Xunzi: The Complete Text by Xunzi (PDF)

Description

This is the first complete, one-volume English translation of the ancient Chinese text Xunzi, one of the most extensive, sophisticated, and elegant works in the tradition of Confucian thought. Through essays, poetry, dialogues, and anecdotes, the Xunzi presents a more systematic vision of the Confucian ideal than the fragmented sayings of Confucius and Mencius, articulating a Confucian perspective on ethics, politics, warfare, language, psychology, human nature, ritual, and music, among other topics. Aimed at general readers and students of Chinese thought, Eric Hutton’s translation makes the full text of this important work more accessible in English than ever before.This edition features an introduction, a timeline of early Chinese history, a list of important names and terms, cross-references, explanatory notes, a bibliography, and an index.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “This is a long-awaited translation, and I envisage that it will become a standard of scholarship and an invaluable source to which both specialists and non-specialists will be indebted.”—Winnie Sung, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews”Eric Hutton’s new translation of this rich and multifaceted text is . . . a truly valuable gateway for introducing newcomers in the field of Chinese and comparative philosophy, as well as more advanced students and scholars, to the philosophy of Xunzi.”—Ori Tavor, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy”The decision by Eric Hutton to translate the verse sections as poetry means that this book can be appreciated not only as an important work of early Confucian thought, but also as a literary text.”—Olivia Milburn, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society”Hutton’s work is an improvement over that of Knoblock, as well as that of Dubs and Watson. It is an enormous task to translate from beginning to end a text as difficult as the Xunzi. We should be grateful to Hutton for undertaking it and for devoting so much hard work to completing it.”—Jeffrey Riegel, Journal of Chinese Studies Review “The Xunzi is a masterwork of Confucian philosophy, and there is no one in the Anglophone world with Eric Hutton’s combination of insight into its ideas and scrupulous attention to its text. He has produced an accessible and authoritative translation that will be our standard for years to come.”―Stephen C. Angle, Wesleyan University”An outstanding translation of the complete text of the Xunzi. Eric Hutton has succeeded in providing a translation that is both philosophically precise and highly readable. This will help introduce one of the most important philosophical texts from early China to a larger audience.”―Michael Puett, Harvard University”The time has come for a new, full translation of the Xunzi, and Eric Hutton’s fine work is a dramatic improvement from previous versions―in terms of accuracy, philosophical precision, economy, and readability. Hutton’s translation will become the new standard.”―Aaron Stalnaker, Indiana University”Eric Hutton has produced an elegant, accessible, and accurate translation of this important Confucian work. Hutton’s translation is more precise philosophically and more readable than previous versions. In addition to being an important work of scholarship, this edition will be invaluable for nonspecialists with an interest in Chinese thought.”―Bryan W. Van Norden, Vassar College”Hutton’s is the rare translation that balances technical accuracy with ordinary English, and readers from both philosophy and Chinese studies will appreciate it.”―Mark Csikszentmihalyi, University of California, Berkeley From the Inside Flap “The time has come for a new, full translation of the Xunzi, and Eric Hutton’s fine work is a dramatic improvement from previous versions–in terms of accuracy, philosophical precision, economy, and readability. Hutton’s translation will become the new standard.”–Aaron Stalnaker, Indiana University”Eric Hutton has produced an elegant, accessible, and accurate translation of this important Confucian work. Hutton’s translation is more precise philosophically and more readable than previous versions. In addition to being an important work of scholarship, this edition will be invaluable for nonspecialists with an interest in Chinese thought.”–Bryan W. Van Norden, Vassar College”Hutton’s is the rare translation that balances technical accuracy with ordinary English, and readers from both philosophy and Chinese studies will appreciate it.”–Mark Csikszentmihalyi, University of California, Berkeley From the Back Cover “The Xunzi is a masterwork of Confucian philosophy, and there is no one in the Anglophone world with Eric Hutton’s combination of insight into its ideas and scrupulous attention to its text. He has produced an accessible and authoritative translation that will be our standard for years to come.”–Stephen C. Angle, Wesleyan University”An outstanding translation of the complete text of the Xunzi. Eric Hutton has succeeded in providing a translation that is both philosophically precise and highly readable. This will help introduce one of the most important philosophical texts from early China to a larger audience.”–Michael Puett, Harvard University”The time has come for a new, full translation of the Xunzi, and Eric Hutton’s fine work is a dramatic improvement from previous versions–in terms of accuracy, philosophical precision, economy, and readability. Hutton’s translation will become the new standard.”–Aaron Stalnaker, Indiana University”Eric Hutton has produced an elegant, accessible, and accurate translation of this important Confucian work. Hutton’s translation is more precise philosophically and more readable than previous versions. In addition to being an important work of scholarship, this edition will be invaluable for nonspecialists with an interest in Chinese thought.”–Bryan W. Van Norden, Vassar College”Hutton’s is the rare translation that balances technical accuracy with ordinary English, and readers from both philosophy and Chinese studies will appreciate it.”–Mark Csikszentmihalyi, University of California, Berkeley About the Author Eric L. Hutton is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Utah. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Mr. Hutton left many notes that further my understanding, instead of esoteric it could be easily understood.

⭐Each page is insightful!After the Bible this is my favorite text – hope to one day apply even 1% of wisdom here.

⭐A very thoughtfully done translation of the work. The physical book is a pleasure to read (I got both the Kindle and print editions though, so I always have Master Xun’s words handy).

⭐As described and on time.

⭐Wonderful!

⭐Excellent- quality and contents.

⭐This is not just any translation of the Xunzi; it is an edition accessible to the general public, closely imitating the poetry of the original text, and correcting the errors of past editions. It hits all the right notes and is bound to become the standard edition of the text for decades to come. If you are interested in Confucianism, you will find this book quite valuable and you will most likely wish that other Chinese classics received this amount of attention and talent. The translation quality makes this one of those few foreign classics that really is worth owning for yourself rather than borrowing from a library.There is no better way to show the improvements Hutton has made to the Xunzi translation than by comparing it to previous efforts. Here is a section of chapter 1 in a previous translation by John Knoblock:“There must be some beginning for every kind of phenomenon that occurs. The coming of honor and disgrace must be a reflection of inner power. ” (The brackets indicate a half-blockquote in the original text, which is one of Knoblock’s ways to indicate a probable quotation.)Here is Hutton:“All the things and the kinds that come about / Surely have a point from which they start out. / Honor and disgrace that comes unto you / Surely reflects your degree of virtue. / In rotten meat bugs are generated. / In fish that’s spoiled maggots are created.”The rhyme scheme is as found in the original classical Chinese! Most translations of the Chinese philosophy classics, with the notable exception of James Legge’s Laozi, do not attempt to reproduce ancient rhymes in anything like an acceptable way, but Hutton both tries and succeeds. The result conveys the author’s intent to teach the cosmic law of cause and effect in singsongy verse.Hutton’s vocabulary is generally similar to Burton Watson, who translated several excerpts from the Xunzi quite well, with the occasional errors of a trailblazer. Here is Watson in the “Dispelling Obsession” chapter:“These men with their limited understanding saw one corner of the Way and, failing to understand that it was only a corner, they considered it sufficient and proceeded to expound it in engaging terms.”Here is Hutton:“People of twisted understanding observe one corner of the Way and are unable to recognize it as such. So, they think it sufficient and proceed to embellish it.”Swift, clear, and to the point. While Watson’s translation is generally good, Hutton has improved on it, most likely by thinking about how each paragraph of his text will be pored over by a generation of bleary-eyed undergraduates looking for something tough to chew on. Here, as it is throughout the book, the philosophical value of each statement is made blunt enough to trip up every reader, so that a large book that looks like a jumble of adages at first quickly takes on the qualities of a well-articulated worldview.Here is one last comparison between all three translations, from the head of the infamous chapter “Human Nature is Evil”.Watson: “Man’s nature is evil; goodness is the result of conscious activity. The nature of man is such that he is born with a fondness for profit. If he indulges this fondness, it will lead him into wrangling and strife, and all sense of courtesy and humility will disappear.”Knoblock: “Human nature is evil; any good in humans is acquired by conscious exertion. Now, the nature of man is such that he is born with a love of profit. Following this nature will cause its aggressiveness and greedy tendencies to grow and courtesy and deference to disappear.”Hutton: “People’s nature is bad. Their goodness is a matter of deliberate effort. Now people’s nature is such that they are born with a fondness for profit in them. If they follow along with this, then struggle and contention will arise, and yielding and deference will perish therein.”In these three passages, the most obviously inaccurate translation is “aggressiveness” by Knoblock; the typical result of a tin ear. Watson has offered an overly smooth cultural translation with “courtesy and humility,” which cannot be justified by the text, and Knoblock has adopted precisely half of this for some reason. Hutton’s “yielding and deference” is what the text literally says. But Hutton always tries to open the door to accurate comprehension, and choices such as this, or the choice of translating “bad” instead of “evil”, should not be regarded as a poor compromise.In short, this translation could not possibly be more thorough or more welcoming to new readers. I expect to see many more positive reviews of it soon.[I received a review copy of the text from the publisher; I hope to place a review in a Chinese journal. I received no compensation.]

⭐This is a translation of Eric Hutton, trans., Xunzi: The Complete Text.Eric Hutton has produced a complete translation of the Xunzi, the eponymous writings of a philosopher who is (along with Confucius himself and Mengzi) one of the three most important early Confucians. The translation is elegant, accessible, and accurate. Hutton makes some innovative editorial choices in this translation, such as rendering the poetry Xunzi cites into rhyming verse in English. Not everyone will agree with this decision, but I find that it makes the poetry much easier to read and appreciate. I also concur with Hutton’s decision to add line numbers to chapters. Those of us who encourage our students to use the technique of “close reading” will particularly appreciate this. Hutton’s rendering is better than any previous translation I know of, including those by Burton Watson and John Knoblock. The textual notes will be very useful to scholars who can read the original Chinese. Consequently, specialists in Chinese philosophy and libraries will definitely buy this translation. Furthermore, I believe that Hutton’s translation will meet a market demand currently left open by other renderings of the Xunzi (also referred to as the Hsun Tzu). Burton Watson’s selective translation (Columbia University Press) and Hutton’s own selections in Ivanhoe and Van Norden, eds., Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, (Hackett Publishing) meet the needs of many undergraduate survey courses. John Knoblock’s pricey three-volume Xunzi (Stanford University Press), republished in a two-volume translation with Chinese on facing pages (Hunan Publishing House), is useful for specialist scholars. What is needed is something in between these two extremes. In addition to being an important work of high-level scholarship, Hutton’s translation will be invaluable for non-specialists with an interest in Chinese thought, ranging from advanced undergraduates and graduate students, to scholars in Chinese language and literature, history, philosophy, religious studies, and other disciplines. Hutton’s work is more comprehensive and more philosophically precise than Watson’s translation, but much more readable than Knoblock’s version. For all these reasons, Hutton’s translation is clearly a significant achievement.

⭐The book is bigger than I thought. I haven’t read it yet, but i’m excited about it!

⭐Of all my books on eastern philosophy, this is my favorite. The translation is thorough and accurate in a contemporary English, but without taking too much freedom in the translation or interpretation. In other words, I feel if it was written today, this is how it would be done.The body of work itself is fascinating to read. It is much less cryptic than the Tao de Ching, with thoughts clearly presented and reasoned on. Other works such as Zhuangzi are more stories and fables, albeit with wonderful teachings, but the Xunzi clearly addresses its topics, providing the good side as well as the bad of thingd, leaving the reader the opportunity to dwell upon its words and come to their own conclusions on how to apply it in everyday life.The book is full of footnotes and explanations on translation, people and places, cross references and other bits of knowledge for better understanding.I included a picture of the cover, because when I bought the hardcover version, I thought I was getting a Chinese-bound edition, but the appearance is simply printed on to the cover. So even though the quality of the book itself is very good, don’t be mislead into thinking you are getting something extraordinarily produced.I love this book so much, I wish it were available half its size, just for carrying around.

⭐While the book content is amazing the book cover is not traditional hand-bound style. It is disappointing as the image clearly shows the book hand bound.While soft copy clearly indicates a stock image on the back cover, hardcopy does not indicate it is a copyrighted image at all. The price difference is not justifiable.Totally disappointed.

⭐Temía por el estado del libro, pero llegó perfectamente. Recomiendo el vendedor.Tudo ótimo!

⭐

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