MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 05329cam a2200385 a 4500
001 7886142
005 20221201042112.0
008 091013t20102010hiu b s001 0 eng c
010 $a 2009042973
020 $a9780824833862 (hardcover : alk. paper)
020 $a0824833864 (hardcover : alk. paper)
024 $a40018055723
035 $a(OCoLC)ocn433511580
035 $a(OCoLC)433511580
035 $a(NNC)7886142
035 $a7886142
040 $aHU/DLC$cDLC$dYDX$dYDXCP$dOrLoB-B
042 $apcc
043 $aa-cc---
050 00 $aB824$b.B74 2010
082 00 $a126.0931$222
100 1 $aBrindley, Erica,$d1971-$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2002016935
245 10 $aIndividualism in early China :$bhuman agency and the self in thought and politics /$cErica Fox Brindley.
260 $aHonolulu :$bUniversity of Hawaiʻi Press,$c[2010], ©2010.
300 $axxx, 207 pages ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 00 $gChapter One.$tIndividual Agency and Universal, Centralized Authority in Early Mohist Writings -- $gChapter Two.$tCentralizing Control: The Politics of Bodily Conformism -- $gChapter Three.$tDecentralizing Control and Naturalizing Cosmic Agency: Bodily Conformism and Individualism -- $gChapter Four.$tTwo Prongs of the Debate: Bodily Agencies vs. Claims for Institutional Controls -- $gChapter Five.$tServants of the Self and Empire: Institutionally Controlled Individualism at the Dawn of a New Era -- $gChapter Six.$tConclusion.
520 1 $a""Contrary to common claims about the absence of individualism in early China and its supposed reification in 'the West,' both the Western and Chinese traditions have historically been characterized by diverse and constantly evolving attitudes toward the individual. This book serves as an important corrective to monolithic or essentializing accounts of early Chinese thought, and the narrative concerning the evolution of the concept of the individual in early China is an interesting and novel one. It will appeal widely to people working on early Chinese thought and comparative religion more broadly."E︣dward Slingerland, University of British Columbia" ""There is a great deal of resistance to the very applicability of the concept of individualism in early China. In this impressively ambitious project, Erica Brindley succeeds in deploying the concept to the understanding of early Chinese thought. In exploring the emergence of and response to distinctively Chinese forms of individuals, she puts some familiar and major texts in a surprising light as part of an overall dynamic. One of the significant lessons of this book is that there is a variety of ways to conceive of and value the individual."D︣avid Wong, Duke University" "Conventional wisdom has it that the concept of individualism was absent in early China. In this uncommon study of the self and human agency in ancient China, Erica Fox Brindley provides an important corrective to this view and persuasively argues with intriguing results that an idea of individualism can be applied to the study of early Chinese thought and politics. She introduces the development of ideological and religious beliefs that link universal, cosmic authority to the individual in ways that may be referred to as individualistic and illustrates how these evolved alongside and potentially helped contribute to larger sociopolitical changes of the time, such as the centralization of political authority and the growth in the social mobility of the educated elite class." "Starting with the writings of the early Mohists (fourth century BCE), Brindley analyzes many of the major works through the early second century BCE by Laozi, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, and Han Feizi, as well as anonymous authors of both received and excavated texts. Changing notions of human agency affected prevailing attitudes toward the self as individuali︣n particular, the onset of ideals that stressed the power and authority of the individual, either as a conformist agent in relation to a larger whole or as an individualistic agent endowed with inalienable cosmic powers and authorities. She goes on to show how distinctly internal (individualistic), external (institutionalized), or mixed (syncretic) approaches to self-cultivation and state control emerged in response to such ideals. In her exploration of the nature of early Chinese individualism and the various theories for and against it, she reveals the ways in which authors innovatively adapted new theories on individual power to the needs of the burgeoning imperial state." "With clarity and force, Individualism in Early China illuminates the importance of the individual in Chinese culture. By focusing on what is unique about early Chinese thinking on this topic, it gives readers a means of understanding particular "Chinese" discussions of and respect for the self."--BOOK JACKET.
650 0 $aIndividualism$zChina$xHistory.
650 0 $aSelf (Philosophy)$zChina$xHistory.
650 0 $aPhilosophy, Chinese$yTo 221 B.C.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85100887
650 0 $aPhilosophy, Chinese$y221 B.C.-960 A.D.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85100888
852 0 $bglx$hB824$i.B74 2010