Latest Posts
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The continuing decline of filiality
Perhaps the idea most associated with Confucius and Confucianism is filial piety. Our most basic moral imperative is to care for our parents and, by extension, the elderly more generally. Respect your elders: it is the "root of humanity" –… Continue reading
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The Dao of Hurricanes
Hurricane Irene blew through my town on Sunday. Actually, by the time it got here, over 100 miles from the coast, it had been down-graded to a tropical storm. But it's impact was powerful here. Local rivers flooded, washing out… Continue reading
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American Confucianism: not without an accomodation with Liberalism
A Chinese philosophy friend sent along a paper (unpublished, not for citation) the other day which started to consider how Confucianism might gain greater practical acceptance in the US. I will respect his wishes and not divulge more about the… Continue reading
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Obama’s Successful Taoist Foreign Policy
If things keep going in Libya, and Gahdafi is finally vanquished, it would appear that Obama's Tao-esque "leading from behind" foreign policy, has worked. That's what Blake Hounshell argues in any event. And that's what the Daodejing tells us as… Continue reading
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What Would Zhuangzi Tweet?
I know I'm late to the game, but I just signed up for Twitter (find me there under "uselesstree"). It is, right now, quite a distraction: a new source of numerous items and commentary on China in both English and… Continue reading
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Confucius and Zhuangzi on the Georgetown-Bayi Basketball Fight
It was pretty ugly. One of the things that struck me was that this was a professional Chinese team. And they were being schooled by a US college team. You would think their professional pride would have led them to… Continue reading
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Two on the Confucian revival in China
Summer has distracted me… Nothing really big; just a series of small trips and activities: a couple of days at the beach in Rhode Island; a quick jaunt to New York; a new garden pond in the back yard… all… Continue reading
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The Irrepublicans
The debates about raising the debt ceiling are heating up. For someone of my age and background the whole thing is rather extraordinary. It used to be that the Republicans were reliably the party of finance capital, making sure… Continue reading
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Mozi and the denial of politics
Wow… it's been two weeks since my last post. The blog silence is due to summer torpor (rather hot here…) and some other writing distractions (projects past due but now done – hooray!) One of those diversions is an… Continue reading
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Chinese Liberalism
Nice to see the piece over at the WSJ by Liu Junning, "The Ancient Roots of Chinese Liberalism." Liu is a well known Chinese intellectual, and has worked hard since the 1980's to fashion a contemporary Chinese liberalism. He argued… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 