Shimada Kenji
Scholar, Thinker, Reader: Selected Writing on the Intellectual History of Modern China
Translated with an Introduction by Joshua A. Fogel
2014, 210 pages
ISBN 978-1-937385-52-1 Paper $38.00
ISBN 978-1-937385-53-8 Cloth $85.00
Shimada Kenji (1917–2000) was one of the great scholars of Chinese history and culture of the twentieth century. His major works have all been translated into Chinese, and select writings have appeared in Korean, German, and English. Yet, the full impact of his ideas about Chinese intellectual history has not as yet become widely known outside East Asia.
This volume brings to English a number of his scholarly writings, introductions to his two principle books, an autobiographical interview given late in life, and a lengthy roundtable discussion by former students and disciples. We not only learn much more about his thinking but also where many of those ideas came from, his personal inclinations in the direction of Confucianism, his attachment to certain modes of analysis, his early investment in the Esperanto movement, and the extraordinary affection of his former students. These essays were chosen to give a cross-section of his scholarly pursuits, especially in the field of Confucianism and comparative Sino-Japanese intellectual history.
Joshua A. Fogel is Canada Research Chair Professor, York University.
