's Note on the Chinese Text
Introduction
Introduction
Ordering Learning	p. 3
Establishing Models and Exemplars	p. 17
Cultivating the Fundamental	p. 31
The Way of Humility	p. 51
Valuing Proof	p. 61
Valuing Words	p. 73
The Fundamental Principles of the Arts	p. 85
An Examination of Disputation	p. 97
Wisdom and Deeds	p. 105
Titles and Emoluments	p. 121
Examining Falsity	p. 135
A Rebuke of Social Connections	p. 153
Astronomical Systems	p. 175
Distinguishing Between Premature Death and Longevity	p. 187
Attend to the Fundamentals	p. 205
Examining the Selection of High Officials	p. 219
Be Careful of the Advice One Follows	p. 235
Destruction of the State	p. 249
Rewards and Punishments	p. 265
Population Figures	p. 271
Reinstitute the Three-Year Mourning Period	p. 277
Regulate the Allotment of Corvee Laborers	p. 283
Notes	p. 291
Bibliography	p. 343
Index	p. 357
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