The Useless Tree

Lots of Travel, Little Blogging

    The bad news: a long, long flight from Hong Kong to Taibei to LA to Chicago to Albany.
    The good news: business class on China Air from Taibei to LA.
    The bad news: a ten hour(!) lay over in LA.
    The good news: home in time to pick my daughter up from school.
    The bad news: no chance to blog until Monday night at earliest (maybe that is good news for some!).
     The good news (I try to be optimistic):  the weather is clear here in HK this morning and I have learned a lot about this place from various and sundry people these past four days.  Thanks everyone for a great visit!

       The potentially good news: A Giants victory today/tomorrow?

        In any event, here is what I will be reading on the planes:

        Marco Polo

        The Economist

        The Far Eastern Economic Review

        Confucius, Analects (Watson translation)

       See you on the other side.

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Sam Crane
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6 responses to “Lots of Travel, Little Blogging”

  1. CP Avatar
    CP

    Well, at least the (Chinese) beer is free on Air China, and you can have all you want. 🙂

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  2. Zoomzan Avatar
    Zoomzan

    I’m just curious, because you have read many different editions of the Analects.
    1. Do you think one can do jingxue (The Study of Classics) solely on the basis of translations? (Like how some Christian theologians use only translations, or at most, with concordances)
    2. Do you ever use the three branches of xiaoxue (Little Learning), by which I refer to wenzixue (philology), xunguxue (semantics), and yinyunxue (phonology)?

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  3. Sam Avatar
    Sam

    Zoomzan,
    To answer the first question: no, I do not consider what I do “jingxue” in the formal, scholarly sense. I do not see myself as a scholar of the classics. I do not have the requisite skill and background. Rather, what I do is apply ideas drawn from the classics to modern questions. As such, I am a popularizer – which many academics would consider a dirty word, but which I am happy to embrace. There are a lot of great ideas in the old books and I want to drawn more English-reading people into them. That’s all. There is no way my applications will, or should, have any significant impact on Jingxue. Thus, to the second question, also “no.” I focus simply on several of the older texts, not the associated scholarship, which is, of course, important and interesting in its own right. Just not what I do.

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  4. Zoomzan Avatar
    Zoomzan

    You have to understand my peculiar conception of jingxue. For me, true jingxue represents a pre-Enlightenment way of knowledge. This way of knowledge does not divide knowledge into diverse, unrelated subject areas. Instead, it promotes a holistic, all-embracing view of the world. Therefore, my view of jingxue very much includes popularisation and practical applications.
    A while ago, I noticed a “Chinese-Language Theology” movement amongst Chinese Christians.
    I think the idea of English jingxue is very promising.
    What is academic discourse anyway? Discourse means conversation. It’s that simple.
    For any subject, as soon as we can get six or seven people together who share a common interest – we have a discourse. Once a discourse begins, it automatically refines and systematises itself through dialogue.
    Of course, this discourse might not be recognised by the modern academia. But I think legitimacy is provided by the existence of an audience, rather than by the recognition of academics. (For instance, no academic would recognise Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics, or even theology in general. Their legitimacy is established by discourse and audience.)
    One way to jumpstart this conversation would be to provide a concordance by important topics. For instance, you can look up “righteousness” which will show all passages which use the word “righteousness.”
    I think a small concordance can’t be that hard. Especially if we limit it to one book at a time, and maybe fifty keywords to begin with.
    I think there would be an audience. There would be audience because many people are alienated by the dry, entirely-secular approach to the Classics in the modern academia. Also, many people don’t read Chinese (including many people in the Chinese diaspora) but would like to connect with the Classics.
    It’s need which creates an audience. It’s need which creates a discourse. Need creates the opportunity for creativity and innovation.
    It’s just something to think about.
    By the way, I too am staying in China the next few months.

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  5. poetryman69 Avatar
    poetryman69

    Giant victory might be a bit much to hope for. Farvre probably has one more in him…

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  6. Peter Avatar
    Peter

    Hi, there is a very interesting (to me) question posed at http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2008/01/19/a-moral-dilemma which you may like to look at if you haven’t already. I’d be quite keen to hear your viewpoint on it, if you are looking for material for another blog post 🙂

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