Why read Chinese Sympathies?

Book cover of Chinese Sympathies: Media, Missionaries, and World Literature from Marco Polo to Goethe

Book description

Chinese Sympathies examines how Europeans-German-speaking writers and thinkers in particular-identified with Chinese intellectual and literary traditions following the circulation of Marco Polo's Travels. This sense of affinity expanded and deepened, Daniel Leonhard Purdy shows, as generations of Jesuit missionaries, baroque encyclopedists, Enlightenment moralists, and translators established intellectual regimes that framed…

Explore

Topics

Genres

European history

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Chinese Sympathies as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Peter Uwe Hohendahl

Author

Lately, the news about China and the West has been discouraging. The media focus on the dangers of authoritarianism. But was this always the case? This book tells the fascinating story of the unexpected and multifaceted influence of classical Chinese culture on early modern Europe (1600-1800) and in particular Germany. German thinkers and writers felt that they could learn from China. The study was an eye-opener for me that changed my understanding of the intellectual formation of modern Europe and especially modern Germany. It is a crucial narrative that contrasts with the well-known narrative of European expansion and domination.

From Peter's list on The best books on German thought.