Since its original publication in Chinese in the 1930s, this work has been accepted by Chinese scholars as the most important contribution to the study of their country's philosophy. In 1952 the book was published by Princeton University Press in an English translation by the distinguished scholar of Chinese history, Derk Bodde, "the dedicated translator of Fung Yu-lan's huge history of Chinese philosophy" (New York Times Book Review). Available for the first time in paperback, it remains the most complete work on the subject in any language.

Volume I covers the period of the philosophers, from the beginnings to around 100 B.C., a philosophical period as remarkable as that of ancient Greece. Volume II discusses a period lesser known in the West--the period of classical learning, from the second century B.C. to the twentieth century.

冯友兰（一八九五-一九九○），字芝生，河南省唐河县人。北京大学哲学系毕业后赴美，获哥伦比亚大学哲学博士学位。回国后历任中州大学、广东大学、燕京大学哲学系教授，一九二八至一九五二年任清华大学哲学系教授。一九五二年起任北京大学哲学系教授、中国科学院哲学社会科学部委员。