About the web version

This site provides access to the complete text of To Become a Sage, the copyright reverting to the author after it went out of print with Columbia University Press. It has been scanned into text files rather than PDF, so that files containing each chapter can be loaded to disk rather than just printed out. As a tool for scholarly purposes, a searchable version on disk has far more potential than hardcopy--or will be a very useful adjunct to a hardcopy version. In order to keep the annotations and other embedded references useful, original pagination is embedded in the text, set off by a double space line, even though it proved impossible to preserve the physical pagination of the original.

Footnote numbers are no longer superscripted. The original book had all footnotes only at the end of the book. In this version, I have included that all-inclusive section of notes, and have also appended the relevant notes to the end of each chapter, so whatever chapter you may choose to download will be accompanied by the appropriate notes. Likewise, in addition to the comprehensive Table of Contents, I have copied the appropriate Content headings to the front of each chapter to facilitate reference.

For reference, a copy of the original Chinese text has also been made available.