Original Analects Supplement
Review Extracts

A list of the reviews of The Original Analects known to us is available elsewhere. These extracts from reviews and other scholarly sources may be of interest and encouragement to readers:

"Will require most past scholarship on ancient Chinese philosophy to be redone" (David S Nivison, Stanford University, prepublication comment, 1997)

"Inaugurates a new era" (Frederick W Mote, Princeton University, prepublication comment, 1997)

"Places the study of early Chinese civilization on a new and sounder footing" (Dennis Grafflin, Bates College, prepublication comment, 1997)

"Epoch-making for the understanding of Chinese civilization" (Aihe Wang, Purdue University, prepublication comment, 1997)

"Restores historical respectability to its subject, which has too long coasted on traditional assumptions" (David N Keightley, University of California at Berkeley, prepublication comment, 1997)

The most exciting study of the Lun Yu yet published . . . its potential implications are monumental" (John Makeham, Australian National University, in China Review International, Spring 1999)

"One of the most important Sinological works, not only of the twentieth century, but of all time . . . The Original Analects is but one part of a grand project that includes critical reappraisal of all "pre-Chin" texts" (Victor H Mair, University of Pennsylvania, in Sino-Platonic Papers #90, January 1999)

"The most exciting text-based scholarship on Chinese antiquity . . . In the coming years it is hoped to give equally thorough treatment to other major texts . . . and the development of Warring States thought and society" (Lionel Jensen, Notre Dame University, in Kelly Boyd [ed], Encyclopedia of Historians and History Writing, 1999)

" . . . a program of research of which this translation is only one small, but significant, piece" (T C Kline, Loyola University, in Pacific Affairs, v72 #2, 1999)

"A remarkable book, that ranks among the most significant and impressive works on Chinese thought ever published in English" (John B Henderson, Louisiana State University, in Journal of Asian Studies, v58 #3, August 1999)

"A path-breaking book" (Whalen Lai, University of California at Davis, in Asian Philosophy, v9 #3, November 1999)

"This new chronological sequence of sayings will have a deep impact on Confucius scholars, because the rich historical, cultural, and political contexts presented invite new research and scholarship . . . this revolutionary treatment of the Analects rightly deserves to be the impetus for discussion among students and specialists in Chinese thought, culture, and comparative religion" (Linda L Lam-Easton, in Religious Studies Review, v26 #1, January 2000)

"Provides the basis for a moving and persuasive interpretation of Warring States society in general and the dynamic interactions among the Hundred Schools in particular" (Alice W Cheang, in The Review of Politics, v62 #2, Summer 2000)

"A Taeko Brooks and E Bruce Brooks have stirred these waters mightily with the landmark publication of The Original Analects . . . This dovetails nicely with the Brooks' assertion that texts such as the [Mencius] are understood best as lively conversations and debates, even conflicts, between different disciple groups" (Jeffrey L Richey, Findlay University, "State of the Field" report in the Association for Asian Studies Newsletter, v64 #1, May 2001

Some of the most impressive testimonials to the strength of TOA's challenge to traditional views are from scholars who are attempting to defend that tradition against that challenge. Among such opinions are the following (click on the author's name for our response, elsewhere at this site):

Li Dz-hou, Appendix 2 to Lun Yw Jin Du [in Chinese], 1998
Liu Xiaogan, Foreword to the reprint of Munro, Concept of Man in Early China, 2001

And for some very basic questions, there is also our response to the rhetorical questions of:

B H Mansvelt Beck, review in IIAS Newsletter #17, December 1998

This Supplement is Copyright © 2001- by E Bruce and A Taeko Brooks

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