7/30/2019 1949 Reviewed work(s) China A Model for Europe. by Lewis A. Maverick

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Review: [untitled]Author(s): Colette MeuvretSource: Pacific Affairs, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Sep., 1949), pp. 308-309Published by: Pacific Affairs, University of British ColumbiaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2751812 .

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7/30/2019 1949 Reviewed work(s) China A Model for Europe. by Lewis A. Maverick

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PacificAffairs

with thequestionof what Confucius aught nd how he taught t,but henevergetsdown to how many actualwritten ocuments xisted t the Lucapitalorhowmanybooks therewere ofwhichteacher nd disciples ould

haveobtained opies.Apartfrom he30o-oddOdes (probablymore) inscriptand certain iturgists' otes on ritualprocedure, onfucius t thattime nLu couldhardlyhave had any "books" n his house. Creel's own postulatethatConfuciuswas an almost omplete ailure s an official akes tdoubtfulwhether e would have had access to theLu state nnals,and evenmoredoubtfulwhether e could have had a copymade forhis disciples o study.Since Creel'sview seems o be thatConfucius id not visit he Chou capital,hecouldhardly ave seen any of the earlyDocuments here.Also, all oftheevidencesuggests hat no one (including Confucius) had at that time

awakened othefeasibilityf writing ne'sown ideas down n anyconsecu-tiveform ave that of verse.What does Creel mean, then,whenhe says,"As weaponshe gave thempens, s shields ooks"?

The sametouch f anachronisticxaggerations observable t a number fpointswithregard o the extent fConfucius' emocraticeanings.That hediscoveredhe ndividual nd his ntrinsic orth s true, discoveryf ncal-culable mportance o the Chinesepeople, s Creel impressivelyhows.Butthatdiscoverywas even further rom hediscoveryf democracyhan the

signing fMagna Cartain feudalEngland.Finally, heauthormighthave given a clearerdea of whathe meansby"metaphysical".n whatwaysforhim smetaphysicsistinguishedrommat-ters freligious aith n the onehand and from osmological peculationntheother?The key hapter fthebook, FromMan toMyth", ffersn excel-lentdescriptionfthe hanges fview,but t does not dequately xplainhowvastly mportantwere thenew levels of metaphysicalcumenand logicalmethod o which omeHan scholars ttained.Berkeley,alifornia,une949 E. R. HUGHES

CHINA: A MODEL FOR EUROPE. By Lewis A. Maverick. an Antonio,Texas: Paul Anderson.946. 334pp. $4.50.PROFESSORMaverickhas dividedhisbook intotwo parts.The first

("China's Economy and Government dmiredby Seventeenth nd Eigh-teenthCentury uropeans") includes summary eviewof theintellectualdiscoveryf China by Europe,an accountof themajor contacts etweenChina and Westernmissionaries,nd a survey f theprincipalbooks on

China publishednEurope.Two appendices ontain he most ignificantx-tracts rom hewritings fMenciuson political nd economic ffairs,ndextremelynterestingbstractsrom he"CompleteTreatise n Agriculture"byHsu Kuang-chi, he Ming dynasty tatesman. ll of thisserves o intro-duce the second partof the book, which s devoted o a translation, ased

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7/30/2019 1949 Reviewed work(s) China A Model for Europe. by Lewis A. Maverick

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Book Reviews

on Oncken, f FrancoisQuesnay'sLe Despotismede la Chine (Paris 1767).ProfessorMaverick's imhas been to bring ogether ocuments earingonthehistory f theFrenchphysiocratic ovement. e writes: On reading...Mencius, realized how strongly is writings esemble hoseofthe physio-crats f eighteenthenturyrance.My imaginationwas fired nd I resolvedto search ut the channels y whichthe Chinesehad influencedhe French-men."His intention as excellent, ut his treatments superficial.

The strikinghing bout ll ofthetexts erereproduceds theirmediocrityof thought. o be sure, n Quesnay's day Chinesehistoricalwritingwasshackledby that traditionalonformism romwhich t has barely scapedtoday.But why did the maginativemindsoftheeighteenthentury ailtorealizethis? t is surprising,oo, hat pecialistsamiliarwith traditionalu-

raleconomy houldhavebasedtheirhinking nthe onventionalheoriesheyfound n Chinesewritings.inally, ne wonderswhether hisChina (which,for ertainwriters,ook heplaceof Greekor Romanantiquity f an equallyconventionalind) was not a victim,t least n thesources sedby Quesnay,of interpretationsxported romEurope by missionaries.t is a greatpitythat rofessor averick as gnored ll ofthese onsiderations,orhis knowl-edge and enthusiasm-so pparentn hisbook-might have been employedto increase ur understandingnsteadof leaving so many questionsunan-

swered. t is tobe hoped thathe will oneday produce wider-rangingtudyof thesubject.Paris,March 949 COLEMn MEUVRET

A L'OUEST BARBARE DE LA VASTE CHINE. By AlexandraDavid-Neel.Paris: Librairie lon. 947. 30I pp..map. 8o frs.MME. DAVID-NEEL is no reliableguide in matters f scholarship,

and it is difficulto explainsuchspellings s "Tch'ang-nang" or Tch'ang-

ngan", r"SrongbstanGampo",where he econd yllablehouldbe "btsan";botharefrequentlysed in theerroneous orm.On page 8 theauthor tatesthat in 376B. C. the tribes . . recognisedheoverlordshipftheChinesekingdom fCh'in"; but the Ch'indynasty id notcome ntoexistence ntilI21 years fter hatdate.Yet when all allowances re made forsuchinac-curacies,nd ifwe consider nlyMme. David-Neel's ccount fwhat he sawand heard n one of the eastfrequentedegions fChina,theprovinces fChinghai nd Sikang,during critical eriodofitshistorythatofthe ate

war and thefollowing ears),we have an interestingnd valuablerecordbyan acuteand unprejudicedbserver, ithmorethana little fthat enseof humour o necessaryo thetravellern the East. The workcontainsnumber fexcellent hotographs.London,May 949 R. A. D. FORREST

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