Confucius

Fair French Modern full brown leather, gilt lettering of title on front board. Heavily water stained, and some chippings on extremities of some pages. A fair copy. 4to. (27 x 20 cm). In French. 63 p. The very rare autographed copy of this lecture given in Lebanon on January 20, 1937, at the Youth Center, by Ostrorog after his serving in China as Assistant High Commissioner, a French diplomat from a noble Polish family, who had served as Assistant High Commissioner in China and Syria in the 1930s. Signed and inscribed by Ostrorog as "Par Mahid, Avec autre au mille amitié, Damas, 1938". On the eve of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) between the Chinese and the Empire of Japan which is often regarded as the beginning of World War II in Asia, French ex-Assistant High Commissioner in China Ostrorog gave a lecture about Chinese power and policy. Some titles from book: "La Chine.; Le monde au temps de Confucius.; Humanisme Confuceen.; Opposition de l'humanisme Chinois a la morale idealiste de l'occident.; Facteur grammatical.; Universalite des caracteres.; Facteur geographique.; Facteur moral.; La republique des philosophes.; Reaction de Huang Ti au 3me siecle avant notre ere.; Evolution historique dans le cadre de l'unite.; Isolement.; Arrivee des Europeens au XVIme siecle les marchands et les missionnaires.; La querelle des rites condamnation des Jesuites.; Eclat du couchant Kien Lung.; Lettre de Kien Lung a Georges III.; Guerre de l'Opium.; Qeuvre des missions en Chine.; Tseu-hi et Abdul-Hamid.; Le Japon.; Propagande de Moscou.; Succes du mouvement nationaliste.; Intervention Japonaise en Mandchourie.; L'Unite Chinoise menacee.; La Grande pitie.; L'avenir de la Chine.". From the last chapter: "In our contract, the Chinese until now have taken only the faults and vices of Western civilizations. There is, however, something else to choose from and perhaps the time is near when the Chinese will understand it. Whether they are few in number, fifty, forty, ten, or five only, that will suffice. And on that day, with the power of assimilation which has always characterized it, China will integrate, in a way, all the foreign contributions of a moral or cultural order, to rebuild its unity, to resume the continuity of his story, and rediscover his genius." Only two copies in OCLC: 42804470. Signed and inscribed by Stanislas Ostrorog.