Book Description

"Wilhelm, born in Germany, was ordained as a protestant minister in 1895 and came to Tsingtao [Qingdao] in 1899 when it had barely begun its existence as a German colony. He remained 25 years, through the Boxer Rebellion, the period of imperial reform, and the republican revolution. During World War I, when Japan besieged and later occupied Tsingtao, he remained there, in charge of Red Cross work. He came as a missionary, learned Chinese, and inquired deeply into China's spiritual traditions. His German translation of the I Ching, undertaken jointly with the Confucian scholar Lao Nai-hsuan, took a decade to complete. The following year, 1924, he returned to Germany and became Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Frankfurt. Here he was recognized as an eminent sinologist and theologian. His translations of the I Ching and of The Secret of the Golden Flower won the admiration of psychologist Carl Jung. This volume, published a few years after his return to Germany, combines several genres, including memoir and travelogue, political and intellectual history, cultural description, and insightful essays. Among the first kind are his diaries of pilgrimage to Confucius' birthplace, to the sacred mountain T'ai-shan, and to the Buddhist caves of Yunkang, as well as his guides to the gardens of Hangchow and Soochow and to the streets of Peking. In the second category is a history of China's unhappy contact and conflict with the west, her attempts to reform, the revolution of 1911 and the subsequent years of warlords. Cultural description includes a chapter on annual festivals and the rites of birth, marriage, and death; and a description of social life, ranging from banquet etiquette to the theater and the teahouse. Essays include a detailed consideration of Protestant missions in China, how unscrupulous Chinese might use church membership as a lever for political favor from local authorities, how thoughtless Westerners would associate Christian doctrine with "superior" Western institutions, material civilization, etc., and how a native Chinese church nevertheless manages to emerge. An essay on occultism explores Chinese views of the spirit world."--Donor summary