Aristotle’s Politics under the Last Qing Emperor: An Introduction to the First Chinese Translation

In 1898, the Chinese reformer, journalist, and political thinker Liang Qichao 梁啓超 (1873–1929) made Aristotle’s political thought available to his countrymen for the first time in China’s long history. Liang’s essay “The Political Theory of Aristotle” has never been available in English, leaving most scholars who are interested in the history of Chinese political thought unable to access what one of the earliest Chinese political reformers chose to say about a philosopher he believed to be the source of Western politics. This contribution includes an introduction by Shadi Bartsch that sets the scene for the first English translation of “The Political Theory of Aristotle,” Liang’s explication and commentary on Aristotle’s Politics.