How the Chinese became yellow : a contribution to the early history of race theories / Walter Demel -- Leibniz on the existence of philosophy in China / Franklin Perkins -- Leibniz between Paris, Grand Tartary, and the Far East : Gerbillon's intercepted lettter / Michael C. Carhart -- The problem of China : Asia and Enlightenment anthropology (Buffon, de Pauw, Blumenbach, Herder) / Carl Niekerk -- Localizing China : of knowledge, genres, and German literary historiography / Birgit Tautz -- Eradicating the orientalists : Goethe's Chinesisch-deutsche Jahres- und Tageszeiten / John K. Noyes -- China on parade : Hegel's manipulation of his sources and his change of mind / Robert Bernasconi -- Neo-Romantic modernism and Daoism : Martin Buber on the "teaching" as fulfilment / Jeffrey S. Librett.
Summary:
"Over the course of the eighteenth century, European intellectuals shifted from admiring China as a utopian place of wonder to despising it as a backwards and despotic state. That transformation had little to do with changes in China itself, and everything to do with Enlightenment conceptions of political identity and Europe's own burgeoning global power. China in the German Enlightenment considers the place of German philosophy, particularly the work of Leibniz, Goethe, Herder, and Hegel, in this development. Beginning with the first English translation of Walter Demel's classic essay "How the Chinese Became Yellow," the collection's essays examine the connections between eighteenth-century philosophy, German Orientalism, and the origins of modern race theory."-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.