History of Chinese Philosophy
History of Chinese Philosophy, Volume 1:...
This book comes in two volumes, volume one writes about the history of Chinese philosophy from antiquity to before the Han period while the second volume deals with Han learning onwards to Prof. Fung's time, i.e. early 20th century.
The style of Prof. Fung's writing differs from many authors of history of philosophy whereby he allows the philosophers to speak for themselves by quoting their work and integrating it into his own narrative and analysis. The result is a study which is informative, intellectual, and at the same time accessable. I have yet to see a better book on history of Chinese philosophy in the English language (although Wing Tsit Chan's "Sourcebook of Chinese Philosophy" is good but the analysis is not as succint and well interpreted as Fung's).
This book, however, can be heavy for the first timer who has just got himself/herself interested in Chinese philosophy and would like to read up more on it. For people who falls into this category, a more accessable book and to the same high quality is Dr. Fung's shorter work, "A Short History of Chinese Philosophy", also available in Amazon.com. This shorter history deals with the main philosophers, the more important ones and leave out the more remote philosopher. Dr, Fung also limited the number of quotes associated with the philosopher. Although this is so, it is still a first class work. This longer history is suitable for people who has some knowledge already and wants to know more, go deeper. It is suitable for people doing a course in Chinese philosophy in college.
If you're really into Chinese philosophy, please do not miss this book.
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