A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy

Chan’s single-volume anthology of Chinese philosophy, in his own translations, running from the classical schools — Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, the Legalists — through the arrival and sinicization of Buddhism, to the Neo-Confucian synthesis of Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming, and on into the twentieth century. It was the standard English-language entry point for decades, and the reason is its form: Chan translated the primary texts himself and confined his own commentary to short introductions, so the reader gets the sources rather than a survey about them.

Why it’s on the list: Li Lu gives Chinese Civilization, History, and Culture its own numbered section, which is the single clearest signal in the bibliography that he reads two canons rather than one. A source book rather than a history is the right opening entry for it — the section is built to be read in the original arguments.

Where I saw it: On Li Lu’s Recommended Book List, entry 9 in the Chinese section, cited as Princeton University Press 1969. Kyle saved the list as two X posts that between them photographed only its value-investing section; the full list was recovered from the source PDF and transcribed on that page.

Connections

• Li Lu’s Recommended Book List — the bibliography this came from.
• China — the tradition surveyed.
• Religion · Morality — Confucian ethics and Chinese Buddhism are most of the volume.