Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The Promise of Stoicism
2 Stoicism and Virtue
3 Stoicism and Vice
4 Stoicism and the Body
5 Stoicism and the Mind
6 The Method of Stoicism
7 Stoicism and the Environment
8 The Practice of Stoicism
9 Society and Government in Stoicism
Glossary
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
Russell McNeil, PhD, is a popular lecturer on the classics. He has been a columnist and commentator in newspaper, radio and television, and is founder and Web editor of Malaspina Great Books series, one of the largest Web resources for classic literature. He is a former professor at Malaspina University-College in British Columbia.
Forget Sun Tzu, author of the immensely influential ancient Chinese
book on military strategy, The Art of War. Move over Confucius, the
scholar-official who remains the most prominent and respected
philosopher in Chinese history.
The sage in the spotlight of mainland society now is an outsider
whose name may not necessarily be familiar despite cinematic
exposure. Featured in the 2000 Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator,
Marcus Aurelius (AD121–180) was the last of the "Five Good Roman
Emperors" and a leading voice in stoic philosophy, which advocated
accepting misfortune with virtus—toughness or character.
Aurelius was a reluctant warrior and composed his classic work,
Meditations, during campaigns lasting a decade from AD170. It
contains a wealth of observations that reflect the stoic
perspective and has one prominent admirer: Wen Jiabao. The Premier
revealed last year that he had read the masterpiece almost 100
times, spawning a Marcus Aurelius craze that swept the Middle
Kingdom and helped propel Meditations to the fifth place in—the
admittedly government-backed—China Book International's best-seller
list.
Greg Sung, founder of the Hong Kong-based booklovers' network
aNobii.com, observes that Wen may exert more cultural influence
than a Hollywood "mega-blockbuster": the portrayal of Marcus
Aurelius by Richard Harris in Gladiator had less effect on book
sales than the Premier's disclosure, Sung claims.
Wen's fascination with the dour, long-dead Roman may stem from a
sense of fellowship, according to Russell McNeil, the author of
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Selections Annotated & Explained.
History remembers Aurelius as the proverbial "philosopher king".
Likewise, Wen, a geologist by training, has a reputation for being
a deft administrator who takes a consensual, collegiate tack.
McNeil describes stoicism as "thoroughly rationalistic", anchored
in arguments based on physics and "natural law", which means it
squares with communist doctrine, which recognises no god. Better
yet, stoicism has a "social", even socialist, slant. It decrees
that morality should be based on doing what is right for the
community or the state.
"Personal satisfaction or happiness in stoicism does not flow from
the gratification of personal desires or the avoidance of hard work
or pain," McNeil says.
When our actions stem from self-interest, we transgress. When we
discriminate against others, we also err because, again, just like
socialism, stoicism tells us we are all part of the proletariat and
should treat everyone equally. The king is no better or worse than
a pauper, Aurelius teaches, conjuring images of Wen in his famed
plain green jacket, looking like a friendly next-door
neighbour.
Despite being written on the march, Meditations was "multiethnic
and multinational", according to McNeil, who says the true stoic
rises above nationalism and sees the world as a single political
entity.
Sung, for his part, credits fashion for the book's success on the
mainland. He says the attention may have been amplified by a
general renewed interest in the work of old masters such as the
cryptic poet philosopher Master Zhuang, or Zhuangzi, who famously
dreamed about being a butterfly. Hugely popular television lecture
programmes on philosophy, hosted by university professors, are
stoking the trend, Sung says.
Meditations has, moreover, won the endorsement of Bill Clinton. The
former US president features it in his list of his 21 favourite
books of all time, among works by the likes of George Orwell and
Maya Angelou.
Bonnie Girard, president of business consultancy China Channel, is
another fan. Like McNeil, Girard attributes the book's popularity
partly to the fact that Aurelius ranks as a thinker but not a
preacher. "In many ways," Girard says, "he is the antithesis of a
religious or spiritual leader, so in modern Chinese political terms
he is safe."
Girard says that Wen, the unflappable "super-mandarin", as
characterised by Time magazine, believes people will benefit from
absorbing Aurelius' work now especially, because the mainland is in
the throes of a spiritual awakening.
Who better to direct the populace than a non-religious philosopher
with no implied or actual affiliation to any of the world's great
religions, says Girard. She paints Aurelius as a secular "lightning
rod" with the power to help fulfil human hunger for answers to big
questions.
With the economic boom boosting expectations and widening the
wealth gap, Aurelius' robust attitude is an inspiration, Girard
adds. "The Chinese respect strength, I believe, more than almost
any other human characteristic."
The imperial superman immortalised by a legion of bronze and marble
statues showed mercy to his vanquished enemies, battled corruption
and slavery and even, like an early human rights agitator, decreed
that gladiators fight with blunted weapons. When his empire was
short on funds, instead of raising taxes he sold his plentiful
belongings.
At home, Aurelius was forced to contend with everything from famine
and earthquakes (which have long afflicted China too) to fires and
plague. Abroad, he faced threats posed by Germanic tribes to the
north and Parthians to the east. In the light of all the
aggravation, few other historical figures seem so
"battle-tested".
In case anyone doubts his gravitas, his publishers accord Aurelius
the kind of reverence allotted the likes of Shakespeare and
Socrates as top-tier literary greats. Penguin parades his book in
its Great Ideas series devoted to writers who "shook civilisation".
Watkins hails it as an inspiration to the best of humanity for
almost two millennia. Tarcher calls Aurelius' voice "universal" and
"equally recognisable to students of Christ, the Buddha, the Vedas,
the Talmud and to anyone who sincerely searches for a way of
meaning in contemporary life".
Aurelius' cachet transcends boundaries of ideology and
geography.
"How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the
causes," runs a characteristically terse Aurelius maxim.
Whatever their outlook, few readers will be disappointed by his
writing given its considerable clarity and punch.
*South China Morning Post*
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