A History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 1: The Period of the Philosophers (from the Beginnings to Circa 100 B. C.)

The book itself is a classic and the shipping was excellent.

Good.

This book comes in two volumes, volume one writes about the history of Chinese philosophy from antiquity to before the Han period while the second volume deals with Han learning onwards to Prof. Fung's time, i.e. early 20th century.The style of Prof. Fung's writing differs from many authors of history of philosophy whereby he allows the philosophers to speak for themselves by quoting their work and integrating it into his own narrative and analysis. The result is a study which is informative, intellectual, and at the same time accessable. I have yet to see a better book on history of Chinese philosophy in the English language (although Wing Tsit Chan's "Sourcebook of Chinese Philosophy" is good but the analysis is not as succint and well interpreted as Fung's).This book, however, can be heavy for the first timer who has just got himself/herself interested in Chinese philosophy and would like to read up more on it. For people who falls into this category, a more accessable book and to the same high quality is Dr. Fung's shorter work, "A Short History of Chinese Philosophy", also available in Amazon.com. This shorter history deals with the main philosophers, the more important ones and leave out the more remote philosopher. Dr, Fung also limited the number of quotes associated with the philosopher. Although this is so, it is still a first class work. This longer history is suitable for people who has some knowledge already and wants to know more, go deeper. It is suitable for people doing a course in Chinese philosophy in college.If you're really into Chinese philosophy, please do not miss this book.

Mr Fung Yu-Lan's writing is very comprehensive and profound. It gives a very good background knowledge on the Chinese Philosophy throughout the ages and what really shapes Chinese to behave, act and think they way they do in the current context. There is a lot of differences between Western Philosophy and that of Chinese per se. Good read but have to digest slowly. Not a book to be read at one go. Pause and think as you read. Mr Fung is perhaps, in my opinion, one very knowledgeable researcher and writer on this said topic. Bravo! Steven Lim (RSTN).

This book is one of a two-volume set. This volume covers ancient Chinese philosophy up to 100 B.C. (i.e., the period of Confucius, Lao Tzu, and others). Volume two covers later Chinese philosophy. Fung Yu-lan wrote the original work in Chinese. Derk Bodde, a noted Sinologist in his own right, did an excellent job of translating the work into English. (This was no small feat, since Fung quotes from a variety of works from over two thousand years of Chinese history -- works often written in quite different styles of Classical Chinese.)Fung Yu-lan was one of the most important Chinese philosophers and historians of philosophy of the 20th century. This book (along with volume two) has introduced generations of scholars and general readers to Chinese philosophers, and is justly considered a classic. However, it is now very much out of date. Furthermore, Fung studied in the U.S., and this influence led him to read a sort of Platonism back into some Chinese philosophical texts.Any informed scholar should have a copy of this (in English and in Chinese), but the general reader would be better off reading Benjamin Schwartz's _The World of Thought in Ancient China_ or A.C. Graham's _Disputers of the Tao_.

Very useful resource.

I want to expand my knowledge to include Eastern world. See also volume 2. I like that it is a work by Fung a major intellectual. It may not have complex proofs but neither does most modern Western philosophy.