Essentials for Governing (5-Volume Set) [Volume 2]

Essentials of Governance from Various Books is a monumental work compiled by Wei Zheng and others under the orders of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, a wise and great ruler. It covers three major categories: Confucian classics, history, and philosophical works, spanning from the pre-Qin period to the Jin Dynasty. It compiles essential articles related to self-cultivation, family harmony, statecraft, and world peace from the Six Classics, various histories, and philosophical works, totaling fifty volumes and over five hundred thousand Chinese characters. The book features a clear structure, a definite purpose, practicality, literary excellence, and well-chosen content. It selects articles based on the compilation purpose of "e;governing the country with wisdom,"e; retaining the original format of the quoted books, enabling readers to grasp the essence and explore the development of things from beginning to end. Meanwhile, it appropriately edits and combines the selected articles to make the essays more concise and the arguments clearer.The "e;Three Complete Versions"e; of Essentials of Governance from Various Books is based on the Japanese Tenmei edition of Wanyubei Cang included in the Continuation of the Four-Treasury Collection. It provides annotations and vernacular translations for both the main text and the small print ancient annotations. In particular, the annotation and translation of the ancient annotations in the book are unique among the current annotated translations of Essentials of Governance from Various Books.