John Knoblock Xunzi: Books 1-6 Hardcover sku-830407015

John Knoblock's Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works is a hardcover in the Religion & Religious Studies Books category. This is the first of three volumes planned as the first complete English translation of Xunzi. It includes a general introduction and Books 1-6 on self-cultivation, learning and education.

Each book has an introduction, and the translation has extensive annotations, including characters where useful, and explanations of technical terms, people and events. The general introduction covers Xunzi's life, later influence, intellectual setting and ancient Chinese terms for nature and society. Xunzi lived toward the end of the flowering of philosophical inquiry in Warring States China.

The collection bearing his name gives a systematic account of early Confucian philosophy and of his time's intellectual, cultural and social life. A philosopher, social critic and intellectual historian, he was active in political and academic circles.

His teaching influenced the initial institutions of unified China under the first Qin emperor and continued to have an often unacknowledged influence in later centuries. The source compares his place in Chinese thought with Aristotle's in the West. SKU: sku-830407015.