For more than two thousand years, Confucius (551–479 B.C.) has been a fundamental part of China's history. His influence as a moral thinker remains powerful to this day. Yet despite his fame and the perennial interest in his life and teachings, Confucius the man has been elusive, and no definitive biography has emerged. In this book, the scholar and writer Annping Chin negotiates centuries of reconstructions, guess-work, and numerous Chinese texts in order to establish an absorbing and original account of the thinker's life and legacy. She shows with new insight how Confucius lived and thought, his habits and inclinations, his relation to his contemporaries, his work as a teacher and as a counsellor, his worries about the world and the generations to come. Chin brings the historical Confucius within reach so that he can lead us into his idea of the moral and explain his timeless teachings on family and politics, culture and learning. Confucius is the culmination of years of research, a book that makes an important and fascinating contribution to biography and Chinese history.

The true story of four sisters born between 1907 and 1914 in China, Four Sisters of Hofei is an intimate encounter with history. The Chang sisters lived through a period of astounding change and into the twenty-first century. Unusual opportunities and an extraordinary family education launched them into varied worlds -- those of the theater, modern literature, classical studies, and calligraphy -- but their collective experience offers a cohesive portrait of a land in transition. With the benefit of letters, diaries, poetry, and interviews, writer and historian Annping Chin shapes the Chang sisters' stories into a composite history steeped in China's artistic tradition and intertwined with the political unrest and social revolutions of the twentieth century.

Not since Wild Swans has Chinese history been so intimately encountered - through the stories of four sisters born between 1907 and 1914, a renowned historian examines a century of extraordinary change in Chinese culture and in women's lives. Now in their late eighties and early nineties, the four Chang sisters lived through a century of historic change in China. In this extraordinary work, assembled with the benefit of letters, diaries, family histories, poetry, journals and interviews, Annping Chin shapes the story of one family into a riveting chronicle that provides a unique insight into the old China and its transition into the new. From their father, the Chang sisters inherited reason and a belief in the virtues of modern education. From their mother they learned about the human spirit and the art of finding an appropriate path. The nurse-nannies - uneducated widows from the Hofei countryside - contributed their own opinions on modern ways. As the sisters grow up, one breaks with tradition to marry an actor, another marries one of China's greatest novelists; another, raised by her devout Buddhist grandaunt, is taught to be a rigorous practitioner of China's classical arts.The Chang sisters' prolific correspondence provides an intimate glimpse of private life, as well as a chronicle of the developments of the twentieth century, from prosperity to persecution, from foreign wars to Cultural Revolution. Four Sisters of Hofei is an intensely personal and sweeping story that illustrates the complex history of a complex culture.

A thoughtful and authoritative biography of Confucious—a philosopher whose ongoing relevance is unparalleled and who is just as current in China today as he was one thousand years ago.For more than two thousand years, Confucius has been an inseparable part of China''s history. Yet despite this fame,Confucius the man has been elusive. Now, in The Authentic Confucius, Annping Chin has worked through the most reliable Chinese texts in her quest to sort out what is really known about Confucius from the reconstructions and the guesswork that muddled his memory. Chin skillfully illuminates the political and social climate in which Confucius lived. She explains how Confucius made the transition from court advisor to wanderer, and how he reluctantly became a professional teacher as he refined his judgment of human character and composed his vision of a moral political order. The result is an absorbing and original book that shows how Confucius lived and thought: his habits and inclinations, his relation to the people of the time, his work as a teacher and as a counselor, his worries about the world and the generations to come. In this book, Chin brings the historical Confucius within our reach, so that he can lead us into his idea of the moral and to his teachings on family and politics, culture and learning. The Authentic Confucius is a masterful account of the life and intellectual development of a thinker whose presence remains a powerful force today.

For more than two thousand years, Confucius (551–479 B.C.) has been a fundamental part of China's history. His influence as a moral thinker remains powerful to this day. Yet despite his fame and the perennial interest in his life and teachings, Confucius the man has been elusive, and no definitive biography has emerged. In this book, the scholar and writer Annping Chin negotiates centuries of reconstructions, guess-work, and numerous Chinese texts in order to establish an absorbing and original account of the thinker's life and legacy. She shows with new insight how Confucius lived and thought, his habits and inclinations, his relation to his contemporaries, his work as a teacher and as a counsellor, his worries about the world and the generations to come. Chin brings the historical Confucius within reach so that he can lead us into his idea of the moral and explain his timeless teachings on family and politics, culture and learning. Confucius is the culmination of years of research, a book that makes an important and fascinating contribution to biography and Chinese history.

The true story of four sisters born between 1907 and 1914 in China, Four Sisters of Hofei is an intimate encounter with history. The Chang sisters lived through a period of astounding change and into the twenty-first century. Unusual opportunities and an extraordinary family education launched them into varied worlds -- those of the theater, modern literature, classical studies, and calligraphy -- but their collective experience offers a cohesive portrait of a land in transition. With the benefit of letters, diaries, poetry, and interviews, writer and historian Annping Chin shapes the Chang sisters' stories into a composite history steeped in China's artistic tradition and intertwined with the political unrest and social revolutions of the twentieth century.

Not since Wild Swans has Chinese history been so intimately encountered - through the stories of four sisters born between 1907 and 1914, a renowned historian examines a century of extraordinary change in Chinese culture and in women's lives. Now in their late eighties and early nineties, the four Chang sisters lived through a century of historic change in China. In this extraordinary work, assembled with the benefit of letters, diaries, family histories, poetry, journals and interviews, Annping Chin shapes the story of one family into a riveting chronicle that provides a unique insight into the old China and its transition into the new. From their father, the Chang sisters inherited reason and a belief in the virtues of modern education. From their mother they learned about the human spirit and the art of finding an appropriate path. The nurse-nannies - uneducated widows from the Hofei countryside - contributed their own opinions on modern ways. As the sisters grow up, one breaks with tradition to marry an actor, another marries one of China's greatest novelists; another, raised by her devout Buddhist grandaunt, is taught to be a rigorous practitioner of China's classical arts.The Chang sisters' prolific correspondence provides an intimate glimpse of private life, as well as a chronicle of the developments of the twentieth century, from prosperity to persecution, from foreign wars to Cultural Revolution. Four Sisters of Hofei is an intensely personal and sweeping story that illustrates the complex history of a complex culture.

A thoughtful and authoritative biography of Confucious—a philosopher whose ongoing relevance is unparalleled and who is just as current in China today as he was one thousand years ago.For more than two thousand years, Confucius has been an inseparable part of China''s history. Yet despite this fame,Confucius the man has been elusive. Now, in The Authentic Confucius, Annping Chin has worked through the most reliable Chinese texts in her quest to sort out what is really known about Confucius from the reconstructions and the guesswork that muddled his memory. Chin skillfully illuminates the political and social climate in which Confucius lived. She explains how Confucius made the transition from court advisor to wanderer, and how he reluctantly became a professional teacher as he refined his judgment of human character and composed his vision of a moral political order. The result is an absorbing and original book that shows how Confucius lived and thought: his habits and inclinations, his relation to the people of the time, his work as a teacher and as a counselor, his worries about the world and the generations to come. In this book, Chin brings the historical Confucius within our reach, so that he can lead us into his idea of the moral and to his teachings on family and politics, culture and learning. The Authentic Confucius is a masterful account of the life and intellectual development of a thinker whose presence remains a powerful force today.