Latest Posts
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Great Leap Famine Denial
In my other class this semester, contemporary Chinese politics, we are getting ready to consider the Great Leap Famine. In noodling around the internet in search of the any new bits of information, I have found several examples of what… Continue reading
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Lin Xiling and the Necessity of Dissent
A new semester is upon us and I am preparing for this week's classes on Chinese politics. On Thursday we will be thinking about the big events of the 1950s: the Hundred Flowers Campaign; the Anti-Rightist Movement; the Great Leap… Continue reading
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Daoist Gun Control
The Daodejing takes a dim view of weapons. Passage 31 begins (Legge translation): Now arms, however beautiful, are instruments of evil omen, hateful, it may be said, to all creatures. Therefore they who have the Dao do not like to… Continue reading
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More on Sunzi, Torture, and Political Leadership
In my previous post, below, I argued that Sunzi would oppose torture, especially the kind of systematic torture regime of the latter Bush administration. But the more I think about it, the more a certain question hangs in the air:… Continue reading
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Zero Dark Sunzi
I saw "Zero Dark Thirty" last night, a bracing film. I am also reading Sunzi with my students here; so, it seems quite natural for me to bring these two texts together. As a movie, "Zero Dark Thirty" is quite… Continue reading
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The Mundanity of Chinese Modernization: Air Pollution, Press Freedom, Political Reform
A couple of stories (and a collection of others over at CDT) in recent days begin to link together two big issues in the PRC: concerns for press freedom, stoked by the Southern Weekend affair, and horrendous air pollution, stoked… Continue reading
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Confucian Constitutionalism in defense of Freedom of Expression
The Southern Weekend censorship row (good reports can be found here, here, here, here and here) has cast light on the limits of political reform in China. I am one of those who sees this, initially at least, not as… Continue reading
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You Can’t Legislate Filiality
A story in The Global Times reports on the enactment of an amendment to the PRC Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly that requires adult children to visit their elderly parents. This has been… Continue reading
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Anti-Mohism in the New York Times
The very title of Stephen Asma's piece, "The Myth of Universal Love," has a particular connotation for students of ancient Chinese philosophy: it prepares us for a discussion of Mozi, inspiration for the Mohist school of thought, who emphasizes the… Continue reading
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New Year’s Yi Jing Blogging: Be Careful of that Tiger’s Tail!
Happy New Year! 2012 ended, as far as blogging was concerned, in a rather desultory manner: only two posts in all of December! So, here's a resolution: more and better blogging in the new year (which would seem to contradict… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 