Machiavelli drew on 2000 years of history to develop theories on how to make war, how to win battles, and how to gain power and keep it. Using Machiavelli as a springboard, Dennis and Ching Ping Bloodworth boldly and adroitly map out 3000 years of Chinese political-military history--from Confucius to Mao Zedong--using Machiavell's discourse of power politics. They reveal a pageantry of Chinese historical figures, from wise strategists, heroic generals, crafty statesmen, and ruthless emperors to brave knights-errant, and from stately Confucian philosophers to shrewd, cunning Legalist thinkers, without the usual Confucian restraint.The Chinese Machiavelli intends to help Western readers, who may be puzzled by Chinese diplomatic and military strategy, understand the principles that have guided both past and present Chinese leaders. For instance, why have modern communist Chinese leaders often befriended right-wing European politicians who are out of office rather than left-wing leaders in power? Why did they entertain President Nixon while the United States was at war with North Vietnam? Within the framework of a chronological history concentrating on power politics and using the social and cultural scene as a backdrop, the Bloodworths use China's long history to find answers.Peter Li's preface for this new edition explains the structure of the book and offers a penetrating analysis of the authors' style and method. Although The Chinese Machiavelli is authored for the general public rather than for the specialist, the latter will also benefit from reading this history. The authors describe the continuity of Chinese history and reveal how knowledge of China's past sheds light on the political behavior of China's rulers today.

Machiavelli drew on 2000 years of history to develop theories on how to make war, how to win battles, and how to gain power and keep it. Using Machiavelli as a springboard, Dennis and Ching Ping Bloodworth boldly and adroitly map out 3000 years of Chinese political-military history--from Confucius to Mao Zedong--using Machiavell's discourse of power politics. They reveal a pageantry of Chinese historical figures, from wise strategists, heroic generals, crafty statesmen, and ruthless emperors to brave knights-errant, and from stately Confucian philosophers to shrewd, cunning Legalist thinkers, without the usual Confucian restraint. The Chinese Machiavelliintends to help Western readers, who may be puzzled by Chinese diplomatic and military strategy, understand the principles that have guided both past and present Chinese leaders. For instance, why have modern communist Chinese leaders often befriended right-wing European politicians who are out of office rather than left-wing leaders in power? Why did they entertain President Nixon while the United States was at war with North Vietnam? Within the framework of a chronological history concentrating on power politics and using the social and cultural scene as a backdrop, the Bloodworths use China's long history to find answers. Peter Li's preface for this new edition explains the structure of the book and offers a penetrating analysis of the authors' style and method. Although The Chinese Machiavelliis authored for the general public rather than for the specialist, the latter will also benefit from reading this history. The authors describe the continuity of Chinese history and reveal how knowledge of China's past sheds light on the political behavior of China's rulers today.

This study focuses on the Legalists, an ancient school of Chinese philosophy, which perfected the science of government and art of statecraft. It gives an insight into the style of the Legalists' discourse and its impact on Chinese institutions and practices.

Times of prolonged conflict spur great minds to seek a lasting peace. Thus was the case of Warring States China, which saw the rise of the Hundred Schools of Thought, including the Doadejing and the Han Feizi, and Renaissance Italy, which produced Niccolò Machiavelli. Witnessing their respective societies fall prey to internal corruption and external aggression, all three thinkers sought ways to produce a strong, stable state that would allow both the leader and the populace to endure. Fortune and the Dao: A Comparative Study of Machiavelli, the Daodejing, and the Han Feizi demonstrates where the shortcomings of each theory lie, with emphasis on the similarities among Machiavelli, Laozi, and Han Feizi. Jason P. Blahuta ultimately argues that if Machiavelli’s philosophy, the most comprehensive of the three theories, were supplemented by aspects of the Daodejing, the revision would potentially overcome the deficiencies of the original.

From China's most influential foreign policy thinker, a vision for a "Beijing Consensus" for international relations The rise of China could be the most important political development of the twenty-first century. What will China look like in the future? What should it look like? And what will China's rise mean for the rest of world? This book, written by China's most influential foreign policy thinker, sets out a vision for the coming decades from China's point of view. In the West, Yan Xuetong is often regarded as a hawkish policy advisor and enemy of liberal internationalists. But a very different picture emerges from this book, as Yan examines the lessons of ancient Chinese political thought for the future of China and the development of a "Beijing consensus" in international relations. Yan, it becomes clear, is neither a communist who believes that economic might is the key to national power, nor a neoconservative who believes that China should rely on military might to get its way. Rather, Yan argues, political leadership is the key to national power, and morality is an essential part of political leadership. Economic and military might are important components of national power, but they are secondary to political leaders who act in accordance with moral norms, and the same holds true in determining the hierarchy of the global order. Providing new insights into the thinking of one of China's leading foreign policy figures, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in China's rise or in international relations.