Fukuzawa dictates the story of his life, from a poor samurai childhood in Nakatsu through Dutch studies in Osaka, voyages to America and Europe, and the founding of Keio. He tells it with a blunt, funny disregard for old-fashioned manners as he helps drag Japan into the modern world.
Books mentioned in The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi (19)
Zuo Zhuan by Zuo Qiuming: “Afterwards I attended lectures on other Chinese texts, and then studied alone, history first; I was especially fond of the Zuo Zhuan, and while most students quit after three or four of its fifteen volumes, I read it all, about eleven times, and memorized the interesting parts. [auto-translated]”
Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian: “For history I read the Records of the Grand Historian first, then the Book of Han and the Book of Later Han, the Jin history, the Five Dynasties and the like. [auto-translated]”
Book of Han by Ban Gu: “For history I read the Records of the Grand Historian first, then the Book of Han and the Book of Later Han, the Jin history, the Five Dynasties and the like. [auto-translated]”
Zhan Guo Ce by Liu Xiang: “Then I listened to lectures on the Mengqiu, the Shishuo Xinyu, the Zuo Zhuan, the Zhan Guo Ce, Laozi and Zhuangzi. [auto-translated]”
A New Account of the Tales of the World by Liu Yiqing: “Then I listened to lectures on the Mengqiu, A New Account of the Tales of the World, the Zuo Zhuan, the Zhan Guo Ce, Laozi and Zhuangzi. [auto-translated]”
Analects by Confucius: “At Master Shiraishi's school I studied the classics above all: the Analects and Mencius of course, and the whole range of commentary on the meaning of the classics. [auto-translated]”
Mencius by Mencius: “While the others were reading the Classic of Poetry or the Book of Documents, I was doing recitation of Mencius. [auto-translated]”
Book of Documents: “The master was particularly fond of the Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents, and I truly received his lectures on them and read them well. [auto-translated]”
Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou: “I studied the Zuo Zhuan, the Guoyu, the Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han as a matter of course, and the Classic of Poetry and Book of Documents too, and even odd, interesting works like Laozi and Zhuangzi, hearing my teacher's lectures and studying them myself. [auto-translated]”
Tao Te Ching by Laozi: “I of course studied the Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents, and even odd, interesting works such as the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi, hearing the teacher's lectures and studying them myself. [auto-translated]”
I Ching: “Among the library was a set of thirteen volumes of the I Ching with annotations, with Ito Togai's own handwritten notes in the margins, a splendid thing that my late father had bought in Osaka and prized. [auto-translated]”
Conditions in the West by Fukuzawa Yukichi: “Back in Japan I took those notes as a base, examined many more original books, and wove together what I remembered, and so Conditions in the West came to be. [auto-translated]”
Chambers's Political Economy by John Hill Burton: “I had a copy of Chambers's Political Economy, and when I mentioned it to an influential finance official he was delighted and asked for at least a table of contents, so I set about translating it. [auto-translated]”
Chōai no Hō by Fukuzawa Yukichi: “I translated a book on bookkeeping, Chōai no Hō, early after the Restoration, and every bookkeeping manual in the world today follows my translation's examples. [auto-translated]”
Guide to Travel in the West by Fukuzawa Yukichi: “I was ordered to withdraw from duty, which was no hardship at all; if anything I was glad of the free time, so I retired at once as commanded, and during that time I was writing a book called Guide to Travel in the West. [auto-translated]”
Seiri Hatsumō: “The passage discussed how light relates to sight, with two candles and the shadows they cast, quite a difficult part, and it should be in the translated book Seiri Hatsumō that Shimamura translated. [auto-translated]”
Classic of Poetry: “The master was particularly fond of the Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents, and I truly received his lectures on them and read them well. [auto-translated]”
Book of Later Han by Fan Ye: “For history, beginning with the Records of the Grand Historian, I also read the Book of Han and the Book of Later Han, the Book of Jin, the History of the Five Dynasties, and the Brief History of the Yuan and Ming. [auto-translated]”
Book of Jin by Fang Xuanling: “For history, beginning with the Records of the Grand Historian, I also read the Book of Han and the Book of Later Han, the Book of Jin, the History of the Five Dynasties, and the Brief History of the Yuan and Ming. [auto-translated]”