The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - (SkyLight Illuminations)

About the Book

As seen through the writings of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic approach to life is surprisingly rich, nuanced, clear-eyed and friendly. Offers startlingly modern psychological and spiritual insight from the emperor's personal journal entries.

Book Synopsis

As seen through the writings of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic approach to life is surprisingly rich, nuanced, clear-eyed and friendly. Offers startlingly modern psychological and spiritual insight from the emperor's personal journal entries.

Review Quotes

Forget Sun Tzu, author of the immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy, The Art of War. Move over Confucius, the scholar-official who remains the most prominent and respected philosopher in Chinese history.

The sage in the spotlight of mainland society now is an outsider whose name may not necessarily be familiar despite cinematic exposure. Featured in the 2000 Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator, Marcus Aurelius (AD121-180) was the last of the "Five Good Roman Emperors" and a leading voice in stoic philosophy, which advocated accepting misfortune with virtus-toughness or character.

Aurelius was a reluctant warrior and composed his classic work, Meditations, during campaigns lasting a decade from AD170. It contains a wealth of observations that reflect the stoic perspective and has one prominent admirer: Wen Jiabao. The Premier revealed last year that he had read the masterpiece almost 100 times, spawning a Marcus Aurelius craze that swept the Middle Kingdom and helped propel Meditations to the fifth place in-the admittedly government-backed-China Book International's best-seller list.

Greg Sung, founder of the Hong Kong-based booklovers' network aNobii.com, observes that Wen may exert more cultural influence than a Hollywood "mega-blockbuster" the portrayal of Marcus Aurelius by Richard Harris in Gladiator had less effect on book sales than the Premier's disclosure, Sung claims.

Wen's fascination with the dour, long-dead Roman may stem from a sense of fellowship, according to Russell McNeil, the author of Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Selections Annotated & Explained. History remembers Aurelius as the proverbial "philosopher king". Likewise, Wen, a geologist by training, has a reputation for being a deft administrator who takes a consensual, collegiate tack.

McNeil describes stoicism as "thoroughly rationalistic", anchored in arguments based on physics and "natural law", which means it squares with communist doctrine, which recognises no god. Better yet, stoicism has a "social", even socialist, slant. It decrees that morality should be based on doing what is right for the community or the state.

"Personal satisfaction or happiness in stoicism does not flow from the gratification of personal desires or the avoidance of hard work or pain," McNeil says.

When our actions stem from self-interest, we transgress. When we discriminate against others, we also err because, again, just like socialism, stoicism tells us we are all part of the proletariat and should treat everyone equally. The king is no better or worse than a pauper, Aurelius teaches, conjuring images of Wen in his famed plain green jacket, looking like a friendly next-door neighbour.

Despite being written on the march, Meditations was "multiethnic and multinational", according to McNeil, who says the true stoic rises above nationalism and sees the world as a single political entity.

Sung, for his part, credits fashion for the book's success on the mainland. He says the attention may have been amplified by a general renewed interest in the work of old masters such as the cryptic poet philosopher Master Zhuang, or Zhuangzi, who famously dreamed about being a butterfly. Hugely popular television lecture programmes on philosophy, hosted by university professors, are stoking the trend, Sung says.

Meditations has, moreover, won the endorsement of Bill Clinton. The former US president features it in his list of his 21 favourite books of all time, among works by the likes of George Orwell and Maya Angelou.

Bonnie Girard, president of business consultancy China Channel, is another fan. Like McNeil, Girard attributes the book's popularity partly to the fact that Aurelius ranks as a thinker but not a preacher. "In many ways," Girard says, "he is the antithesis of a religious or spiritual leader, so in modern Chinese political terms he is safe."