Reddit mentions of Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy

Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy

★★★★★ - Awesome!

It's a very general overview of Chinese philosophy, starting with Confucius and working its way to modern day interpretations.

One thing that really struck me was Confucius' idea of "revivalistic traditionalism".

>Revivalism is a movement to effect positive social change in the present by rediscovering the deep meaning of the texts, practices, and values of the past. Many of the great progressive social movements of history have been revivalistic, including the American civil rights movement. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. called on Americans to actually live up to the principles of freedom, equality, and human dignity central to the Christian tradition and to Western democratic thought rather than merely pay lip service to them...

Honestly, I thought that would be a really valuable thing to have as socialists/anarchists. One of the most common critiques of the Left in general is our dedication to the examination of situations 100+ years ago to look for insights into the modern day. Well, rather than doing that, we can take from Marx whatever is valuable, we can take from the classical liberal philosophers whatever we find valuable there, we can take from the ancient Greek philosophers, etc...

The point is we have a lot of material to help us build our ideal world that doesn't necessarily have to be on the foundation that Marx laid down...or Kropotkin, in my case as an anarchist. That material was developed over literally thousands of years from the ideas of Confucius and the Greek philosophers to today. There are insights in there to inform today and I think we're doing a disservice to ourselves by focusing so much on Marx.

I might suggest taking a look at Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy by Bryan Van Norden He's sort of a controversial figure himself because he comes at academia from the perspective of wanting to tear down the biased western institution that prevents proper study of "Eastern" thought. However, he is an expert in his field and keeps that stuff in other books. The one I've linked was one of the most useful introductory texts I found for studying the traditions native to China and those from elsewhere that were integrated into Chinese culture. Many other texts begin by talking about ancient divination practices that are only kind of relevant to the philosophical traditions that sprang up later and are frankly some of the most boring things I've ever read.

Likewise, I've suggested Seven Taoist Masters countless times. It's a narrative and technically only focuses on a specific school of Daoist thought, but it's much more accessible than reading something like the Dao De Jing. It'll teach you about Daoist ideas such as immortality, internal alchemy, and meditation. It's also less likely to make you into an arrogant fortune cookie, as is unfortunately the case with people who start with the DDJ.

Buddhism in China is different than Buddhism in India is different than Buddhism in Tibet. I'd suggest taking a look at the recommended reading on the /r/buddhism subreddit for this and going from there.

Avoid blogs, avoid "spiritualists" like Alan Watts and Eckhart Tolle. They are not good introductions to these topics if what you're looking for is accurate descriptions of how they developed and have been practiced for thousands of years. You might like what they're selling, but what they're selling is tangentially influenced by these traditions, but they're far from the same.