ABSTRACT
I here present revised translations of my introduction to the Chinese and the Japanese classics. Most of the introductions which I wrote to the Klassiker der Nationalökonomie were strictly focused on the texts and primarily provided a summary as a basis for an interpretation, preceded only by a brief description of the real economic background, of the life and work of the author and the state of the discussion to which his book was addressed. I feel that here the proportions must be reversed. Most of the sections below concern the context, while the summaries of the texts themselves are relatively short. I have chosen this exposition, since I feel that the knowledge of the context is necessary for most of the readers whom I have in mind: historians of economic thought who know the European tradition, but are interested to learn how one might go beyond it. If specialists find this inadequate, I can only express my hope that future interdisciplinary research between Sinologists, Japanologists and historians of economic thought will lead to accounts which will be both more complete, and more correct.
