The meaning of freedom : Yan Fu and the origins of Chinese liberalism

This book is about how Yan Fu introduced the Chinese intellectual world to the liberalism of John Stuart Mill by partly grasping Mill's ideas, partly misunderstanding and projecting onto them indegenous Chinese values, and partly criticizing or resisting them. Rather than bending Western liberalism to the purposes of Chinese nationalism. Yan initiated a distinctively Chinese liberal tradition that became a major strand of China's modern political culture. "This book is about how one of the leading intellectual architects of Chinese modernization, Yan Fu 1854-1921), introduced the Chinese intellectual world to the liberalism of John Smart Mill partly by grasping Mill's ideas, but also by misunderstanding and projecting them onto indigenous Chinese values, which in turn led to criticism and resistance. Rather than bending Western liberalism to the purposes of Chinese nationalism, Yan inititated a distinctively Chinese liberal tradition that became a major component of China's modern political culture."--BOOK JACKET

This book is about how one of the leading intellectual architects of Chinese modernization, Yan Fu (1854–1921), introduced the Chinese intellectual world to the liberalism of John Stuart Mill partly by grasping Mill's ideas, but also by misunderstanding and projecting them onto indigenous Chinese values, which in turn led to criticism and resistance. Rather than bending Western liberalism to the purposes of Chinese nationalism, Yan initiated a distinctively Chinese liberal tradition that became a major component of China's modern political culture.

Contents 7 Foreword 11 Preface 23 Acknowledgments 25 1. Introduction: The Historiography of Yan Fu’s Life and Thought 29 2. The Life and Thought of Yan Fu 93 3. Yan Fu’s Translation of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty 143 4. Yan Fu as a Political Thinker 201 5. Concluding Thoughts 283 Appendix I. A List of Yan Fu’s Major Translations 293 Appendix II. The Textual Comparison Between On Liberty and Qunji Quanjie Lun (Chapter One) 299 Notes 327 Bibliography of Works Cited 393 Index 423