Table of Contents

Preface

Glossary

1. Introduction

2. Cultural Politics

3. Political Authority

4. The Polity

5. The People: China

6. The People: England

7. Equality: China

8. Equality: England

9. Speech: China

10. Speech: England

11. Envisioning Speech

12. A Common Struggle

Selected Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Martin Powers is Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan, USA. He is the author of Art and Political Expression in Early China and Pattern and Person: Ornament, Society, and Self in Classical China, both books winners of the Levenson Prize for the best book in pre-twentieth century Chinese studies. He is the co-editor of The Blackwell Companion to Chinese Art and Looking at Asian Art.

Reviews

"Powers has written an extraordinary meditation on the labyrinths of thought, both European and Chinese, that have brought us to our present place in history. The great strength of the book lies in demonstrating that the history of liberty is not a closed Western project, but an aspect of human experience that can be calmly and logically approached as much from China as from anywhere else." - Timothy Brook, The University of British Columbia, Canada.