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.

馮友蘭（一八九五-一九九○），字芝生，河南省唐河縣人。北京大學哲學係畢業後赴美，獲哥倫比亞大學哲學博士學位。迴國後曆任中州大學、廣東大學、燕京大學哲學係教授，一九二八至一九五二年任清華大學哲學係教授。一九五二年起任北京大學哲學係教授、中國科學院哲學社會科學部委員。