Plato Goes to China - by Shadi Bartsch

Book Synopsis

The surprising story of how Greek classics are being pressed into use in contemporary China to support the regime's political agenda

As improbable as it may sound, an illuminating way to understand today's China and how it views the West is to look at the astonishing ways Chinese intellectuals are interpreting--or is it misinterpreting?--the Greek classics. In Plato Goes to China, Shadi Bartsch offers a provocative look at Chinese politics and ideology by exploring Chinese readings of Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and other ancient writers. She shows how Chinese thinkers have dramatically recast the Greek classics to support China's political agenda, diagnose the ills of the West, and assert the superiority of China's own Confucian classical tradition.

In a lively account that ranges from the Jesuits to Xi Jinping, Bartsch traces how the fortunes of the Greek classics have changed in China since the seventeenth century. Before the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the Chinese typically read Greek philosophy and political theory in order to promote democratic reform or discover the secrets of the success of Western democracy and science. No longer. Today, many Chinese intellectuals use these texts to critique concepts such as democracy, citizenship, and rationality. Plato's "Noble Lie," in which citizens are kept in their castes through deception, is lauded; Aristotle's Politics is seen as civic brainwashing; and Thucydides's criticism of Athenian democracy is applied to modern America.

What do antiquity's "dead white men" have left to teach? By uncovering the unusual ways Chinese thinkers are answering that question, Plato Goes to China opens a surprising new window on China today.

Review Quotes

"An even-handed exploration of the ways in which Chinese academics have interpreted Classical Greek political theory and practice, and have compared them with their own over the past century."---Mari Williams, The Journal of Classics Teaching

"Bartsch's careful research ought to be of interest to philosophers, rhetoricians, and historians of the domestic and international variety."---Christopher Giofreda, Thoughtfox

"A critical, highly relevant journey into China through scholars' interpretations of the ancient Greeks."-- "Choice Reviews"

"A revelatory look at how China uses, and sometimes abuses, classical thought. . . . Like Plato's dialogues themselves, [this book] breathes with drama."---Sean Durns, Washington Examiner

"A valuable volume."---Rana Mitter, Times Literary Supplement

"A Seminary Co-Op Notable Book of the Year"

"Bartsch's work is especially fitting for our time."---Jesse Russell, The Federalist

"Masterful. . . .There is so much to unpack in Bartsch's deeply researched book."---Michael Sheridan, Engelsberg Ideas

"Original and penetrating."---Paul Cartledge, Classics for All

About the Author

Shadi Bartsch is an award-winning classicist and the Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where she directs the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge. She is the author and editor of numerous books and the translator of an acclaimed version of the Aeneid.