Qian Mu (Ch'ien Mu)

Qian Mu (1895–1990), courtesy name Binsi, was a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu, and a modern Chinese historian, thinker, and educator, as well as a representative figure of modern New Confucianism. He taught at Peking University, Southwest Associated University, and other institutions, and in 1949 founded New Asia College in Hong Kong. His writings span history and philosophy; his major works include An Outline of National History, The Chronology of Pre-Qin Philosophers, A History of Chinese Scholarship in the Last Three Centuries, The Gains and Losses of Chinese Political Systems Through the Ages, and A New Commentary on the Analects. The collection here holds 16 of his works: besides general history and the history of political institutions, most center on Confucius and the Analects, and there are also essays such as Soul and Mind that discuss life and culture, spanning categories including Eastern philosophy, historical reading, and culture. His prose is plain and attentive to principle, skilled at examining traditional thought within the flow of historical fact, and has had a profound influence on popularizing Chinese learning and the Confucian classics.