Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0804718547 ISBN 13: 9780804718547

Casa editrice: Stanford University Press, 1991

This is a history of the hermeneutics of China's earliest classic, the Book of Odes, which was probably compiled about the 6th century BC. Neither a reading of the Odes as such, nor yet a history of their interpretation, this study attempts rather to trace the principles that guided the interpretation of the Odes over some two thousand years of Chinese history. The book begins by tracing the rise and development in China of the disposition to treat certain 'classical' texts as the ultimate repositories of the culture's values and norms, a disposition that was to shape the political, social, and cultural institutions of traditional China. A notable example was the examination system, which tested candidates for state office on their knowledge of the canon, in the process making questions concerning the interpretation of the canon prominent in public as well as in private life. The author then describes the emergence of the distinctive and influential hermeneutic associated with the Odes.

Review:

'This book offers important new insights into the understanding of classical Chinese literature. Its subject - the nature of the hermeneutical tradition in China, with a focus on the commentaries on the Book of Odes - lies at the heart of the written tradition and has been virtually unstudied in any Western language. the author's ability to relate the history of canonical scholarship to issues developed in the context of Western hermeneutics also distinguishes his work from the efforts of Chinese and Japanese scholars. The book is at once a major contribution to Chinese literary, philosophical, and intellectual history.'Pauline Yu, University of California, Irvine