Latest Posts
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Saturday Cat Blogging
Back from the beach – we had a great time. I want to post some pictures but will start with one of my cat, Blackie. Just want to make sure I work out some technical kinks with the… Continue reading
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Martha’s Vineyard
As you might have noticed, posting has fallen off a bit. That is because I am now sitting in the library in Edgartown, Massachusetts, a marvelous little place on Martha’s Vineyard. We have come down here for a… Continue reading
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A Favorite, Though Sad, Tu Fu Poem
The Lone Goose Never eating or drinking, the lone gooseFlies – thinking of its flock, calling out.Who pities a flake of shadow lost beyondTen-thousand clouds? It stares far-off, As if glimpses of them remained. SorrowsMount – it almost hears them… Continue reading
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Li Po on Way
Looking For Yung, The Recluse Master Emerald peaks polish heaven. I wander,sweeping clouds away, forgetting years, looking for the ancient Way. Restingagainst a tree, I listen to streamwater, black ox dozing among warm blossoms, white crane asleep in… Continue reading
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A Little Tu Fu
Here’s an anti-war lament by Tu Fu to think about: Moonlit Night Thinking of My Brothers Warning drums have ended all travel.A lone goose cries across autumnBorderlands. White Dew begins tonight,This bright moon bright there, over My old… Continue reading
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Ancient Greens
The Western Confucian links to a couple of articles by Pan Yue, the deputy director of China’s State Environmental Protection Agency. Pan makes various statements about how ancient Chinese philosophy is especially good on environmental protection. I’m not… Continue reading
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Friday I Ching Blogging: Hope for the New York Yankees!
I have been holding off on this question for some time, waiting for the right moment to consult the oracle. Today, I went ahead and asked: will the New York Yankees win the American League East? And the… Continue reading
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Let’s Call A Legalist, A Legalist
Can you catch the implicit cultural assertion in this story? Execution for corruption is proportionate and accords with "China’s national condition," a senior official said Thursday, as a disgraced former party chief from Shanghai, now confirmed to be… Continue reading
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The Way of Poetry
I am seeing Taoism in just about everything these days, even this short piece in today’s NYT: Charles Simic, a writer who juxtaposes dark imagery with ironic humor, is to be named the country’s 15th poet laureate by the… Continue reading
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Taoist Afterlife
I noticed a short article in Sunday’s NYT Magazine, "Eternity for Atheists," which discussed how serious scientists and philosophers, people who are skeptical of claims of supernatural forces, analyze the question of human afterlife. Here is what one… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 