Evidential Commentary on the Meanings of Terms in Mencius

In Evidential Commentary on the Meanings of Terms in Mencius, the great Qing dynasty thinker Dai Zhen offers one of the most penetrating philosophical re-readings of the Confucian tradition ever written: a sustained investigation into principle, feeling, human nature, desire, knowledge, the Way of Heaven, and moral judgment.

The ritual codes, philosophical discourses, educational primers and religious classics that shaped Chinese civilization for over two millennia. Where the narrative classics tell China’s stories, these texts encode its institutions, its ethics and its inner life.