Robert Elliott Allinson

The Philosophical Influences of Mao Zedong (eBook, PDF)

Notations, Reflections and Insights

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

This philosophical Mao is a fresh portrait of the mind of the ruler who changed the face of China in the twentieth century. The book traces the influences of both traditional Chinese and traditional pre-Marxist Western philosophy on the early Mao and how these influences guided the development of his thought. It reveals evidence of the creative dimensions of Mao's thinking and how he wove the yin/yang pattern of change depicted in the Yijing, the Chinese Book of Changes, into the Marxist dialectic to bring ancient Chinese philosophy to mark changes in twentieth century thought.

Mao's lifetime philosophical journey includes his interpretations of and comments on both Chinese and Western philosophers. His deep, metaphysical reflections, uncanny prognostications and pensive speculations from his early pre-Marxist period to his later philosophical years prove to be as startling as they are thought-provoking.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK eBooks
• Seitenzahl: 256
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. September 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781350059887
• Artikelnr.: 57161702

Autorenporträt

Robert Elliott Allinson is Professor of Philosophy at Soka University of America, USA and former Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

He lived through, taught, wrote and researched during the day to day making of modern Chinese history, commencing the year after the death of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, experiencing first-hand the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, through the period of Deng Xiaoping and through the era of others who were to take his place.

He was full professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, teaching both Chinese and Western Philosophy. He was one of the first Americans to visit and lecture in China. He was a Visiting Fellow to Yale University, Oxford University, and Erskine Fellow to the University of Canterbury. He was Visiting Professor at Fudan University, was personally invited by Sir Joseph Needham to be a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, and by the renowned Chinese scholar Tang Yijie to become Visiting Professor at Peking University.

He has written extensively in the field of Chinese philosophy, author of Understanding the Chinese Mind: The Philosophical Roots (1990) and co-editor of His Harmony and Strife: Contemporary Perspectives, East and West (1989).

Inhaltsangabe

Foreword, Irene Eber, Louis Frieberg Professor Emerita of Chinese History and Philosophy and Senior Fellow, Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction to the Philosophical Mao
2. Mao's Youthful Philosophical Development
3. Mao in the Margins: Mao's Philosophy of Egoism
4. Mao's Early Philosophical Influences and Reflections
5. The Blend of the Influence of Chinese and Western philosophy on Mao's Thought and Parallels in China's Social and Economic Development
6. Mao's Marxist Thought and the Yijing
7. Mao as Metaphysician and Literatus
8. Mao's Contributions to Philosophy
Notes
Selected List of References
Index

Rezensionen

Mao Ze Dong is celebrated (or cursed) as a revolutionary leader, but the philosophical foundation of his activity is largely ignored. In his superb study, Allinson fills in this lack. Mao's thought is not just located in its historical context; its complex references to the Chinese traditional thought, to Marx and Western philosophy, but also to modern sciences (quantum physics), are explored and documented. A new Mao thus emerges, a Mao whose radical acts are grounded in a thick texture of philosophical reflections. Allinson's Mao is indispensable for everybody who wants to understand not just Mao but the concatenation of philosophy and politics that characterized the twentieth century. Slavoj Zizek, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London, UK 20190618