Author: Jo-Shui Chen
Title: Liu Tsung-yuan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773-819
Description: Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 2006. Reprint. Octavo. Softcover. Fine. 221 Pages. This book is a comprehensive study of Liu Tsang-yuan (773 - 819), a major literary and intellectual figure in Chinese history. The major aspects of Liu??™s life and work are explored: the social and cultural background of his family, his relationship with the ku-wen prose reforms and new canonical scholarship in the mid-T??™ang, his social and political criticism, his views on Confucian doctrine, and his sentiments and reflections regarding the private realm of human life. Its scope goes beyond the ???life and thought??™ of this principal intellectual figure in its special emphasis on the connections between Liu??™s thought and mid-T??™ang intellectual change, modifying the conventional view that the mid-T??™ang Confucian revival led by Han Yu (768 - 824) and Liu Tsung-yuan was a precursor of Sung Neo-Confucianism. Chen suggests that the mid-T??™ang Confucian movement was essentially a revival of an old form of Confucianism and that Liu??™s was a powerful voice expressing this sentiment. This in-depth study also encompasses a general interpretation of the nature of the T??™ang-Sung intellectual transition. Anyone familiar with the intriguing yet elusive Liu Tsang-yuan will find this book fascinating.

Keywords: china chinese history This book is a comprehensive study of Liu Tsang-yuan (773 - 819), a major literary and intellectual figure in Chinese history. The major aspects of Liu??™s life and work are explored: the social and cultural background of his family,