{"id":1921567,"date":"2023-04-30T10:42:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-30T14:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-the-chinese-are-reading-plato-aristotle-and-leo-strauss\/"},"modified":"2023-04-30T10:46:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T14:46:56","slug":"why-the-chinese-are-reading-plato-aristotle-and-leo-strauss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-the-chinese-are-reading-plato-aristotle-and-leo-strauss\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Chinese Are Reading Plato, Aristotle, and\u2026 Leo Strauss?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-the-chinese-are-reading-plato-aristotle-and-leo-strauss%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1921567&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The Chinese Pursuit of World Hegemony<\/h2>\n<p>The Chinese government, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, has made it clear that it intends to pursue world hegemony. This is evident through its military buildup, aggressive posture towards Taiwan, and the Belt and Road initiative that extends across central Asia and beyond. China is also creating a world of &#8220;Sino States&#8221; from Cuba to Angola to Pakistan, obtaining strategic concessions such as seaports, discounted oil, and naval routes in return for unrepayable loans. Amid Xi\u2019s claim to cultural, military, and political superiority over the West, Americans may be surprised to learn of a growing interest in Greek and Roman texts among Chinese academics\u2014sometimes even cited in party editorials.<\/p>\n<h3>The Growing Interest in Greek and Roman Texts Among Chinese Academics<\/h3>\n<p>In her book <em>Plato Goes to China<\/em>, University of Chicago classicist Shadi Bartsch explains her aim to escape the &#8220;hall of mirrors&#8221; generated by Westerners taught to believe in the universal validity of such concepts as the superiority of democracy and the notion of individual rights. Bartsch\u2019s outlook is one of cultural relativism, refraining from making derogatory comparisons between Chinese and Western cultures. This interest in Greek and Roman texts is especially remarkable at a time when many American universities are closing their classics departments, sometimes claiming such studies are elitist or imperialistic.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bartsch describes the unsuccessful endeavor of 17th-century Jesuit missionaries to introduce elements of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mr-socrates-goes-to-beijing\/\" title=\"Mr. Socrates Goes To Beijing\">classical thought<\/a> (blended with Christian theology) to China, which left the Chinese still thinking that their culture was superior.<\/li>\n<li>During the economic liberalization under Mao\u2019s successor Deng Xiaoping, Gu Zhun\u2019s thought achieved wider visibility with the posthumous (1982) publication of his book celebrating the <em>polis<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>As post-Tiananmen party leaders purged reformers and &#8220;disciplined&#8221; dissidents, Chinese classicists either turned their study in a purely apolitical direction or else tried to accommodate the regime by representing &#8220;the classical past \u2026 as supporting its values.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Leo Strauss and the Transcendence of Cultural Horizons<\/h3>\n<p>While Bartsch\u2019s book is an interesting read, it falls short in its endeavor to transcend a parochial worldview. However, Chinese scholars have found the intellectual alternative proposed by German-Jewish philosopher Leo Strauss appealing. Strauss\u2019s endeavor to promote the serious reconsideration of classical thought so as to question the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-the-chinese-are-reading-plato-aristotle-and-leo-strauss\/\" title=\"Why the Chinese Are Reading Plato, Aristotle, and\u2026 Leo Strauss?\">premises underlying modern political philosophy<\/a>, in view of the problems in which it had culminated, has been embraced by Chinese scholars seeking to transcend their cultural horizons.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Contrary to Bartsch, Strauss\u2019s endeavor has nothing to do with basing government on a &#8220;noble lie.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Readers seeking a more instructive guide to Strauss\u2019s role in contemporary Chinese thought should consult the volume edited by Kai Marchal and Carl K.Y. Shaw, <em>Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in the Chinese-Speaking World: Reorienting the Political<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Joining in Plato\u2019s (and Strauss\u2019s) quest to discover those things that are by nature true, rather than merely reflecting one partial cultural perspective or another, is the key to transcending cultural horizons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As China continues to pursue world hegemony, it is important for scholars to engage in a dialogue that transcends cultural boundaries and seeks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tribalism-is-necessary-for-a-flourishing-society\/\" title=\"Tribalism Is Necessary For A Flourishing Society\">discover universal truths<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chinese government of Xi Jinping has indicated, by word and deed, the intention of pursuing world hegemony\u2014through its military buildup, aggressive posture toward Taiwan, and the Belt and Road initiative that extends across central Asia and beyond. It is also creating what sinologist Steven Mosher calls a world of &#8220;Sino States&#8221; from Cuba to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1388,"featured_media":1921568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[10847,25450,4117,22054,25449,10176,25451],"class_list":["post-1921567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon","tag-and","tag-aristotle","tag-chinese","tag-leo","tag-plato","tag-reading","tag-strauss"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1388"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1921567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1921568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1921567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1921567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1921567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}