Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy

Citation

Van Norden, B. W. (2011). Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy. Hackett Publishing Company.

Chapter Summary

The book runs to about 290 pages: twelve chapters, three appendices, a map of China, lists of selected translations and secondary works, and endnotes. In the preface Van Norden calls it an introduction that is "both philosophical and elementary": it explains the basic vocabulary of contemporary philosophy as it goes, so that readers can later move on either to deeper study of Chinese thought or to Western philosophy. He says he has deliberately simplified Chinese and Western history, and that his portraits of the Western philosophers used for comparison do not do them full justice. Most translations come from Ivanhoe and Van Norden's Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2nd edition). Reviewers note that each chapter ends with review questions.

Chapter 1: The Historical Context

Myth, early history and the period of the philosophers, with a timeline, setting the scene for the thinkers of the Eastern Zhou.

Chapter 2: Kongzi and Confucianism

Kongzi's social context and life, then five themes of Confucianism: happiness in the everyday world, "revivalistic traditionalism", the family and differentiated caring, ritual and its function, and ethical cultivation.

Chapter 3: Kongzi and Virtue Ethics

The chapter introduces three normative theories and reads Confucianism as a form of virtue ethics, covering living well, the virtues, and cultivation and human nature. It closes with the limitations of Confucianism and Kongzi's particularism.

Chapter 4: Mohist Consequentialism

Mozi's "fixed standard" of consequences, the Mohist critique of Confucianism, political philosophy, divine command theory, the dialectic of "Against Fatalism", truth in "On Ghosts", and the school's historical significance.

Chapter 5: Yang Zhu and Egoism

A distinction between psychological and ethical egoism, the question of what the "nature" of a thing is, early debates over Yang Zhu's way, and how the contemporary debate frames them.

Chapter 6: Mengzi and Human Nature

Mengzi's responses to the Mohists (profit and impartiality) and to Yang Zhu (human nature), followed by his account of the virtues, ethical cultivation, cosmology and historical significance.

Chapter 7: Language and Paradox in the "School of Names"

Deng Xi and the origins of the "school", the paradoxes of Hui Shi, Gongsun Long's white horse argument, and the later Mohists' resolutions of these paradoxes, their new foundation for Mohist ethics and their view of the limits of logic.

Chapter 8: The Daodejing and Mysticism

Myth and reality about Laozi and the text, then five themes: social ills and their solution, nonaction, the teaching without words, the Way, and mysticism. The Choice review singles out the discussion of mysticism for distinguishing traditions rather than conflating them.

Chapter 9: Zhuangzi's Therapeutic Skepticism and Relativism

Zhuangzi's context, his scepticism and relativism, "detachment in society, not from society", nonaction, and two interpretive questions: whether the text offers doctrine or therapy, and whether its outlook is conventional or radical.

Chapter 10: Xunzi's Confucian Naturalism

Xunzi's naturalism and theory of ritual, history and objectivity, his view of human nature and psychology, and ethical cultivation.

Chapter 11: Han Feizi

Han Feizi's life and critique of Confucianism, the five elements of his theory of government (the power of position, administrative methods, laws, the "two handles" and the way of the ruler), and whether his position is amoral.

Chapter 12: Later Chinese Thought

A brief history from the Qin dynasty through Mao Zedong, ending with China today.

Appendices A–C: Hermeneutics, or How to Read a Text; The Chinese Language and Writing System; Kongzi as Systematic Philosopher

Appendix A treats interpretation ("faith and suspicion", "our" worldview and "theirs"). Appendix B covers the types of Chinese characters, spoken Chinese, radicals and dictionaries, and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Appendix C reads three passages of the Analects (4.15, 13.3, 15.29) to argue that Kongzi's thought is systematic.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–3: Context and Confucius

• Differentiated caring: the Confucian view that obligations rightly differ with one's relationship to others, starting from the family.
• Ritual: conventional forms of conduct, examined for their function in social and ethical life.
• Virtue ethics: one of the three normative theories Chapter 3 introduces, and the one through which the book reads Kongzi.

Chapters 4–7: Mohists, Yang Zhu, Mengzi and the School of Names

• Consequentialism: judging actions by their outcomes, the Mohists' "fixed standard".
• Psychological and ethical egoism: the claims that people do, or should, act only for themselves, used to frame Yang Zhu.
• Human nature: the central topic of the Mengzi chapter and the question it shares with the Xunzi chapter.
• The white horse paradox: Gongsun Long's argument that a white horse is not a horse, resolved by the later Mohists.

Chapters 8–12: Daoism, Xunzi, Han Feizi and later thought

• Nonaction (wuwei): a theme of both the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi chapters.
• Mysticism: discussed as one of the five themes of the Daodejing.
• Therapeutic scepticism: reading Zhuangzi's doubts as a remedy rather than a doctrine.
• The two handles: one of the five elements of Han Feizi's theory of government; in his text, the ruler's control of reward and punishment.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Philosophy first, with the vocabulary explained. The preface states this aim, and the contents show it: Chapter 3 introduces three normative theories, Chapter 5 separates two kinds of egoism, and Chapter 7 follows the later Mohists' resolutions of the paradoxes and their view of the limits of logic. Vincent Shen (University of Toronto) describes the book as an intellectual bridge between Chinese and Western thought.
• A clear structure for students. Chapters are divided into short numbered sections, which Andrew Colvin (Slippery Rock University) found manageable, and end with review questions that both he and F. J. Hoffman in Choice praise. Hoffman also notes that technical terms are given in pinyin and Chinese characters, and Ann Pirruccello (University of San Diego) mentions study questions and imaginative scenarios.
• Useful appendices. Hoffman singles out the appendices on hermeneutics, the Chinese language and Kongzi as very useful; the language appendix gives students without Chinese some sense of how the texts work.
• Unusually wide coverage of minor schools. Yang Zhu and the School of Names, often treated briefly in surveys, each get a full chapter.

Limitations

• Weaker on Daoism. Alexus McLeod, reviewing the book in Dao, judged it much stronger on the Confucians (especially Mengzi and Xunzi), Mozi and the School of Names than on the Daoists. Readers focused on Laozi and Zhuangzi will want more specialised reading.
• Simplified history and Western comparisons. The author says so in the preface; the comparisons are teaching devices, and specialists in either tradition will find them partial.
• Classical period only. Everything after the Han is compressed into one short chapter, so the book is not a history of Chinese philosophy as a whole.

Where It Fits in the Course

This course on Asian and comparative philosophy pairs Chinese and Indian traditions. On the Chinese side, Van Norden is the starting point: an elementary philosophical introduction to the same period that A. C. Graham's Disputers of the Tao covers in far greater depth, with close attention to classical Chinese. Read Van Norden first and turn to Graham for the debates (especially the later Mohists and Zhuangzi) that interest you most.

On the Indian side, Sue Hamilton's Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction and Michael Carrithers's The Buddha: A Very Short Introduction are short first readings, while Mark Siderits's Buddhism as Philosophy and Adamson and Ganeri's Classical Indian Philosophy are fuller treatments. Siderits's method, reconstructing arguments and asking whether they succeed, is close to Van Norden's, so the two make a natural pair for a comparative course.

How to Use This Book

No background in Chinese language, history or philosophy is needed; the book is written for undergraduates in a first course and is usable for self-study. A practical plan:

• Core: Chapters 1–4, 6 and 8–11, which cover the main schools in roughly historical order. Chapter 3 is worth reading slowly, because its account of normative theories frames the comparisons in later chapters.
• Recommended: Chapter 5 before Chapter 6, since Mengzi answers Yang Zhu; Chapter 7 after Chapter 4, since the later Mohists build on the earlier school.
• Optional or for reference: Chapter 12 as a map for further study; Appendix B early, if the romanisation and characters are unfamiliar; Appendices A and C for essay writing.

Read each chapter alongside the primary text it discusses; the preface points to Ivanhoe and Van Norden's Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, the source of most quotations, and the front matter lists further translations and secondary works. Answer the review questions in writing. When the book draws a parallel with a Western philosopher, ask whether it clarifies or distorts the Chinese position.