New Year Message

Heaven and Earth speak not, yet the seasons keep their promises. Standing at the juncture of the old and the new and looking back, we see a world searching for order amid the tensions of multipolarity, while rapid technological advances continually prompt us to reconsider the meaning of civilization. Classical scholars live amid turbulent change, yet the measure of their thought is oriented toward centuries to come. Over the past year, classical studies research in China has grown broader on the foundation of solid scholarship, steadily taking new steps to extend its intellectual frontiers.

In 2025, the “Classics and Commentaries” series published 40 academic volumes (including 33 new titles, 6 revised editions, and 1 collected journal volume). These include both in-depth critical editions, annotations, and translations of Chinese and Western canonical texts, as well as specialized studies on topics such as world history, political geography, and poetics from antiquity to the present. We firmly believe that only through the far-reaching intellectual vision endowed by the civilizational traditions of both China and the West can we truly understand and respond to the complexity of our age.

Here, we pay tribute to all the authors, translators, and editors who have devoted themselves wholeheartedly to their work, and to our colleagues in publishing who labour quietly behind the scenes. Their sustained, meticulous scholarship keeps classical learning alive and ever-renewing. We also thank every reader for their continued attention to and support for classical scholarship in China. May we continue in the coming year to move forward together, seeking our direction between the deep springs of the classical tradition and the surging tides of the present age.

Editorial Board of the “Classical Studies” WeChat Public Account

2025 Highlights of the “Classics and Commentaries” Series

In Search of a New Subject: Revolution, Politics, and Discourses of Community in the 19th Century

 

Philosophie zoologique

 

Narratives of Enlightenment: Cosmopolitan History from Voltaire to Gibbon

 

Crito

 

Epicurean Political Philosophy: The De Rerum Natura of Lucretius

 

The Thread of the Labyrinth: Selected Writings on Natural Philosophy by Francis Bacon

 

A Commentary on Plato’s Meno

 

The Letters of Jacob Burckhardt

 

The Advancement of Learning

 

A Grammatical Commentary on Thucydides

The Education of the Human Race

Voegelin and Weber

 

The Art of Vergil: Image and Symbol in the Aeneid

Lessing and His Friends in the Age of Enlightenment

The Rise of the Roman Empire

Law and Reason: Deciphering Cicero’s De Legibus

Menexenus

Basic Principles of Classical Political Philosophy (Aristotle): A course offered in the autumn quarter, 1961

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

Nights with the Gods

 

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

The Peloponnesian War

 

Strategy and Security Policy

 

Great Power Transitions and Universal History: Ranke’s Political Historiography

Socrates Faces Meno — Plato’s Meno (1966)

Leo Strauss and Nietzsche

 

On the Fundamentals of Classical Hindu Civilization

 

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

 

Shapes of Freedom: Hegel’s Philosophy of World History in Theological Perspective

 

Thoughts on Machiavelli

 

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

 

Hooker and the Sixteenth-Century English Constitutional Crisis

 

Dictatorship

 

Political Units and Their Power in Universal History

 

In the Name of the Philosopher: A Study and Annotated Translation of Plato’s Cratylus

 

Dostoevsky’s “Grand Inquisitor”

 

Legend and Poetry: The Death of the Philosopher and Hölderlin’s Empedocles

 

Leo Strauss on Plato’s Euthyphro: The 1948 Notebook, with Lectures and Critical Writings

 

Romantic Style: Selected Critical Writings of Friedrich Schlegel

 

Re-enacting the Past: Essays on the Evolution of Modern English Historiography

 

Introduction to the 2025 “Classics and Commentaries” Series

01

In Search of a New Subject: Revolution, Politics, and the Discourse of Community in the 19th Century

Authored by Liang Zhan

Sichuan People’s Publishing House, February 2025

Although the concept of the subject emerged during the Western Enlightenment, the historical moment that truly prompted sustained reflection on subjectivity was the social and political crisis triggered by slave uprisings amid the height of Western colonial economic expansion in the mid-19th century. This book examines several themes: the young Marx’s conception of a proletarian community around the time of 1848 under the influence of Hegel’s philosophy of right; his critique of the petty-bourgeois community in the French Revolution of 1848; and the complex intellectual trajectory by which Asian intellectual groups, inspired by the Communist Manifesto and driven by their own revolutionary needs, sought to identify and shape new historical subjects.

 

02

Philosophie zoologique

Authored by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (France)

Translated by Mu Shaoliang

Proofread by Zhang Yao

Huaxia Publishing House, March 2025 

In Philosophie zoologique, Lamarck proposed two laws — the law of use and disuse and the inheritance of acquired characteristics — which he regarded as both the causes of variation in organisms and the processes by which they adapt to their environments. Lamarck held that simple forms of life are continually generated through spontaneous generation; an innate vital force drives species, over time, to become progressively more complex along a linear ladder — akin to the medieval Great Chain of Being. In the 1950s, Lamarck’s conjectures were, to a certain extent, corroborated by developments in molecular biology, leading to a renewed interest in his theory.

In 1937, The Commercial Press published the Chinese edition of Philosophie zoologique, translated by Mr. Mu Shaoliang. The present volume is a revised and edited edition of Mu Shaoliang’s translation. The editorial work has focused primarily on re-translating all personal and place names, as well as correcting certain biological and medical proper names and technical terms.

 

03

Narratives of Enlightenment: Cosmopolitan History from Voltaire to Gibbon

Authored by Karen O’Brien

Translated by Zhu Qi, Liu Shiying, et al.

Huaxia Publishing House, March 2025

Is there a shared European identity? If so, what kind of history does it have? Narratives of Enlightenment examines the literary and historiographical achievements of major figures — such as Voltaire, David Hume, William Robertson, Edward Gibbon, and the American historian David Ramsay — against the background of 18th-century political and national controversies in France, Scotland, England, and the United States. O’Brien compares and evaluates these authors, investigating both the extent and the nature of their intellectual contributions to the idea of a unified European civilization. This study is both perceptive and original, engaging — through the lens of literary criticism — with contemporary topics such as the past and present of the Enlightenment, the political uses of narrative, and the European context of national consciousness.

 

04

Crito

Authored by Plato (Ancient Greece)

Translated by Cheng Zhimin

Huaxia Publishing House, March 2025

Plato’s Crito recounts a conversation between Socrates and his old friend Crito in prison after Socrates has been sentenced to death. Crito is an ordinary man rather than someone endowed with an exceptional philosophical nature or a deep love of wisdom. As a result, their exchange largely reflects the philosopher Socrates’ attitude when addressing an ordinary member of the public. Crito repeatedly urges Socrates to escape from prison, believing that failing to save one’s life when it is possible to do so would be unjust. Socrates, however, speaks through the voice of the “Laws” to question the “Socrates who would escape”, and ultimately sides with the Laws, refusing to flee. His views on life, death, and justice differ from those of ordinary people, and through a carefully constructed line of argument — framed almost as a moral tale — he offers his final consolation and instruction to his friend Crito.

This volume is part of the “Reading Plato” series and presents a medium-length annotated commentary on one of Plato’s works. The translator renders the text on the basis of John Burnet’s critical Greek edition, while also drawing extensively on a range of Western annotated editions and related scholarly studies. Explanatory notes that aid in understanding Plato’s original text are selectively translated and compiled, with additional interpretive remarks provided where appropriate, in order to help readers read closely between the lines and appreciate the deeper philosophical import of Plato’s thought.

 

05

Epicurean Political Philosophy: The De Rerum Natura of Lucretius

Authored by James H. Nichols, Jr. (Italy)

Translated by Pu Lin

Huaxia Publishing House, March 2025

This book presents James H. Nichols Jr.’s close reading of Lucretius’s De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things). Contrary to the common view that Epicureanism is merely a form of natural philosophy, the author argues that there is in fact a distinct Epicurean political philosophy. The full evidence for this claim, as well as clarification of its significance, can only be obtained through a comprehensive study of the entirety of Lucretius’s teaching.

Epicureanism sets forth a fundamental philosophical choice. It is not merely a theory of physics, but first and foremost a teaching about human life, offering guidance on how to attain the best possible way of living. Yet this form of ancient materialism has been relatively neglected by scholars of political philosophy. In Lucretius’s De rerum natura, however, the importance of political life emerges more clearly and is more fully recognized than in Epicurus’s own writings.

 

06

The Thread of the Labyrinth: Selected Writings on Natural Philosophy by Francis Bacon

Authored by Francis Bacon (England)

Selected and edited by Cheng Zhimin

Translated by Fang Yunjian

Huaxia Publishing House, March 2025

This volume contains selected translations of several of Francis Bacon’s writings on natural philosophy drawn from The Works of Francis Bacon compiled by Spedding and others. It includes classic pieces such as “Thoughts on the Nature of Things”, “On Principles and Origins”, “Valerius Terminus (of the Interpretation of Nature)”, and “Phaenomena Universi”. These texts may all be regarded as forerunners of Novum Organum. They primarily address Bacon’s views on the nature of matter and its motion, natural phenomena and their laws, as well as natural history and its programmatic design.

Francis Bacon, influenced by Calvinism, possessed a profound concern for the salvation of humankind. He believed that human beings have long been burdened by the instability and mutability of material things, and that a chief reason for this condition lies in the failure to establish a genuine natural philosophy. He therefore sought to reverse what he saw as the empty character of earlier philosophy, emphasizing practical learning and aiming to “improve the conditions of human life through the power and achievements of new inventions”. In this way, he pursued a unity of knowledge and power, and of contemplation and practice. In short, a renewed study of Bacon’s natural philosophy may help us recover the original character of Western experimental philosophy at its beginnings and understand the grand ambitions proper to science.

 

07

A Commentary on Plato’s Meno

Authored by Jacob Klein (U.S.)

Translated by Guo Zhenhua

Huaxia Publishing House, March 2025

Among Plato’s dialogues, several examine particular virtues, but only the Meno undertakes an inquiry into virtue itself. Jacob Klein’s A Commentary on Plato’s Meno offers a meticulous and penetrating interpretation of the Meno. The book comprises a substantial “Introduction”, a line-by-line commentary on the Meno, as well as chapters devoted to specific themes, including comparative readings of other Platonic dialogues and works by Aristotle. Topics addressed include learning, memory, recollection, the art of stereometry, and the question of who Meno was.

 

08

The Letters of Jacob Burckhardt

Authored by Jacob Burckhardt (Switzerland)

Translated by Ai Junshu

Huaxia Publishing House, March 2025

As one of the most “untimely” scholars of the 19th century, Jacob Burckhardt devoted his intellectual efforts to diagnosing European modernity and the civilizational crisis that accompanied it. In defense of the classical humanistic tradition, he refused to systematize his thought by means of any modern disciplinary paradigm. Instead, he adopted an esoteric mode of expression, weaving his reflections throughout his published works, lecture manuscripts, and the thousands of letters he left behind during his lifetime.

This volume selects 181 of the most representative letters from Burckhardt’s correspondence, including nine diary entries written during his stay in London in 1879. Taken together, these texts offer a panoramic view of Burckhardt’s life and reflections, spanning the period from his 20th year to the eve of his death.

 

09

The Advancement of Learning

Authored by Francis Bacon (England)

Translated by Zhu Qi and Li Mingxuan

The Commercial Press, April 2025

The Advancement of Learning is Bacon’s programmatic outline for a comprehensive system of the sciences and stands as a work that cannot be overlooked at the dawn of modern thought. In this book, Bacon on the one hand enumerates the various criticisms directed at learning in his time, as well as its real defects and errors, while discussing the value of learning for humankind; on the other hand, he reclassifies the branches of knowledge and explains how a new and more complete system of learning should be constructed. He reorganizes the structure of human knowledge by dividing all learning into three categories — history, poetry, and philosophy — corresponding to the three faculties of the human mind: memory, imagination, and reason. This original framework exerted a major influence on the development of early modern thought, especially philosophy, and in turn shaped the broader trajectory of Western intellectual history.

 

10

A Grammatical Commentary on Thucydides

Compiled and authored by He Yuanguo

China Social Sciences Press, April 2025

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, aiming to remove reading obstacles for readers with an intermediate level of Greek.

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.

 

11

The Education of the Human Race

Authored by G. E. Lessing (Germany)

Selected and edited by Liu Xiaofeng

Translated by Zhu Yanbing

Huaxia Publishing House, April 2025

This revised edition of The Education of the Human Race includes six works by Lessing centered on the core theme of political philosophy — the relationship between religion and philosophy — and may be regarded as representative of his political-philosophical writings. To support in-depth reading, the volume also contains six appendices covering such matters as the background of the texts, their composition history, and analyses of structure and themes, providing substantial reference value.

 

12

Voegelin and Weber

By Liu Xiaofeng (General Editor)

By Lou Lin (Executive Editor)

Huaxia Publishing House, April 2025

This volume is Issue No. 66 of the “Classics and Commentaries” series, devoted to the theme “Voegelin and Weber”. Max Weber, a German thinker of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, exerted a far-reaching influence on Western intellectual life through his works and theories. Eric Voegelin was deeply influenced by Weber, and sustained engagement with and reflection on Weber’s thought runs throughout Voegelin’s scholarly career. This issue includes translated selections of four essays by Voegelin: two offer overall inquiries into the character of Weber’s thought and its relation to the development of modern Western thought, while the other two focus respectively on Nietzsche and German hegemony. It also features a translated essay by a leading Voegelin specialist, which explores the differences between the two thinkers by tracing shifts in Voegelin’s own intellectual development.

 

13

The Art of Vergil: Image and Symbol in the Aeneid

Authored by Viktor Pöschl (Germany)

Translated into English by Gerda Seligson (Germany)

Translated into Chinese by Huang Furong

Edited by Wang Chengjiao

Published by East China Normal University Press, May 2025

The German classicist Viktor Pöschl is renowned for his studies on Vergil, and his work has even shifted the direction of Vergil studies in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Art of Vergil provides a detailed analysis of Vergil’s Aeneid, focusing on the “basic themes”, “main characters”, and “artistic principles”. Using typical classical research methods, it combines literary, artistic, philosophical, and historical perspectives to offer a thorough and in-depth interpretation of the art of Vergil.

Through an analysis of detailed scenes, character fates, and emotional symbolism in Vergil’s epic, the author reveals how the Aeneid surpasses the Homeric epics while inheriting their legacy, and how it has had a profound influence on later literature, showcasing its deep cultural value.

 

14

Lessing and His Friends in the Age of Enlightenment

Compiled and translated by Wen Yuwei

Sichuan People’s Publishing House, June 2025

This book focuses on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a central figure of the 18th-century German Enlightenment, offering an in-depth exploration of his intellectual contributions and his interactions with contemporary men of letters. As a dramatist, philosopher, and critic, Lessing exerted a profound influence on literature, theology, and ethics. The volume not only analyzes his connections with Freemasonry and the social ideals he espoused, but also elucidates his critique of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement, underscoring his insistence on a balance between reason and moral restraint.

Through Lessing’s interactions with friends such as Moses Mendelssohn and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, the book brings to light the intellectual confrontations of the Enlightenment, most notably the celebrated Pantheismusstreit (Pantheism Controversy), and depicts the complex relationship between reason and faith. In addition, the volume includes Lessing’s Notes from an Italian Journey and a selection of valuable correspondence, vividly documenting his observations on art, history, and European culture. An appendix provides a detailed chronological table, enabling readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the development and trajectory of Lessing’s thought.

This book combines scholarly rigour with readability. It serves not only as an important reference for the study of the Enlightenment, but also opens a window for general readers into the intellectual history of 18th-century Europe.

 

15

The Rise of the Roman Empire

Authored by Polybius (Ancient Greece)

Translated by Ma Yong

Huaxia Publishing House, July 2025

The Rise of the Roman Empire (originally in 40 books) covers a span of 120 years, beginning in 264 BCE and ending in 144 BCE. According to Polybius’s chronological system, the narrative runs from the 129th Olympiad to the 158th Olympiad. These 120 years may be divided into three historical periods: 264–221 BCE, 220–168 BCE, and 168–144 BCE.

In terms of content, the work recounts Rome’s rise from its first overseas conquests to its eventual seizure of hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world, alongside the corresponding decline of various states and kingdoms.

 

16

Law and Reason: Deciphering Cicero’s De Legibus

Authored by Cicero (Ancient Rome)

Selected and edited by Wang Xiong and Lou Lin

Translated by Wang Xiong

Huaxia Publishing House, July 2025

Cicero’s De Legibus (On the Laws) is a classic work of Western legal philosophy and constitutes a bridge between ancient Greek philosophy and Roman law. This book is a collection of interpretive studies devoted to De Legibus. All the essays selected for inclusion are classic works from Western scholarship on Cicero’s De Legibus. The book contains a total of seven research articles, followed by a concluding piece titled “A Chronological Survey of Cicero’s Philosophical Writings”. Among them, An Exegetical Analysis of Cicero’s De Legibus approaches De Legibus from a philological and historical perspective, examining the date of composition, the dialogical form, the philosophical background, and the Roman political context of the work. Plato’s Nomoi and Cicero’s De Legibus focuses on intellectual continuity and analyzes in particular how De Legibus goes beyond Plato’s Laws. Cicero on Natural Law and Positive Law situates the discussion within Cicero’s overall legal philosophy and compares his conceptions of natural law and positive law. An Apparently Plain Opening: Cicero’s De Legibus concentrates on the opening section of De Legibus and offers an interpretation of Cicero’s literary style. Cicero’s De Legibus: Law and Legitimate Argumentation Oriented toward a Just State examines the ways in which law and justice are attained.

This book helps readers gain a better understanding of Cicero’s De Legibus and, in turn, facilitates a better appreciation and study of Cicero’s thought. It thus offers valuable reference material for scholars of classical studies.

 

17

Menexenus

Authored by Plato (Ancient Greece)

Translated by Li Xiangli

Huaxia Publishing House, July 2025

Menexenus is a dialogue between Socrates and the young Athenian aristocrat Menexenus, but only the beginning and end are in the form of a dialogue. The main body in the middle is a public funeral oration that Socrates recounts to Menexenus. In this recounted speech, Socrates shifts from his usual image as a philosopher debating with others to that of a rhetorician delivering a politically charged funeral oration. He reflects on Athens’ century-long history of war, starting from the Persian Wars, and concludes with the “King’s Peace” of 386 BCE. This speech contrasts not only with Pericles’ funeral oration in history but also with the version of Pericles’ funeral oration reimagined by Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War based on historical facts, highlighting the unique aspects of Socrates’ political philosophy.

 

18

Basic Principles of Classical Political Philosophy (Aristotle): A course offered in the autumn quarter, 1961

Lectures by Leo Strauss (U.S.)

Edited by M. Richard Zinman

Translated by Xu Jian

East China Normal University Press, July 2025

In 1961, Leo Strauss offered a series of lectures on Aristotle at the University of Chicago. This volume is based on recordings of those lectures and has been edited and prepared by Professor Zinman of Madison College, Michigan State University, a scholar who has long been engaged in the study of Strauss.

The overarching aim of this course by Leo Strauss was, through classroom discussion and close reading, to address the concrete difficulties students actually encountered, and to lead them to an understanding of the fundamental principles in Aristotle’s Politics that are often overlooked. In this way, the course sought to respond to the pressing issues of Strauss’s own time — what he himself described as the crisis of Western modernity.

 

19

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

Authored by Ennius (Ancient Rome)

Compiled and translated by Liu Jingfan

China Social Sciences Press, July 2025

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.

 

20

Nights with the Gods

Authored by Emil Reich (UK)

Translated by Wang Shuanghong

China Social Sciences Press, July 2025

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.

 

21

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

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. 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, stating that 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.

 

22

The Peloponnesian War

Authored by Thucydides (Ancient Greece)

Commentary by Leo Strauss (U.S.)

Translated and annotated by Li Shixiang

China Social Sciences Press, July 2025

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.

 

23

Strategy and Security Policy

Authored by Erich Vad (Germany)

Translated by Wen Yuwei

Huaxia Publishing House, August 2025

Written in the mid-1990s, this book reflects the work of Erich Vad, who is not merely an armchair scholar. In the context of the major geopolitical transformations following the end of the Cold War, the author revisits Carl Schmitt as a “new classic” thinker and effectively combines concrete political realities with politico-military theory in order to better understand the new nomos of the earth. Particularly noteworthy is that, in the face of liberal political discourse that often treats Schmitt with suspicion and criticism, the author — drawing on his long experience and theoretical reflection in international politics — affirms Schmitt’s definition of the political as grounded in the friend–enemy distinction. This principle, in international relations and especially security strategy practice, continually presents itself, whether explicitly or implicitly.

In this book, the author offers a comprehensive examination of Carl Schmitt’s politico-military theories and also looks ahead to future developments in military affairs and the evolution of international relations. From the author’s perspective, we can see that in an age marked by the end of old traditions, the destabilization of established frameworks, the proliferation of transformations, and the need for new orientations, Schmitt’s categories and concepts of thought continue to possess strong contemporary relevance.

 

24

Great Power Transitions and Universal History: Ranke’s Political Historiography

Authored by Leopold von Ranke (Germany)

Edited by Liu Xiaofeng

Translated by Guo Xiaoyao

Huaxia Publishing House, August 2025

Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886), a renowned 19th-century German historian, is widely regarded as a founder of modern historiography. This volume includes three of Ranke’s major works — “The Great Powers”, “On the Affinity and the Difference between History and Politics”, and “Dialogue on Politics” — all translated from the German for the first time. In these writings, Ranke seeks to examine the “world-historical moments” of European history over the most recent century and a half (from the late 17th to the mid-19th century), in order to clarify widespread misunderstandings about the formation of the modern world and to illuminate the fundamental character of modernity.

The book also contains five scholarly studies and a substantial editorial introduction, addressing such topics as Ranke’s scholarly and historical outlook, the global vision underlying his historiography, and the rhetoric of literary realism in his works.

 

25

Socrates Faces Meno — Plato’s Meno (1966)

By Leo Strauss (U.S.), Lecture Commentary

Edited by Jerry Weinberger (U.S.)

Translated by Chen Mingzhu

This book is the lecture manuscript of Professor Leo Strauss’s course on Plato’s Meno delivered during the spring semester of 1966 at the University of Chicago. In his lectures, Strauss closely reads and clarifies the text of Plato’s Meno, while also discussing the Meno commentary by his close friend, Professor Klein. As a result, this book becomes an important work in Meno studies and an outstanding example of the interpretation of Plato’s dialogues.

 

26

Leo Strauss and Nietzsche

Authored by Lawrence Lampert (Canada)

Translated by Tian Linian, He Zhigang, et al.

Huaxia Publishing House, August 2025

In Leo Strauss and Nietzsche, the renowned Nietzsche scholar Professor Lampert evaluates the relationship between Strauss and Nietzsche from a new perspective, sparking heated debates. The book meticulously examines Strauss’s pivotal essay Note on the Plan of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil. Written shortly before Strauss’s death, this essay was included in his final work and positioned at the heart of the book.

Lampert’s research reveals that this essay demonstrates Strauss’s admiration for and influence from Nietzsche, far beyond what Strauss’s followers could tolerate. Furthermore, the essay contains Strauss’s most significant published interpretation of Nietzsche, clarifying Nietzsche’s concepts of “nature” and the history of the human spirit, and explicating the logical relationship between two fundamental themes in Nietzsche’s philosophy — will to power and eternal recurrence.

 

27

On the Fundamentals of Classical Hindu Civilization

Authored by Zhu Chengming

China Social Sciences Press, August 2025

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.

 

28

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

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.

 

29

Shapes of Freedom: Hegel’s Philosophy of World History in Theological Perspective

Authored by Peter C. Hodgson (U.S.)

Translated by He Qiwen

Huaxia Publishing House, September 2025

Peter C. Hodgson is a leading American scholar of Hegel studies. This book serves both as an introductory study of Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of World History and as a fresh interpretation of Hegel’s philosophy of history developed from Hodgson’s own perspective.

Chapter One provides an introduction to the Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, discussing the textual sources, core categories, and Hegel’s distinctions among different modes of historical writing. Chapter Two examines the synchronic and diachronic structures of world history. Chapters Three and Four treat, respectively, the state as the material medium for the realization of Spirit and the course of world history, with detailed analysis of two key aspects: the state as freedom realized in institutional form, and the course of world history as a series of distinct shapes of freedom. Chapter Five discusses a third structure of world history, namely its supratemporal structure.

 

30

Thoughts on Machiavelli

Authored by Leo Strauss (U.S.)

Translated by Ye Ran and Ma Yong

Huaxia Publishing House, September 2025

In this book, the outstanding 20th-century political philosopher Leo Strauss offers an extensive interpretation of two major works by Niccolò Machiavelli, a founding figure of modern political philosophy — The Prince and the Discourses on Livy. Machiavelli is widely known as a “teacher of evil”, and Strauss takes this judgment into account in his reading, yet he does not believe it exhausts Machiavelli’s full significance.

Chapter One examines in depth the relationship between The Prince and the Discourses on Livy. Chapter Two analyzes the aims pursued in The Prince. Chapter Three explores the intention of the Discourses on Livy. Chapter Four offers a critical exposition of Machiavelli’s contribution to modern political thought. The volume also includes three additional scholarly essays on Machiavelli.

Strauss’s critique of Machiavelli makes this book an important work of scholarship for students of either thinker.

 

31

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

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.

 

32

Hooker and the Sixteenth-Century English Constitutional Crisis

Authored by Yao Xiaoyu

Sichuan People’s Publishing House, September 2025

This book is a scholarly monograph on Richard Hooker’s thought and his response to the constitutional crisis of 16th-century England. Using Eric Voegelin’s analysis of the dual structure of Western civilization — “institutions and movements” — as its theoretical framework, the study explores how the civilizational crisis triggered by the Reformation was manifested in the conflict between the English Puritan movement and the established church settlement. Through a close analysis of Hooker’s Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, the book systematically explains how Hooker, grounding himself in the Aristotelian–Thomistic natural law tradition, developed a theory of the “political body” to reconcile reason and revelation, tradition and reform, and to argue for the legitimacy of the English ecclesiastical–political order — namely, the integrated church–state structure under a monarch as supreme governor of the Church. Combining depth in intellectual history with contemporary relevance, the book is of significant value for understanding the origins of modern political order.

 

33

Dictatorship

Authored by Carl Schmitt (Germany)

Translated by Shi Minyue

Shanghai People’s Publishing House, September 2025

Carl Schmitt was one of the most important political thinkers of the 20th century and is often regarded as the last European scholar of public law. With a writing career spanning more than 60 years, he played a significant role in numerous major events of political thought. He has been called the “Hobbes of the 20th century”. His ideas exerted major influence on 20th-century political philosophy and political theology. He is especially known for his theory of decisionism and for introducing a number of important concepts in public law.

First published in 1921 and reissued three times by 1978, Dictatorship examines the phenomenon of dictatorship that emerged in Christian Europe from the 16th century onward, as monarchical states underwent the process of transformation into the “people’s state” (also translated as the “nation-state”).

Formally speaking, this work is a specialized study in the history of Western legal–constitutional institutions. In substance, however, it addresses the turbulent realities of Germany at the time, using historical analysis as a vehicle for theoretical argument. It traces the development of Western modern theories of dictatorial power since Machiavelli, distinguishes among the various types of dictatorship that have emerged since the early modern period, and, with considerable practical acuity, brings to light the inherent difficulties confronting the Constitution of the newly established Weimar Republic.

 

34

Political Units and Their Power in Universal History

Authored by Otto Westphal (Germany)

Translated by Luo Xiaojun

Huaxia Publishing House, October 2025

This book is an important work of the philosophy of history by the German historian Otto Westphal, first published in 1921. Writing from the perspective of world history, the author seeks to reassess the historical destiny of the German Empire in order to dispel the mood of discouragement overshadowing the Weimar Republic. The first two chapters engage directly with debates in the German intellectual world of the time. The subsequent chapters present a universal-historical narrative beginning with the “Eastern cultural sphere”, where the inhabited earth first became a unified political stage, and concluding with the “German cultural sphere”.

Historians of historiography have observed that Westphal took as his task the revelation of the historical connections among historiography and metaphysics, politics and religion, and power and spirit, seeking to integrate into a single framework the supposedly “opposed” models of world history associated with Hegel and Ranke. Like Hegel and Ranke, Westphal regarded the German Empire as the pinnacle of world-historical development, and held that its defeat in the First World War resulted merely from its being encircled by other great powers and their alliances. Yet Westphal’s intention did not stop there.

After Germany’s defeat in the Second World War, Westphal turned the historiographical method of the “Neo-Rankean school” back upon the nationalist political historiography that this school itself had helped to shape, seeking to draw proper boundaries between intellectual–spiritual inquiry and political reality. The appendix to this volume includes a short yet highly original work of world history written near the end of Westphal’s life — World History as Reflected in Goethe’s Theory of Colours — which serves as a fitting mirror of this reflection.

 

35

In the Name of the Philosopher: A Study and Annotated Translation of Plato’s Cratylus

Authored by Plato (Ancient Greece)

Translated and annotated by Liu Zhen

The Commercial Press, October 2025

Cratylus is widely regarded as one of Plato’s most puzzling middle dialogues, yet it is also a tightly structured work whose central themes are closely connected with those of several other Platonic dialogues, including the Republic, Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman. Anyone seeking a comprehensive understanding of Socrates’ mode of philosophizing and the distinctive character of Plato’s philosophy cannot afford to bypass this dialogue.

This volume offers an integrated and systematic interpretation of the dialogue’s structural threads, thematic intentions, and philosophical arguments. In particular, it provides a continuous and coherent reading of the notoriously difficult “etymological” section, thereby laying a solid foundation for a full understanding of the work. The accompanying Chinese translation is based on John Burnet’s critical Greek edition and has been prepared with reference to multiple authoritative editions and translations, with substantial and reliable annotations designed for Chinese readers.

 

36

Dostoevsky’s “Grand Inquisitor”

Authored by Vasily Rozanov (Russia)

Translated by Zhang Baichun

Huaxia Publishing House, December 2025

This book is the distinguished Russian thinker Vasily Rozanov’s interpretation of the key chapter commonly known as “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor” in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s final novel, The Brothers Karamazov.

The Brothers Karamazov is a large-scale and philosophically rich work with highly complex ideas. In this novel, Dostoevsky sought to bring together the conclusions of his lifelong quest, addressing what he regarded as the most fundamental and universal questions of human life and society — above all, the problems of good and evil and of the human soul. These issues are presented in their most concentrated form in the famous chapter “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor”.

 

37

Legend and Poetry: The Death of the Philosopher and Hölderlin’s Empedocles

Authored by Theresia Birkenhauer (Germany)

Translated by Lin Jia

Huaxia Publishing House, December 2025

According to the legend, Empedocles ended his life by leaping into a volcanic crater. Centered on this legendary event, Friedrich Hölderlin left behind a series of dramatic fragments: three writing plans, three dramatic versions, and the poetics essay The Ground for Empedocles. These fragmentary texts have become both a focal point and a challenge in Hölderlin studies. This book offers a scholarly study and interpretation of these seemingly discontinuous materials. Also, for the convenience of readers, the translator has rendered all of these fragments into Chinese and included them in an appendix for reference — something not previously available in the field.

The book is structured as follows: Part One, “The Death of the Philosopher”, examines 18th-century German debates about the death of the philosopher, then discusses how Hölderlin interprets the legendary death of Empedocles and how this interpretation is embodied in his dramatic writings. Part Two, “Hölderlin’s Empedocles”, provides a detailed analysis of the surviving fragments, including their dramaturgical method, plot construction, characterization, and use of language. The study concludes that Hölderlin’s project is not an application of an already established theory of tragedy, but rather an experimental rethinking of tragic form. The appendix contains Chinese translations of all the extant fragments, together with another scholarly essay by the author.

 

38

Leo Strauss on Plato’s Euthyphro: The 1948 Notebook, with Lectures and Critical Writings

Authored by Leo Strauss (U.S.)

Edited by Hannes Kerber and Svetozar Y. Minkov

Translated by Yao Xiaoyu

Huaxia Publishing House, January 2026

This volume collects Leo Strauss’s notes on Plato’s Euthyphro, distinguished by rigorous analysis and line-by-line commentary. Euthyphro is the only Platonic dialogue devoted specifically to the question of piety, and it is set after the charges against Socrates have been brought but before his trial, thus bearing directly on the accusations against him. Strauss raises questions about the text, analyzes specific terms and arguments, and at the same time examines the overall movement of the dialogue. His interpretation vividly presents his reflection on a fundamental question: whether the philosophical way of life is justifiable.

In addition to Strauss’s reading notes on Plato’s Euthyphro, this volume also brings together his notes on the Crito and a substantial body of related materials, including newly transcribed and edited public lectures, illuminating appendices, and critical essays. Taken together, these materials display Strauss’s reflection on the questions of piety and justice.

 

39

Romantic Style: Selected Critical Writings of Friedrich Schlegel

Authored by Friedrich Schlegel (Germany)

Translated by Li Bojie

Huaxia Publishing House, January 2026

On the one hand, Schlegel’s thought carries forward the Enlightenment’s affirmation of reason, further developing its principles of skepticism and critique; at the same time, he turns a questioning gaze upon Enlightenment rationality itself, subjecting it to renewed inquiry and thereby expanding the scope of reason. On the other hand, he is keenly aware of the limits of reason and accordingly redirects attention toward nature. This volume brings together Schlegel’s principal early writings and reflects the ideas of his most creative intellectual period.

An example of one of Schlegel’s “fragments”: “Friendship is partial love; love is friendship extended to every aspect and every direction — it is all-embracing friendship. The awareness of necessary limits is the most indispensable and the rarest thing in friendship.”

 

40

Re-enacting the Past: Essays on the Evolution of Modern English Historiography

Authored by Joseph M. Levine (U.S.)

Translated by Shen Xiangyong

Huaxia Publishing House, March 2026

How and why did modern historical writing take the form it has today? Re-enacting the Past brings together 15 essays by Joseph M. Levine that focus on how the Renaissance and the Reformation shaped English historical writing and historical thought, and what kind of legacy these movements left behind. Early modern neoclassicism both reflected and molded the English understanding and use of the past, while religious controversies drove scholars — often implicitly — to rely on historiography and to pursue historical evidence with increasing rigour. By the late 18th century, traditional beliefs — such as the timeless authority of ancient wisdom and the view of the Bible as straightforward recorded history — had been thoroughly challenged, and modern historiography in the proper sense had largely taken shape. The final part of the volume presents a series of essays engaging contemporary views of history, entering into debate with figures such as Quentin Skinner, Peter Novick, and Thomas Kuhn, while offering high praise for R. G. Collingwood.

 

Complete List of the 2025 “Classics and Commentaries” Series

In Search of a New Subject: Revolution, Politics, and Discourses of Community in the 19th Century

Philosophie zoologique

Narratives of Enlightenment: Cosmopolitan History from Voltaire to Gibbon

Crito

Epicurean Political Philosophy: The De Rerum Natura of Lucretius

The Thread of the Labyrinth: Selected Writings on Natural Philosophy by Francis Bacon

A Commentary on Plato’s Meno

The Letters of Jacob Burckhardt

The Advancement of Learning

A Grammatical Commentary on Thucydides

The Education of the Human Race

Voegelin and Weber

The Art of Vergil: Image and Symbol in the Aeneid

Lessing and His Friends in the Age of Enlightenment

The Rise of the Roman Empire

Law and Reason: Deciphering Cicero’s De Legibus

Menexenus

Basic Principles of Classical Political Philosophy (Aristotle): A course offered in the autumn quarter, 1961

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

Nights with the Gods

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

The Peloponnesian War

Strategy and Security Policy

Great Power Transitions and Universal History: Ranke’s Political Historiography

Socrates Faces Meno — Plato’s Meno (1966)

Leo Strauss and Nietzsche

On the Fundamentals of Classical Hindu Civilization

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

Shapes of Freedom: Hegel’s Philosophy of World History in Theological Perspective

Thoughts on Machiavelli

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

Hooker and the Sixteenth-Century English Constitutional Crisis

Dictatorship

Political Units and Their Power in Universal History

In the Name of the Philosopher: A Study and Annotated Translation of Plato’s Cratylus

Dostoevsky’s “Grand Inquisitor”

Legend and Poetry: The Death of the Philosopher and Hölderlin’s Empedocles

Leo Strauss on Plato’s Euthyphro: The 1948 Notebook, with Lectures and Critical Writings

Romantic Style: Selected Critical Writings of Friedrich Schlegel

Re-enacting the Past: Essays on the Evolution of Modern English Historiography

A Total of 40 Titles Published in the 2025 “Classics and Commentaries” Series!

 

Partner Publishers of the 2025 “Classics and Commentaries” Series