Institute of Foreign Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Division of Classics, ed.

Editors-in-Chief: Liu Xiaofeng; He Fangying

 

Publication Note

In February 1953, the first national institute for literature of the newly founded People’s Republic of China was established, with both Chinese literature and foreign literature as its academic disciplines. In June 1955, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) established four academic departments, among which was the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences. The Institute of Literature was subsequently placed under this Department, and within its foreign literature discipline, four research groups were formed: the Soviet Literature Group, the Eastern European Literature Group, the Oriental Literature Group, and the Western Literature Group.

In July 1957, under the cultural policy of “making the past serve the present and making foreign things serve China”, the Institute of Literature launched the serial publication Translations of Literary and Artistic Theory, intended “to introduce, in a planned and focused manner, classical foreign works in aesthetics and literary and artistic theory”. The series ceased publication in early 1959, having issued a total of six installments. In 1959, the Institute of Literature formulated editorial and translation plans for the “Series of Foreign Classical Literary Masterpieces” and the “Series of Foreign Classical Literary and Artistic Theories”. In 1961, Translations of Literary and Artistic Theory resumed publication under the new title Translations of Classical Literary and Artistic Theory, and at the same time the Translations of Modern Literary and Artistic Theory was inaugurated. Together, these publications have historically inscribed the academic ambition of the Foreign Literature Group of the Institute of Literature to give equal weight to the classical and the modern, “provided the field of literary theory in the newly founded People’s Republic of China with abundant and invaluable reference materials, and become a widely recognized and indispensable repository of resources”.

 

In September 1964, to strengthen research on foreign cultures, and following instructions issued by Mao Zedong, the CAS Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences established the Institute of Foreign Literature as a separate entity by combining the four foreign literature groups originally under the Institute of Literature with the editorial department of World Literature of the China Writers Association. Since the late Qing dynasty, the scholarly endeavour in China to translate and introduce classical and modern texts of Western civilization had finally acquired a formal institutional home.

In difficult times, rapid changes in the international situation soon interrupted the initial momentum of the Institute of Foreign Literature. The Translations of Classical Literary and Artistic Theory was discontinued in 1965 (having published a total of 11 installments), and of the 39 titles planned for the “Series of Foreign Classical Literary and Artistic Theories”, only 12 were ultimately published.

In 1977, the CAS Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences was reorganized as an independent institution, known as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Taking advantage of the opportunity presented by the reform and opening-up, the Institute of Foreign Literature swiftly resumed its editorial and translation plans for the “Series of Foreign Classical Literary Masterpieces” and the “Series of Foreign Classical Literary and Artistic Theories”, removing the word “Classical” from the titles of both series. This change clearly reflected the urgent need, in China’s new developmental stage, to translate and introduce modern and contemporary Western scholarly works. In 1979, the Institute of Foreign Literature launched the large-scale “Series of Research Materials on Foreign Literature”, inaugurating an editorial and translation framework that combined classical texts with interpretive scholarship (over the 15-year period up to 1993, nearly 70 titles were published). However, constraints in human resources made it impossible to continue adhering to the editorial and translation principle of giving equal weight to the classical and the modern.

The 4th issue of Translations of Literary and Artistic Theory, published in 1958, included a translation of the essay “What Is a Classic?” by the renowned 19th-century French critic Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804–1869), also transliterated in Chinese as “Sheng Bofu”. In this essay, a clear distinction between ancient and modern authors is articulated. When the term “classique” was extended to carry the meaning of “classical author”, it initially referred only to figures such as Homer, the tragedian poets, and Plato of ancient Greece. Around the 2nd century, the Romans likewise recognized their own classical authors — Cicero and Virgil. From Dante (1265–1321), Chaucer (1340–1400), Machiavelli (1469–1527), Rabelais (1494–1553), Montaigne (1533–1592), Cervantes (1547–1616), and Shakespeare (1564–1616) onward, Latin Europe too came to have its own classical authors. These figures were associated with the formation of emerging kingdoms, or more precisely, territorial nation-states. In 1694, the first dictionary of the Académie Française (French Academy) defined “classique” as referring to “authoritative ancient authors”. By the 19th century, however, Sainte-Beuve regarded this definition as overly “restrictive” and argued that it was time to “expand its spiritual meaning”. For since the era of the Napoleonic Empire — now commonly referred to as the Age of Atlantic Revolutions — any work that is “fresh” or “to some degree adventurous” could qualify as “classique”. Seen in this light, contemporary Chinese scholars are in fact confronted with two qualitatively different traditions of Western classical civilization, as well as the modern European civilizational tradition that has taken shape since the Enlightenment.

From the editorial and translation plans for the “Series of Foreign Classical Literary Masterpieces” and the “Series of Foreign Classical Literary and Artistic Theories” in 1959, to the editorial and translation plan for the “Series of Research Materials on Foreign Literature” in 1979, one can trace the historical hardships endured by earlier generations of scholars in their effort to achieve a comprehensive understanding of, and translation-based introduction to, the Western literary tradition. Yet, constrained by the circumstances of the times, the editing and translation of the foundational texts and research literature of the two Western classical civilizations had scarcely begun before it was brought to an abrupt halt. In 2002, the Workshop for Classical Civilization Studies established the “Classics and Commentaries” book series and thematic periodicals, with the aim of carrying forward the steadfast scholarly commitment of several generations of predecessors who helped build academic scholarship in the People’s Republic of China, and of continuing to accumulate scholarly literature for reference.

In December 2023, under the impetus of the academic policy of the “two integrations”, the CASS Institute of Foreign Literature formally established the Division of Classics. On this occasion, we are launching the “Classics and Commentaries: Ancient and Modern Collections”, with the aim of carrying forward the grand aspirations of three major editorial and translation initiatives. This endeavour seeks to further shape an editorial and translation approach that gives equal weight to the ancient and the modern and that combines classics with interpretation. At the same time, we expand our efforts to produce more accessible editions of Chinese literary and historical texts, so as to do our modest part in the development of classical studies in China.

Division of Classics

Institute of Foreign Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

May 2024

 

Bibliography of the “Classics and Commentaries: Ancient and Modern Collections”

The Peloponnesian War (July 2025)

The Theology of Liberalism: Political Philosophy and the Justice of God (August 2025)

The World of Ancient Rome: An Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on the Fragments of Ennius’ Annales (July 2025)

Nights with the Gods (July 2025)

From History to Fiction: A Study of the Textual History of The Thousand and One Nights (July 2025)

An Approach to Aristotle’s Physics: With Particular Attention to the Role of His Manner of Writing (September 2025)

 

Bibliography of the “Classics and Commentaries: Classical Studies Research Series”

On the Fundamentals of Classical Hindu Civilization (August 2025)

A Grammatical Commentary on Thucydides (April 2025)

 

I

The Peloponnesian War

Authored by Thucydides (Ancient Greece)

Commentary by Leo Strauss (U.S.)

Translated by Li Shixiang

China Social Sciences Press, July 2025

Synopsis

Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War stands as one of the foremost classics of ancient Greek literature. Although three Chinese translations are currently available, none has yet proved fully satisfactory in terms of faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance — particularly with regard to annotation. This translation is based on the 1942 Oxford University Press Greek critical edition, and has been prepared with reference to a wide range of annotated editions, English and French translations, as well as existing Chinese translations. In addition, the translator has adopted relevant studies of Thucydides by the American scholar Leo Strauss as the basis for the commentary, with the aim of enabling readers to attain a deeper understanding of Thucydides.

Contents

Translator’s Note on the Chinese Edition

Book I

Book II

Book III

Book IV

Book V

Book VI

Book VII

Book VIII

About the Author, Commentator, and Translator

Thucydides (c. 460–400 BCE), the author, was born into a prominent aristocratic family in Athens. He was exiled for 20 years owing to a failure in military command during the war and returned to Athens around 404 BCE. Through his The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides stands alongside Herodotus and Xenophon as one of the three great historians of ancient Greece.

Leo Strauss (1899–1973), the commentator, formerly Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Chicago, is regarded as one of the most profound thinkers of the 20th century. His method of careful reading and interpretation of classical texts constituted a major development in 20th-century hermeneutics. His work in political philosophy as a whole was devoted to reexamining the overall course of Western civilization, emphasizing the need to reopen the debate between the ancients and the moderns, and thereby to scrutinize the various currents of contemporary thought. His representative works include Persecution and the Art of Writing, The City and Man, and What is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies.

Li Shixiang, the translator, received his Ph.D. in Literature from Renmin University of China. His translated works include What is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies (co-translation), The Courage of Ignorance, Thucydides and Political Order: Lessons of Governance and the History of the Peloponnesian War, and Pen and the Sword: Writing and Conquest in Caesar’s Gaul.

 

II

The Theology of Liberalism: Political Philosophy and the Justice of God

Authored by Eric Nelson (U.S.)

Translated by Sun Jiaqi

China Social Sciences Press, August 2025

Synopsis

Taking as its point of departure the empathetic experience that Shakespeare’s King Lear insists on undergoing, this book seeks to reposition the foundations of modern political philosophy. Nelson argues that contemporary political philosophy has failed to take seriously the intellectual-historical foundations of its own tradition, which has not only generated theoretical difficulties within contemporary political philosophy itself, but has also obscured more powerful and coherent models developed in the early modern period. In Nelson’s view, the turn taken by political philosophy in the 1970s constituted a fatal error. He identifies the foundations of contemporary political philosophy with the Pelagianism of the late 4th-century Roman Empire, and on the basis of this interpretation seeks to offer an account of political philosophy’s foundations that is philosophically more robust than that provided by contemporary political philosophy itself.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 Pelagian Origins

Chapter 2 Representation and the Fall

Chapter 3 “The Bargain Basis”: Rawls, Anti-Pelagianism, and Moral Arbitrariness

Chapter 4 Egalitarianism and Theodicy

Chapter 5 Justice, Equality, and Institutions

Chapter 6 “God gave the world to Adam, and his posterity in common”: Appropriation and the Left-Libertarian Challenge

Conclusion: Back to Representation

Acknowledgments

Index

About the Author and Translator

Eric Nelson, the author, is the Robert M. Beren Professor of Political Science at Harvard University. He received his A.B. from Harvard University in 1999 and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2002. His research focuses on the history of early modern political thought and its influence on contemporary political theory. His scholarly interests include the history of republican political theory and the phenomenon of secularization. His other works include The Royalist Revolution (2014) and The Hebrew Republic (2010). In addition, he edited and prepared for publication Thomas Hobbes’s translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey as part of The Collected English Works of Thomas Hobbes.

Sun Jiaqi, the translator, is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, whose research focuses on modern and contemporary political philosophy and the history of political thought.

 

III

The World of Ancient Rome: An Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on the Fragments of Ennius’ Annales

Compiled, translated, and annotated by Liu Jingfan

China Social Sciences Press, July 2025

Synopsis

This book presents a Chinese translation of the epic Annales by the ancient Roman poet Ennius. All translations are direct renderings of the ancient Roman (Latin) texts, and the annotations are provided with reference to relevant scholarly commentaries, with sources clearly indicated throughout. The Latin texts on which this translation is based are drawn from the Loeb Classical Library, specifically Fragmentary Republican Latin (Volume I) edited and critically established by Sander Goldberg. It also consults Remains of Old Latin, edited and critically established by E. H. Warmington in the Loeb Classical Library, as well as Otto Skutsch’s 1985 annotated edition The Annals of Quintus Ennius, among other scholarly editions.

Contents

Editor–Translator’s Introduction: Ennius and His Vision of the “World”

Annales (Fragments)

Book I The Founding of Rome

Book II The Early Regal Period

Book III The Late Regal Period and the Establishment of the Republic

Book IV The Early Republic

Book V The Early Republic

Book VI The Pyrrhic War

Book VII The Punic Wars

Book VIII The Hannibalic War

Book IX The Later Phase of the Hannibalic War

Book X The Second Macedonian War

Book XI The Second Macedonian War

Book XII An Initial Summation

Book XIII The Outbreak of the Antiochene War

Book XIV The Antiochene War

Book XV The Original Conclusion

Book XVI A New Proem

Book XVII In Praise of Contemporary Wars

Book XVIII In Praise of Contemporary Wars

Unassigned Fragments

References for the Text, Translation, and Commentary

Appendix

W. R. Hardie — The Dream of Ennivs

Charles Knapp — Vahlen’s Ennius

About the Author and Translator

Ennius (239–169 BCE), the author, was a major poet of the Roman Republic and is regarded as one of the founders of Roman literature. He is best known for his epic poem Annales.

Liu Jingfan, the translator, is affiliated with the Center for Classical Civilization, Renmin University of China, whose research focuses on ancient Greek and Roman literature.

 

IV

Nights with the Gods

Authored by Emil Reich (UK)

Translated by Wang Shuanghong

China Social Sciences Press, July 2025

Synopsis

Written in fictional form, this book records the return of great thinkers of antiquity and the Greek gods to Europe. Each night, these deities and ancient sages gather in different towns across Italy, spending seven nights together as they discuss their understandings of contemporary British society. With the assistance of Dionysus, the author appears at the scene where the ancient sages have gathered in conversation and records the substance of their dialogues. In terms of its literary form, the work models itself on Platonic dialogue, exploring issues across various dimensions of modern Western thought, politics, and social life through conversations among the gods and great thinkers. Interwoven with vivid scene-setting descriptions, the book combines philosophical depth, literary quality, and intellectual playfulness. The book is divided into seven chapters, and records dialogues conducted over seven nights. Each dialogue is opened by Zeus, and the interlocutors include the Olympian gods, the statesman Alcibiades, Alexander I of Macedon, Caesar, and Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Diogenes, as well as the Greek comic playwright Aristophanes, among others. The topics of discussion range widely: Aristotle on specialism in England; Diogenes and Plato on Tolstoy, Ibsen, and Shaw; Alcibiades on women in England; Caesar on the House of Commons; Apollo and Dionysus in England; and Socrates, Diogenes, and Plato on religion. This book departs from the customary approaches of viewing the ancients from a modern perspective, or of judging the present from within the present. Instead, it examines modern life from an ancient perspective, presenting the modern world as seen through the eyes of the gods, statesmen, philosophers, and writers of the classical age. In doing so, it offers valuable insight and inspiration for understanding the West and for grasping modern problems as they arise within the tension between antiquity and modernity.

Contents

Translator’s Preface

Foreword

The First Night: Aristotle on Specialism in England

The Second Night: Diogenes and Plato on Tolstoy, Ibsen, Shaw, etc.

The Third Night: Alcibiades on Women in England

The Fourth Night: Alcibiades — Continued

The Fifth Night: Caesar on the House of Commons

The Sixth Night: Apollo and Dionysus in England

The Seventh Night: Socrates, Diogenes, and Plato on Religion

About the Author and Translator

Emil Reich (1854–1910), the author, was born into a Jewish family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He later traveled extensively in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, and delivered lectures on multiple occasions at leading institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge. A prolific writer, he published numerous works over the course of his career. He died in 1910 and was buried in All Souls Cemetery. Reich was a scholar of remarkable erudition and wide-ranging interests. He conducted in-depth research in historiography, geopolitics, and philosophy, and also possessed distinctive insights into literature and music. His published works include Imperialism: Its Prices; Its Vocation; Select Documents Illustrating Mediaeval and Modern History (some of which remain rare to this day); Germany’s Madness (a bestseller); Foundations of Modern Europe (now available in a Chinese translation); General History of Western Nations From 5000 B.C. To 1900 A.D. I. Antiquity; and Plato: As An Introduction To Modern Criticism Of Life, among others. Reich conducted in-depth research on Plato and had a strong grounding in classical studies. He produced outstanding works across multiple disciplines, marked by profound learning and a distinctive scholarly perspective.

Wang Shuanghong, the translator, is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. His research focuses on classical political philosophy and classical studies. His translated works include Socrates and the Political Community and Plato’s Ion (with commentary), among others.

 

V

From History to Fiction: A Study of the Textual History of The Thousand and One Nights

Authored by Muhsin Mahdi (U.S.)

Translated by Liu Shu

China Social Sciences Press, July 2025

Synopsis

As a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales familiar to Chinese readers, The Thousand and One Nights was introduced into China at an early date and has brought much joy to childhoods across the country. From a historical perspective, however, the formation, compilation, transmission, and eventual stabilization of the text of The Thousand and One Nights were the result of the mutual interaction and dynamic fusion of Greek culture and Middle Eastern civilization within the context of Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism. Clear traces of Greek cultural influence can be discerned within the text itself. By studying these Hellenizing elements in the text, we can further grasp the developmental trajectory of Western classical tradition. This book retraces the history of The Thousand and One Nights from its reintroduction into Europe via India in the early 18th century to the publication of the last of its four early printed editions in the first half of the 19th century.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter I Antoine Galland and the Nights

Chapter II Galland’s Successors

Chapter III Four Editions: 1814–1843

Appendix 1 Religion and Politics in the Nights

Appendix 2 Exemplary Tales in the Nights

Appendix 3 From History to Fiction

About the Author and Translator

Muhsin Mahdi (1926–2007), the author, was Professor Emeritus of Arabic at Harvard University and a leading authority in Arabic history, linguistics, and philosophy. His work that brought him renown is The Thousand and One Nights — essentially a critical, philological, and evidential study of the text. For its Chinese translation, the title has been rendered as “From History to Fiction: A Study of the Textual History of The Thousand and One Nights”, a choice that more clearly highlights the book’s theme and facilitates its reception among Chinese readers.

Liu Shu, the translator, holds a Ph.D. in Arabic from the School of Foreign Languages, Peking University. His translations include Averroes on Plato’s “Republic” (Huaxia Publishing House), Averroes’ Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Poetics (Huaxia Publishing House), and The Double Bind (Huaxia Publishing House), among others.

 

VI

An Approach to Aristotle’s Physics: With Particular Attention to the Role of His Manner of Writing

Authored by David Bolotin (U.S.)

Translated by Wan Hao

China Social Sciences Press, September 2025

Synopsis

The author argues that in Aristotle’s writings on the natural world — represented above all by the Physics and On the Heavens — there exist not only rhetorical modes of presentation, but also a philosophical core. Only by taking into account the political dangers inherent in natural philosophy can one properly understand Aristotle’s use of rhetoric. The book offers specific examples to show that Aristotle deliberately concealed certain aspects of his thinking about the natural world. Through his manner of writing, he sought on the one hand to mitigate hostility from established authorities, while on the other continuing to focus on the problem of ultimate origins. In pursuing an approach aimed at demonstrating the validity of Aristotelian natural science, the author clarifies two major obstacles: the obscurity and complexity of modern natural science, and the intrinsic obscurity and complexity of Aristotle’s own texts. He argues that Aristotle’s genuine understanding of the natural world has not been refuted by modern science: On the contrary, Aristotle’s true view not only accords with modern discoveries, but also stems from a broader and deeper grasp of the natural world, one that still merits serious consideration today.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 On the Principles of the Natural Beings

Chapter 2 The Question of Teleology

Chapter 3 On Continuity and Infinite Divisibility

Chapter 4 The Question of Place

Chapter 5 The Doctrine of Weight and Lightness

Chapter 6 On Aristotle’s Manner of Writing

Index

About the Author and Translator

David Bolotin, the author, is a retired faculty member of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of Plato’s Dialogue on Friendship: An Interpretation of the Lysis, with a New Translation, and the translator of Aristotle’s De Anima (On the Soul).

Wan Hao, the translator, holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and graduated from the Department of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University, where he specialized in classical studies. During his doctoral studies, he was a jointly trained doctoral student with the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is currently an Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences. He has participated in the translation of works such as How Philosophy Became Socratic and The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans. His translation of Plato’s Euthydemus is included in “Plato: Short and Middle-Length Dialogues” (Bolatu Zhongduanpian Ji) in the Chinese version of Platonis Opera.

 

VII

On the Fundamentals of Classical Hindu Civilization

Authored by Zhu Chengming

China Social Sciences Press, August 2025

Synopsis

Hinduism refers to itself as the “eternal law” (sanātana dharma) or “Vedic law” (vaidika dharma), and for thousands of years it has constituted the way of life of the majority of people on the South Asian subcontinent, enduring and continually renewed. It permeates every aspect of Indian society, shaping it in a comprehensive manner and forming an all-encompassing paideia. For the ancient Indians, “dharma” was not merely law in the narrow sense, but rather the legitimate order of the cosmos, society, and human life. In the sphere of everyday experience, it took concrete form as institutional norms of governance or as ritual law. To understand this concentrated yet richly layered core of Hindu civilization, we must delve into the foundational strata of Indian civilization, beginning from ancient Indian knowledge traditions, to view “dharma” in its successive stages — its gestation, birth, development, and consolidation — within ancient India’s own spiritual, intellectual, and cultural context, and to clarify the meanings and implications that “dharma” acquires in the course of its transformations. This book invites us to join the ancient Indian sages on an intellectual journey of inquiry into “dharma” and legitimate order.

 

Contents

Preface

List of Abbreviations

Chapter One  Exploring Legitimate Order

1. Legitimate Order of the Individual and Society

2. The Order of the Soul as the Substance of Order

3. How Are the Ancients’ Conceptions of Order to Be Investigated?

Chapter Two  From India to Hinduism

1. The Name “India”

2. “Indian” and “Hindu”

3. “Hinduism” and “Brahmanism”

Chapter Three  The Foundations of Ancient Indian Civilization: the Vedas and the “Thus-It-Is-Said / Ancient Lore” Tradition (“Itihāsa–Purāṇa”)

1. The Vedic Samhitas (Saṃhitās)

2. The Brahmanas (Brāhmaṇas)

3. The Aranyakas and the Upanishads (Āraṇyakāni and Upaniṣadaḥ)

4. The Six Vedanga (Vedāṅgas) and the Dharmasutras (Dharmasūtras)

5. The “Thus-It-Is-Said / Ancient Lore” Tradition (Itihāsa–Purāṇa): The Mahabharata (Mahābhārata)

Chapter Four  Experience, Reality, and Truth

Introduction The Difficulty of Interpretation

1. Returning to Common Sense, Returning to the Concrete

2. Reality and Truth; Experience and Modes of Experience

3. Speaking of Reality and Symbolic Truth

4. The Core of Textual Interpretation: Retracing the Content of Experience

Chapter Five  Experience, Truth, and the Intellectual History of Early India

Introduction “Dharma Grounded in Satya (Truth)”

1. The Three Meanings of Satya (Truth)

2. Early India: Pre-Scientific Truth and Its Efficacy

3. Periodization of Early Indian Intellectual History

Chapter Six  Cosmological Mythic Satya (Truth) and Ṛta (Cosmic Order) in Early Indian Thought

1. Mythic Satya (Truth) in the Early Vedic Period

2. Sacrifice (Yajña): The Cosmic Way and the Technical Way

3. Sacrifice (Yajña): Agni and His Satya (Truth)

4. Satya (Truth) and Ṛta (Cosmic Order)

Chapter Seven  The Birth and Formation of Dharma (Law) in Early India

1. “Law of the Dharma Sutras (Sūtras)” and “Law of the Dharma Treatises”

2. Two Forms of Satya (Truth): Seeking the “Beginning” (Ādi) and the “That” (Tat)

3. “Beginning” (Ādi) Satya (Truth) and the Birth of Dharma

4. The Brahmanas (Brāhmaṇas) and the Formation of Dharma

5. Characteristics of Dharma in the Middle Vedic Period

Chapter Eight  Dharma as Legitimate Order

1. Satya (Truth), Dharma, and the Lawgiver

2. What Is Dharma?

3. Human Ends: the “Threefold Unity” and the “Fourfold Unity”

4. The Subtle and Elusive Nature of Dharma

5. The Final Clarification of the Meaning of Dharma

6. The Completion of the Construction of Dharma

Conclusion

Bibliography

Afterword

About the Author

Zhu Chengming is an Associate Professor and master’s supervisor in the Department of Philosophy, Liberal Arts College, Chongqing University. His research focuses on ancient Indian political order, Indian philosophy, and comparative philosophy between India and the West.

 

VIII

A Grammatical Commentary on Thucydides

Compiled and authored by He Yuanguo

China Social Sciences Press, April 2025

Synopsis

Thucydides’ classic masterpiece, The Peloponnesian War, is renowned for its difficult diction and complex syntactic structures. This book provides a grammatical commentary on the entire text, aiming to remove reading obstacles for readers with an intermediate level of Greek. This book employs a range of methods — reordering words, identifying the main syntactic structure of sentences, phrase construction and word-to-word collocations, noting special usages and meanings, and indicating relevant grammatical rules — to provide a comprehensive grammatical elucidation of words and sentences that present a degree of difficulty. The grammatical commentary in this book covers the entire Greek text. Readers may either study it from beginning to end or consult individual volumes, chapters, and sections as needed, making it the first work of its kind worldwide to date.

Contents

Preface

Book I

Book II

Book III

Book IV

Book V

Book VI

Book VII

Book VIII

Afterword

About the Author

He Yuanguo, born in April 1966 in Yingcheng, Hubei Province, holds a Ph.D. in History from Beijing Normal University. He is Professor of World History and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of History, Wuhan University. His research focuses on Ancient Greek history and the history of Ancient Greek historiography. He was a visiting scholar at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2008–2009) and at the University of Oxford (May–October 2016). He has received approval for two research projects funded by the Philosophy and Social Sciences Research Programme of the Ministry of Education, published one translated book, and has authored more than ten papers in academic journals, including Historical Research. His academic affiliations include Council Member of the Chinese Association for Ancient and Medieval World History, Council Member of the Hubei Society for World History, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies of Nankai University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses such as “General History of the World” (Ancient Period), “Greek and Roman History”, “Ancient Greek”, and “Readings in Classical Ancient Greek Texts”.