Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Dao Ancient Chinese Thought in Modern American Life

• Introduces the precepts of ancient Chinese philosophers to issues they could not have anticipated
• Relates Daoist and Confucian ideas to problems across the arc of modern human life, from birth to death
• Provides general readers with a fascinating introduction to Chinese philosophy, and its continued relevance
• Offers a fresh perspective on highly controversial American debates, including abortion, stem cell research, and assisted suicide

Sam Crane is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Williams College, USA. Fluent in Mandarin, which he began learning while researching his doctoral thesis in the 1980s, he first visited China in 1983, and is a former faculty member of the John Hopkins academic campus in Nanjing. The author of The Political Economy of China’s Special Economic Zones (1990), The Theoretical Evolution of International Political Economy (1991), and the highly personal Aidan’s Way: The Story of a Boy’s Life and a Father’s Journey (2003), about life with his severely disabled son, Crane has long been fascinated by ancient Chinese philosophy, particularly the classical texts of the pre-imperial era.

Introduction 1

1 Key Concepts of Confucianism and Daoism 13

2 Birth 37

3 Childhood 65

4 Work 93

5 Marriage and Family 109

6 Public and Political Life 133

7 End of Life 169

Index 195

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