Books in the Classic Reprints series

Rabbi Akiba is famously reported to have said, 'Heaven forbid that any one in Israel ever disputed that the Song of Songs is holy, for the whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies'. This book is an extended elaboration of Rabbi Akiba's statement. It argues that the Song is a Hellenistic composition, drawing on the resources of ancient Near Eastern erotic poetry and characterized by a complex though fragile unity.Through the metaphors, the lovers progressively see themselves reflected in each other, as well as in the world about them and the poetry of love. The poem celebrates the land of Israel in spring, an ideal humanity, and a perfected language. It culminates in the contestation of love and death, and the assertion that only love survives the exigencies of time.The pervasive ambiguity of the Song, in which one never quite knows what happens, is related to the ambivalence of beauty, which is closely related to ugliness. Hence the surrealist imagery of the Song verges upon the grotesque and stretches the resources of our imagination. Through a detailed comparison with the Garden of Eden story, Landy argues that the Song is a vision of paradise seen from the outside, through the ironic poetic gaze, in a world potentially hostile or indifferent.

Guided by 20th century theories of language, Hansen's novel approach to interpretive theory launched the modern analytical study of Ancient Chinese philosophy. This 1983 publication challenged authority-based traditional "e;religious"e; accounts stemming from 18th and 19th century missionary dictionaries and reliance on interpretive authority. "e;Hansen shows that one tiny grammatical question has profound implications for the understanding of Chinese philosophy. This is surely a decisive breakthrough a great success. His observations about Chinese thought in general are always stimulating and illuminating. A book which excites one to rethink things from the foundations."e; A. C. Graham"e;An ambitious and provocative book concerning the relationship between language and thought in ancient China. a novel and powerful theory about the nature of classical Chinese language a better understanding of many issues in classical Chinese philosophy."e; P. J. Ivanhoe"e;[The] importance of this book lies in its engaging style, novel ideas, and rigorous argumentation, which can serve as a model for future work in Chinese philosophy. Hansen takes Chinese philosophy seriously as philosophy. For anyone tired of the superficial summaries or scholastic commentaries that so often characterize this field, Hansen's book will be a memorable and welcome change."e; Michael Martin