ENGLISH

Yang Xiong and the Pleasures of Reading and Classical Learning in China

By Michael Nylan

Book information

Publisher
American Oriental Society
Year
2011
ISBN
0940490323, 9780940490321
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
16 MB (16888552 bytes)
Series
American Oriental Series
Pages
158\79
Time added
2021-03-25 17:55:34

Description

Yang Xiong (53 BC-AD 18), the Han philosophical master remarks at one point in his Exemplary Figures, "Books are as sexy as women." Modern readers may frown at a comparison they regard as less than apt. Yang was supremely aware, however, of longstanding traditions, ascribed both to the sages and to the Classics, contrasting the unusual strength of the basic drives for food and sex with the general weakness of the acquired inclinations toward moral behavior. To say that "books are as sexy as women" was to make bold to add to those traditions, adopting the manner of a sage; also to elevate the value of certain texts, at least, to the level morality itself, insofar as they represented acquired tastes leading to the most desirable aspects of civilized life.

Similar books