(Out of Stock) Notions of Time in Chinese Historical Thinking

“Time” is a basic subject to humanistic enquiry and understanding Chinese notions of time in their own terms and comparatively is an important endeavour. This collection of essays engages Chinese ways of conceiving “time” from a variety of perspectives: philosophical, historical, and anthropological being the most salient. Although some of the texts and issues discussed in this book are widely regarded as rather metaphysical, such as the Yijing (Book of Changes) and the “dualism and monism of change”, even here a healthy respect for the concrete, the particular, and the lived experience of individuals in history is preserved. As the great eighteenth-century philosopher of history, Zhang Xuecheng, taught, the Dao (the Way) could hardly be approached or apprehended except by way of concrete things. The subject matter therefore straddles several disciplines, and individual essays will be of interest to different clusters of scholars. It is also a stimulating book for lay readers who are broadly familiar with Chinese history.