A Book to Burn and a Book to Keep Hidden: Selected Writings

Li Zhi’s heretical writings caught fire among his contemporaries, despite an imperial ban on their publication. Translated for the first time into English,A Book to Burn and a Book to Keep (Hidden) confronts accepted ideas about gender, questions the true identity of history’s heroes and villains, and offers transgressive readings of Confucius, Laozi, and the Buddha. Readers encounter the best of this heterodox intellectual’s vital contribution to Chinese thought and culture.