From the United States
T
4.0 out of 5 stars Good, brief, readable synopsis
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2008
Format: Paperback
Published in 1953, this book is a bit dated, but it's a good, brief and readable synopsis of Chinese philosophy's history and main concepts. It starts off a bit weakly, with rather broad generalizations about Chinese thought and culture and a less-than critical take on Confucius, apparently treating the entire Analects as representing reliable records of his statements. It's generally believed these were compiled over a long period, with some material neither originating with Confucius nor representing his thought. A couple chapters are markedly Taoist and even anti-Confucian, but Creel only mentions them in passing, suggesting they can be reconciled with Confucian thought. It's hard to see how, but Creel doesn't elaborate. No doubt Creel knew his subject well and the simplistic impression is due to brevity, but a caveat or two would have helped.
However, Creel becomes considerably more critical regarding both texts and concepts as he moves on to Mo Tzu, Mencius, the Taoists, Hsun Tzu, the Legalists, etc. There's still simplification, but this can't be avoided in such a short work, and his combining philosophical with political history is quite helpful. This is particularly true as Chinese philosophy has often had a pronounced political orientation (even Taoism, in reacting against this focus), as many of the leading thinkers served in government or aspired to, and as the state and emperors have typically aligned themselves publicly with a particular philosophy (with varying degrees of sincerity).
Another strength is the book's inclusion of post-classical philosophy, continuing through the Communist state's establishment. It's hard to find brief, popular works on Chinese philosophy that cover its entire history, much less ones that do it well and place ideas in historical and political context (Fung Yu-Lan's Short History may be another, but I've just started it). Necessarily the result is a synopsis rather than treatment in depth, but Creel does this quite well. In little space he sheds considerable light on the philosophical eclecticism of the Han Dynasty, Buddhism's introduction to China and its evolution and impacts there, neo-Confucianism, reactions against it, and Western influence.
This background is helpful in trying to understand China's difficulties and struggles during the twentieth century, and Creel gives a very plausible explanation for the quick and fairly widespread acceptance of Communism by both the Chinese people and the intellectuals. At the end of the book he lapses again into some breezy generalizations and perhaps a touch of romanticizing, although not without some useful insights. Overall it's a very good book and one wishes Creel were available for a final word on China today.
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Jordan Bell
5.0 out of 5 stars A reliable and well written book to start with
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2011
Format: Paperback
The schools of thought that Creel covers are: Chinese thought before Confucius, the schools of Confucius, Mo Tzu, Mencius, the Taoists, Hsun Tzu, the Legalists, the Buddhists, and neo-Confucianism. Creel points out general characteristics of Chinese though. What was most striking to me is that Chinese philosophy has focused much more on how people should live in society than on metaphysics or epistemology.
This book is very smoothly and carefully written. Creel explains the beliefs and history of different schools of Chinese thought. This book is a model for condensing a scholarly topic or field into a book that can be understood and enjoyed by non-specialists. I had initially tried reading Fairbank's history of China, which has a much broader focus, but I did not enjoy reading that. It was more consciously scholarly, which I don't like for an introduction to a subject. I would rather get some evaluations by someone who is qualified to give those evaluations, and then in my further reading I can develop my own opinions. Creel makes short and cogent comments on the thinkers whom he discusses and the historical periods he discusses.
The book is a history of Chinese thought, but reading it gave me some notion of the political history of China. Either before or after reading this book it would be useful to one who wants to learn about China to read a book on the social and political history of the country. And for one who wants to study Chinese philosophy in greater detail, this book at least gives outlines that can be filled in later. In reading it, I feel that I got a fixed idea of who the main players in Chinese philosophy are, and what the main characteristics of Chinese thought are. In particular, that metaphysics was much less important than in Western thought also, not much talk about what happens after death.
"To escape from the world becomes more and more difficult. Most of the Chinese have never tried to. Instead, they have looked for ways in which it is possible to dwell with other people without being irritated by them, and to live in the world without being oppressed by it." (p. 8) The biggest use of a knowledge of China is to see how people living in another civilization independent of European civilization behaved and thought. "We are too close to ourselves; we cannot get outside our own skins and our own civilization.... One way to get some light on this question is to see how other peoples, who have different social habits and live under different circumstances, have solved the same problems." (p. 8)
There are English translations in the series Everyman's Library, Penguin Classics and Oxford World's Classics of many of the authors discussed in Creel's book, like Arthur Wayley, The Analects of Confucius , D. C. Lau, Mencius (Penguin Classics) , Martin Palmer, The Book of Chuang Tzu (Penguin Classics) , etc.
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Colin McLarty
3.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad book
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2009
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
If you want to learn about classical Chinese thought you can do that here. It is breezy, readable, and not absurd. I think Arthur Waley: Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China is very much better for this. Waley is equally accessible, and equally old-fashioned or dated, but gives deeper information on the ideas and is more passionately involved with them.
As to the later ideas, notably Mao, you might expect much from a book that says "In the hundred years from mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century China has changed more profoundly than in the previous two thousand years" (p. 235). But this part is just 20 pages long. It is much better than the earlier parts. It is more vigorous and more informative. I do not know any single short source that is better. But of course there are many much better longer intellectual and political histories of twentieth century China.
Creel shows a serious misunderstanding when he says "to most Western readers a page that is sprinkled with Chinese names becomes rather forbidding," and his back cover promises "the text is not cluttered with Chinese names." First, the problem is not only with Chinese names. It is wearing to read any book that introduces four or five new names on each page and gives each one a brief paragraph before moving on. And, second, Creel often does this himself, despite his promise, often citing the historian Yulan Feng as source. Feng is often transcribed as Fung. He wrote a two volume History of Chinese Philosophy in the 1930s, in Chinese, still widely used, and he wrote a one volume SHORT HISTORY OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY largely aimed at westerners but still much longer than this book by Creel. Both available from Amazon, they are more demanding than this by Creel or the book by Waley mentioned above.
Creel was a great expert, at the University of Chicago, and it was no easy thing in terms of the political situation to write a book like this in the US in 1953. But the result is not a very good book.
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Future Watch Writer
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on Chinese political philosophy
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2006
Format: Paperback
By far the best study ever written of Chinese philosophy. Particular attention should be paid to Chapters VII, VIII and IX to understand the Asian mind. The influence of the totalitarian vision of Legalism on Chinese thought for thousands of years is not fully understood. The Chinese Empire, created in 221 B.C., was a fusion of Legalism and Confucianism. Chairman Mao was a great admirer of the first Chinese Emperor, who hated Confucianism and was a total Legalist. Indeed, modern "Communism" in China is really very much a continuation of some past trends. Check my Listamania list for more books on Legalism.
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