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Confucius: And the World He Created Hardcover – March 3, 2015
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Confucius created a worldview that is in many respects distinct from, and in conflict with, Western culture. As Schuman shows, the way that East Asian companies are managed, how family members interact with each other, and how governments see their role in society all differ from the norm in the West due to Confucius's lasting impact. Confucius has been credited with giving East Asia an advantage in today's world, by instilling its people with a devotion to learning, and propelling the region's economic progress. Still, the sage has also been highly controversial. For the past 100 years, East Asians have questioned if the region can become truly modern while Confucius remains so entrenched in society. He has been criticized for causing the inequality of women, promoting authoritarian regimes, and suppressing human rights.
Despite these debates, East Asians today are turning to Confucius to help them solve the ills of modern life more than they have in a century. As a wealthy and increasingly powerful Asia rises on the world stage, Confucius, too, will command a more prominent place in global culture.
Touching on philosophy, history, and current affairs, Confucius tells the vivid, dramatic story of the enigmatic philosopher whose ideas remain at the heart of East Asian civilization.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBasic Books
- Publication dateMarch 3, 2015
- Dimensions6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-109780465025510
- ISBN-13978-0465025510
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Editorial Reviews
Review
A fine account of Confucius' world, and of the use and misuse of the Master's thinking throughout Chinese history. Whoever wants to understand China must start with Master Kong!”
Jon Huntsman, former United States Ambassador to China
Michael Schuman's book is nothing short of indispensable reading for anyone trying to comprehend the local, regional, and global impact of China and its motivating philosophical underpinnings. Today's China is an extension of its past and Confucius' guiding influence remains at its core. China is incomprehensible without this intellectual framework. To that end, Confucius is a generationally significant contribution.”
Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
To understand the philosophical heart of East Asia, read this book. In his vibrant and engaging portrait of Confucius, Michael Schuman gives us the sage as we've never seen him, undeniably shaping modern politics, business, and private life for a quarter of humanity. It is a marvel of intelligent research, great reporting, and clear analysis.”
Open Letters Monthly
It's not easy to write well for non-experts about a deeply foreign system of thought. It's virtually impossible to do so fairly when that system has developed over millennia and continues to animate people increasingly feared as civilizational rivals. But Michael Schuman has done it, telling the story of Confucianism, explaining what makes it unique, and considering with refreshing fairness the challenge it poses to the complacency of western culture all in a short book composed with the vivid energy of journalism.”
Publishers Weekly
Part biography, part history, and part analysis of Chinese current affairs, this remarkable book traces the lasting influence of Confucianism in China, despite enormous political and social changes in Chinese society.”
Library Journal
A great read for anyone interested in Confucius, philosophy, or culture in East Asia.”
NPR's International Desk's list of Favorite Reads of 2015
The book has an interesting structure that looks at Confucius from various angles as a man, a sage, a chauvinist, a businessman that allows Schuman to track Confucius' life, teachings and relevance over time. Schuman sprinkles easily digestible anecdotes throughout the book including original reporting and observations of his own.”
Winner of the 2015 Nautilus Book Award winner in the Religion/Spirituality of Eastern Thought category
Wall Street Journal
Lively and well-rounded.... A very satisfying account.”
Asian Review of Books
Wonderful.... No reader could do better than Michael Schuman as a contemporary guide to Confucius. Confucius emerges from these pages a real human figure, not an icon from the past, and his philosophy is attractive and alive, too.”
Literary Review (UK)
Schuman has done a difficult thing. He has produced a book introducing new readers to a great subject in plainly written English, while explaining with considerable force the ideas related to that subject, which happens to be one on which academics and politicians hold strongly differing opinions. [An] enlightening and well-balanced book.”
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 046502551X
- Publisher : Basic Books; 1st edition (March 3, 2015)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780465025510
- ISBN-13 : 978-0465025510
- Item Weight : 1.22 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,327,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #96 in Confucianism (Books)
- #6,934 in Religious Leader Biographies
- #11,513 in Asian History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Schumann gets into the difficulties of dealing with Confucius admittedly: Confucius is a mythic figure and reformer already writing about a past that was mythic to Confucius himself. The layers of mystification are deep. Furthermore, Confucius and Confucianism comes off at first like a Sinological equal to a Hellenic philosophical school, and like Platonism, religious ideas accumulated in vaguely metaphysical notions prior. It’s also important that early Confucianism was relevant on the study of classics existing prior to Confucius himself.
This flexibility in Confucianism makes it hard to pin down and hard to talk about consistently. Confucianism has both democratic and anti-Democratic tendencies, both humane and inhumane elements, but has always been dependent on Imperial patronage. Schuman’s history is interesting and in-depth, showing the development of different elements of Confucianism changing in response to legalism, Daoism, Buddhism, and even Christianity. Neo-Confucianism role in many patriarchal imperial cults becomes clear but so does its deviation from classical Confucianism. Schuman even hints at, but doesn’t go into, the idea that elements of Confucianism as we understand it were promoted by European missionaries.
Schuman’s writings on Confucianism in modern world, and its relationship to 20th century critics is more problematic. Schumann admires Confucius and East Asian culture, but as his last chapter reveals, is actually quite critical of the way it is being used by various governments in East Asia as a means of gas-lighting public order and painting more participatory ideas from democratic societies as Western, foreign, and corrupt. To combat this, however, Schumann often sounds like he is making excuses for Confucian excesses. In other words, Schumann knows his bias but out of respect for his topic, over corrects on the side of apologetics.
I found this book informative, readable, but very frustrating as it almost certainly will make no one completely happy. It isn’t an explication of the Analects. It’s not just a historical discussion of the development of Confucianism, and it is both critical of and apologetic for East Asian society. Schumann has difficulty dealing with post-Deng embrace of Confucius after the excesses of the cultural revolution or the criticism of Singapore’s ruler, Yew, to actually have Confucianism take off in Singapore.
Schuman rolls 2500 years of history into a neat 242 pages. He starts by attempting to tell the story of the "REAL" Confucius, but soon leaves the sage in his grave and instead follows the story of the "IDEA" of Confucius. Each chapter has it's own big idea that he attempts to explain but the book also goes in chronological order as well so that the reader can follow the evolution of the Confucius idea and the history.
I believe that Schuman sums up this book the best in Ch. 8 when he says:
"What is interesting for our story is how Confucius has been perceived across time. His influence has been seen as so dominant, so much a part of daily life in East Asia, that he has received either the credit or blame for whatever was taking place at any given moment. Confucius the hard-charging capitalist was every bit as symbolic of the 1970s as Confucius the archaic feudalist was of the 1910s. Like a great method actor, the sage can take on whatever role he is hired to perform, depending on the script. So much makeup has been caked upon him that he has become barely recognizable."
This book does a fine job of identifying the evolution of these ideas and it makes me think of my own western culture and how the ideas of capitalism and Christianity have been used by leaders to push development and industrialization as well as for their own personal gain.
Top reviews from other countries
As much a defence of Confucianism as an overview of the man's philosophy, Schuman examines how Confucianism has been successful in it's application to the business world, but rather stifling when applied on a political and societal model.
A charge against Confucianism is that it is inherently anti-libertarian, anti-individual, and ultimately, anti-democratic, or at least not compatible with the Western model of democracy, but a closer examination of his work reveals that Confucius was the first democrat, as his teachings long predate Athenian democracy.
China watchers would do well to acquaint themselves with this book, as it has been argued that China will eventually become democratic, but strictly on their terms, and in their way.
However, Schuman's work is by no means limited to China, and covers Confucianism in South Korea, Japan and Singapore.
For those unfamiliar with Confucianism, this is a very readable introduction, and is entirely relevant for China watchers, or observers of East Asia in general.