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Summary
Nietzsche saw with keen insight that when human instinct and feeling clash with "morality" and "reason," the latter's crushing constraint often lies at the root of the modern soul's maladies. So-called rules, including "customary morality," originally served human beings, yet they grow unchecked and come to be treated as ends in themselves, forcing us to cut our feet to fit them.
In Daybreak, a dazzling work in aphoristic style, Nietzsche judges moral prejudice by the "prejudice" of his own life and urges us to seize power back from the rules. This is an affirming, healing book that helps us recover our humanity, and it marks a major turn in Nietzsche's philosophy: from here he set out on his grand journey, the "revaluation of all values."
As for how to read Daybreak, Nietzsche advised against sitting stiffly at a desk in a study; instead, read it "on walks, on journeys, freely leafing through it, bowing your head again and again and raising it again and again, until you find yourself in a wholly unfamiliar world."
In the history of Nietzsche's own writings, this book falls between the second part of Human, All Too Human and The Gay Science, belonging to the second stage—"the lion"—of "camel," "lion," "child." It possesses abundant destructiveness, shaking old values, and its task is to open space for the creation of new values.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in Nietzsche's thought and moral philosophy who are willing to read aphorisms slowly
- Intellectual readers accustomed to fragmented reading who can reflect repeatedly on short chapters
- General readers hoping to examine their own moral prejudices and value judgments
- Philosophy students seeking a text for understanding Nietzsche's mid-period intellectual turn
Not a good fit for
- Philosophy beginners expecting systematic argument and tightly built systems
- Readers seeking clear rules of conduct or chicken-soup-style consolation
- Readers unaccustomed to the aphoristic form who require linear narrative and coherent plot
Reading tips
- Follow Nietzsche's advice and dip into it on walks or commutes, a few aphorisms at a time, pausing to think after each
- Keep a notebook and record aphorisms that strike you along with personal experiences they bring to mind
- No need to read straight through in volume order; start with themes that interest you and return to the context later
- After finishing, pick one or two aphorisms you find most uncomfortable and ask why you resist them, using this to examine your prejudices
About the publisher
Shanghai Culture Publishing House focuses on practical living and popular culture, while also building a concentrated list in adjacent knowledge areas such as foreign literature, Western philosophy, military studies, and politics. Representative titles in the library include Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and The World as Will and Representation; Goethe's Faust; the Homeric epics (8 volumes); and Carl von Clausewitz's On War, along with Flatland. In terms of translators and authors, Chen Zhongmei, Tian Linian, Qi Jiafu, and Ruan Huishan have contributed to related titles. The press is characterized by connecting classic texts with the reading needs of a general audience, balancing cultural accumulation with knowledge popularization. Given limited public information, this description emphasizes the publishing directions reflected in the library's books.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 前言
- 第一卷
- 第二卷
- 第三卷
- 第四卷
- 第五卷
- 译后记
FAQ
Can I read Daybreak without a philosophy background?
Why did Nietzsche advise against reading this book in a study?
Where does Daybreak stand among Nietzsche's works?
What meaning can be grasped from the title "Daybreak"?
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About the author
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), born in Röcken, Prussia, and died in Weimar, was a German philosopher, classical philologist, and cultural critic. At 24 he became professor of classical philology at the University of Basel; after resigning for health reasons in 1879, he lived and wrote in southern Europe. His works combine philosophical polemic, aphorism, and poetic prose, including Thus Spoke Zarathustra, On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic, Daybreak, Untimely Meditations, Ecce Homo, The Case of Wagner and Nietzsche contra Wagner, and The Will to Power. The library holds 18 of his works. Through ideas such as the death of God, the will to power, and the overman, he criticized Christian morality and Western traditional philosophy, and his sharp, metaphor-rich style has profoundly influenced twentieth-century thought.
Tian Linian is a Chinese philosophy scholar and translator. He holds a PhD in philosophy from Peking University and has worked as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities at Zhejiang University, Humboldt University of Berlin, and the University of Greifswald. His academic work centers on Nietzsche's philosophy, and the four works listed here all belong to this field, including translations of The Birth of Tragedy, Daybreak, and Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality. These works are commonly classified under foreign literature, philosophy readers, and Western philosophy, and are intended for Chinese readers who wish to engage directly with Nietzsche's original texts. Public information about his life is limited; his confirmed contributions lie mainly in translation and Nietzsche studies, through which he has provided Chinese readers with a relatively reliable textual basis for understanding Nietzsche's thought.
