Latest Posts
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Can’t We All Just Get Along?
This is a great talk, by Kaiser Kuo. Much to be learned here: about the social context and political implications of the internet in China; about how the internet has influenced "people to people" relations between the US and China;… Continue reading
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Taoist Thoughts on the Yankees 27th World Series Title
Passage 2 of the Daodejing: All beneath heaven knows beauty is beauty only because there's ugliness, and knows good is good, only because there's evil. Being and nonbeing give birth to one another, difficult and easy complete one another, long… Continue reading
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Francesco Sisci on Law in Ancient China
Last week, in the Asia Times, Francesco Sisci, a journalist who has of late been delving into ancient history and philosophy to good effect, has a long-ish article, "China no longer a law unto itself." Basically, he shows how Legalism… Continue reading
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Stop Thinking
NYT sports columnist George Vecsey has some Taoist advice for Alex Rodriguez: The instinctive A-Rod of the first two rounds seemed to have vanished. He was squeezing the bat. Gone was the guy who lashed home runs in the postseason,… Continue reading
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Confucius in Congress
The US House of Representatives filed a resolution (H. Res. 784) on September 29 honoring the 2,560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius. I'm really not sure of the politics here, but it would seem, to me, that this has… Continue reading
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Wang Meng: From dissident to minister to….Daoist?
I just received a message from CC Huang, directing me to a blog post she wrote about Wang Meng's book on the Daodejing. This is a revelation for me (it made my day!) because I did not know Wang had… Continue reading
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Language map of China
Just found this map (via Languagehat via Roland. It is important to note that the different "dialects," the different colored areas on the map, are really different language groups. The variations within the green area are better referred to as… Continue reading
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Another Sad Reminder: Bush Lost the War
Massive, coordinated car bomb attacks in Baghdad. The loud right-wing Obama haters will no doubt jump on this to argue that Obama is losing the war in Iraq. But that is not true. Iraq was lost long ago and it… Continue reading
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The New York Yankees and the Mandate of Heaven
For those readers who follow US sports, you'll know that that the New York Yankees have been winning of late. For a Taoist Yankee fan like myself this is a pleasant thing. For followers of the Boston Red Sox, however,… Continue reading
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Taoism in Texas
Every so often I write "Taoism" (or "Daoism") into Google just to see what pops up. And today that search took me to the newspaper of Longview Texas, The News-Journal, and an article, "Line up: Taoism advises believers to align… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 