In the Palm of Buddha: Zhang Dongshen and His Times (Revised Edition)

Zhang Dongshen (1886–1973) was an unavoidable yet deliberately obscured figure in modern China—the earliest translator of Western philosophy, a renowned journalist and political commentator, and a professor at Yenching University; the primary mediator between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the 1949 peaceful transition of power in Peking, and a member of the first Central People's Government; convicted of treason in 1951 and subsequently disappeared from public view...

Renowned writer and journalist Dai Qing spent eight years researching and writing, and nearly a decade tracking and revising, to complete this historical documentary (Historical Investigative Journalism). This book follows the life of Zhang Dongshen, chronicling the turbulent eras from the late Qing Dynasty to the Cultural Revolution.

In the Palm of the Tathagata Buddha is a historically valuable "record of clearing wrongdoing." Drawing on a wide range of reliable sources, the author reconstructs this complex and bizarre case, producing a detailed history of mid-twentieth-century Chinese politics. The author's narrative unfolds like the reflections of mountains and rivers on a Shanyin Road, leaving one completely overwhelmed.

Yu Ying-shih, Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies, Princeton University

Few readers today are familiar with Zhang Dongsun. The political event of Zhang Dongsun's treason, a subject of much mystery, remains shrouded in mystery, yet no one has yet managed to unravel it. Dai Qing offers her own interpretation.

Yang Kuisong, Professor of History, East China Normal University

For over 20 years, Dai Qing has burrowed into the ashes of the book burnings, recounting the hardships endured by recalcitrant intellectuals and thinkers. In her new work, Dai Qing recounts the tragic story of Zhang Dongsun. "In the Palm of the Tathagata Buddha" is a elegy for the fate of conscience in an era of authoritarianism.

Geremie Barmé, Professor Emeritus, Asia Pacific College, Australian National University

Readers are fortunate to have read this heart-wrenching historical report by Dai Qing, one of mainland China's most outstanding journalists, ninety years after "1919", sixty years after "1949", and twenty years after "1989" - a heart-wrenching work by an independent intellectual.

Qian Gang, former director of the China Media Research Project at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong

2022-07-01

香港中文大學

576

9789882370098