Thoughts from the Ice-Drinker's Studio

Essays on China and the World

Introduction by Peter Zarrow
Translated by Peter Zarrow
Notes by Peter Zarrow
Paperback
$18.00 US
On sale Sep 10, 2024 | 272 Pages | 9780241568781
The essential writings of China’s first iconic modern intellectual, intent on reforming an entire nation, now published for the first time in Penguin Classics
A Penguin Classic


The power, anger, and fluency of Liang Qichao’s writings make him one of the towering figures in modern Chinese literature. He saw his great, almost unmanageable task as an attempt to write China into the new era—to provide an ancient country, devastated by civil war and foreign predators, with the intellectual equipment to renew itself.

Liang said that he wrote from an “ice-drinker’s studio,” implying that underneath his dispassionate, disabused, and rational tone lay an ardor and passion that only ice could cool. China could recover only through a clear-sighted, informed understanding of its enemies—and by engaging in a thoroughgoing self-critique. Liang did not propose aping the West but taking only what China needed to “renew the people” and create “new citizens.” Then China would be able to expel its invaders, reform its society, and become a great power once more.

This selection of pieces shows Liang’s extraordinary range and the burning sense of mission that drove him on, attempting to galvanize and refresh an entire nation. Blending Confucianism, Buddhism, and the Western Enlightenment, Liang’s ideas about nation, democracy, and morality had a profound impact on Chinese visions of the political order, though the China that eventually emerged from the further disasters of the 1930s and 1940s would be a very different one.
Liang Qichao (1873–1929) was a reformist intellectual who, facing brutal repression, fled to Japan, where he lived for fourteen years. His long exile, travels, and writing—of fiction, journalism, and above all essays—gave Liang a unique authority in the first years of the twentieth century. Liang then became a key figure in the Republic of China; his attempts to foster parliamentary government failed, but he successfully opposed efforts to reestablish the monarchy.

About

The essential writings of China’s first iconic modern intellectual, intent on reforming an entire nation, now published for the first time in Penguin Classics
A Penguin Classic


The power, anger, and fluency of Liang Qichao’s writings make him one of the towering figures in modern Chinese literature. He saw his great, almost unmanageable task as an attempt to write China into the new era—to provide an ancient country, devastated by civil war and foreign predators, with the intellectual equipment to renew itself.

Liang said that he wrote from an “ice-drinker’s studio,” implying that underneath his dispassionate, disabused, and rational tone lay an ardor and passion that only ice could cool. China could recover only through a clear-sighted, informed understanding of its enemies—and by engaging in a thoroughgoing self-critique. Liang did not propose aping the West but taking only what China needed to “renew the people” and create “new citizens.” Then China would be able to expel its invaders, reform its society, and become a great power once more.

This selection of pieces shows Liang’s extraordinary range and the burning sense of mission that drove him on, attempting to galvanize and refresh an entire nation. Blending Confucianism, Buddhism, and the Western Enlightenment, Liang’s ideas about nation, democracy, and morality had a profound impact on Chinese visions of the political order, though the China that eventually emerged from the further disasters of the 1930s and 1940s would be a very different one.

Author

Liang Qichao (1873–1929) was a reformist intellectual who, facing brutal repression, fled to Japan, where he lived for fourteen years. His long exile, travels, and writing—of fiction, journalism, and above all essays—gave Liang a unique authority in the first years of the twentieth century. Liang then became a key figure in the Republic of China; his attempts to foster parliamentary government failed, but he successfully opposed efforts to reestablish the monarchy.

Books for Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month

Penguin Random House Education is proud to celebrate Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs annually from September 15th through October 15th.  We are highlighting the works of our authors and illustrators from the Latinx and Hispanic community, whose stories and characters have a profound impact on our society. Here is a collection of titles

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