Reading path · Beginner
Chinese philosophy: the classics and their readers
Much of Chinese philosophy has been done by reading and re-reading a small set of classics. This path begins with a modern introduction to the classical period, then reads the Analects, the Mencius, the Daodejing, the Zhuangzi and the Xunzi in turn. It closes with an anthology compiled by Zhu Xi and Lü Zuqian, to show how later readers turned the classics into a programme of learning. Choose translations with notes. Several texts are short, but all reward slow reading. Allow about three months.
7 books, in order
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Step 1: Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy
Bryan W. Van Norden · 2011
Van Norden explains each major thinker of the classical period through their arguments, and compares them with Western debates where that helps. An appendix explains how to read these texts.
- Where to start
- Read chapter 1, on the historical context, and chapters 2 and 3, on Kongzi (Confucius). Then read each later chapter just before the matching primary text.
- Time
- 2–3 weeks
- Difficulty
- Beginner
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Step 2: Analects
Confucius · 5th–3rd century BCE (compiled)
The sayings of Confucius and his followers, compiled over a long period, present ethics as cultivated through relationships, ritual and learning. Its twenty books of short passages are often obscure without notes.
- Where to start
- Read Books 1 to 4 first, in a translation with commentary.
- Time
- 2 weeks
- Difficulty
- Beginner
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Step 3: Mencius (Mengzi)
Mencius · c. 4th–3rd century BCE (compiled by his followers)
Mencius argues that human nature is good and that virtue grows from feelings everyone has, such as alarm at a child in danger. He also holds rulers to account for the welfare of the people.
- Where to start
- Begin with 2A6, the child about to fall into a well, then the debates with Gaozi in 6A1–2 and the Ox Mountain passage in 6A8.
- Time
- 2 weeks
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
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Step 4: Daodejing
Laozi · c. 4th–3rd century BCE
In about five thousand characters and eighty-one short chapters, the Daodejing praises yielding, emptiness and acting without forcing. Comparing two translations shows how much depends on the translator.
- Where to start
- Read it whole, and compare two translations of the first ten chapters.
- Time
- 2–3 evenings
- Difficulty
- Beginner
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Step 5: Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi · 4th–3rd century BCE
Stories, jokes and arguments that question fixed viewpoints and the urge to settle every dispute. The seven Inner Chapters are usually read as the core of the book, though its authorship is debated.
- Where to start
- Read the seven Inner Chapters first, especially chapter 2, the Qiwulun (齊物論), on seeing things as equal.
- Time
- 1–2 weeks
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
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Step 6: Xunzi
Xunzi · 3rd century BCE (compiled; some chapters probably by his students)
Xunzi argues, against Mencius, that human nature is bad and that goodness comes from deliberate effort, ritual and teaching.
- Where to start
- Start with chapter 23, 'Human Nature Is Bad' (Xing'e), in Eric L. Hutton's complete translation (2014).
- Time
- 2–3 weeks
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
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Step 7: Reflections on Things at Hand
Zhu Xi and Lü Zuqian (compilers) · 1175
Zhu Xi and Lü Zuqian arranged passages from Northern Song thinkers to lead a student from metaphysics to daily self-cultivation. Zhu's commentaries on the Four Books later became the basis of the imperial examinations, so his way of reading the classics shaped education for centuries.
- Where to start
- Read it in Wing-tsit Chan's translation (1967), whose notes identify the source of each passage.
- Time
- 2–3 weeks
- Difficulty
- Intermediate