Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters : Four Dialogues on China's Past, Present, and Future

future of China and the rest of the world.Before Chinas unification in 221 BCE, the brilliant political thinkers who founded Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, and Mohism roamed from state to state, argued with each other, and tried to persuade rulers to follow their ideas. Bell draws on their debatesabout such perennial issues as war, corruption, government involvement in family life, and whether the state should subsidize cultureto create vivid imaginative dialogues about important contemporary social and political controversies.Chinas political thinking is rooted in its past. Understanding what ancient Chinese political thought can teach us about todays critical debates is essential to understanding the future of China and the world. [Publisher's text]