Anyone interested in eighteenth-century Chinese intellectual history should be grateful to Minghui Hu for producing the first systematic, full-length study in the English language on Dai Zhen, whose polymathy in varied subjects truly astounds. Often, when assessing the contributions of a profound thinker, one is wont to take into account both the retrospective and the prospective aspects of the savant's accomplishments, namely, how the great man synthesizes and sums up what has gone on before, and how he presages and envisages what is to come. Hu's book does precisely that, and its titular message is clear: at the same time that Dai wrought a new vision of the classical, his thinking and scholarship initiated, augured, and constituted elements of the modern.

Let us first shine a light on the retrospective part, the merits of which are many. Two in particular stand out. First, the book teems with personages—both intellectual influences...

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