Bol, Peter2015-08-072015-08-07Bol, Peter. 2013. On Shao Yong’s Method for Observing Things. Monumenta Serica 61:287-299.0254-9948http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17935880Abstract: Shao Yong’s “Inner Chapters on Observing Things” develops a method for understanding the unity of heaven and man, tracing the decline of civilization from antiquity, and determining how the present can return to the ideal socio-political order of antiquity. Shao’s method is based on dividing any topic into fours aspects (for example, four Classics, four seasons, four kinds of rulers, etc.) and generating the systematic relations between these four member sets. Although Shao’s method was unusual at the time, the questions he was addressing were shared with mid-eleventh statecraft thinkers.en-USJournal Article2015-08-07