A Brief History of Early Chinese Philosophy – D.T. Suzuki (1914)

S$85.00

A Brief History of Early Chinese Philosophy – D.T. Suzuki (1914)

S$85.00

Title: A Brief History of Early Chinese Philosophy

Author: D. T. Suzuki

Publisher: Probsthain & Co, London, 1914. Second edition.

Condition: Decorative cloth, very good. Rubbing to hinge and very slight fraying to spine edges. Annotations on back endpapers, which have been erased. 188pp including index.

SKU: suzuki-chinesephilosophy Categories: , ,

A very good introduction by D. T. Suzuki, one of the most important figures in the spread of Buddhism to the Western and English-speaking world; he himself was a Zen and Pure Land practitioner throughout his life.

About D.T. Suzuki (from Wikipedia):

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin (and Far Eastern philosophy in general) to the West. Suzuki was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Japanese, and Sanskrit literature. Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities, and devoted many years to a professorship at Otani University, a Japanese Buddhist school.

He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963.

Suzuki lived and studied several years with the scholar Paul Carus. Suzuki was introduced to Carus by Soyen Shaku, who met him at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. Carus, who had set up residence in LaSalle, Illinois, approached Soyen Shaku to request his help in translating and preparing Eastern spiritual literature for publication in the West. Soyen Shaku instead recommended his student Suzuki for the job. Suzuki lived at Dr. Carus’s home, the Hegeler Carus Mansion, and worked with him, initially in translating the classic Tao Te Ching from ancient Chinese. In Illinois, Suzuki began his early work Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism.

Carus himself had written a book offering an insight into, and overview of, Buddhism, titled The Gospel of Buddha. Soyen Shaku wrote an introduction for it, and Suzuki translated the book into Japanese. At this time, around the turn of the century, quite a number of Westerners and Asians (Carus, Soyen, and Suzuki included) were involved in the worldwide Buddhist revival that had begun slowly in the 1880s.