The Useless Tree

Confucius/Confucianism

  • Un-Confucian abuses of Confucius

        I picked up this story from Virtual China, which picked it up from Roland.  It is about a Chinese fellow who re-posted a story on a web site (the story had already been posted elsewhere on the web;… Continue reading

  • The Father

        I don’t usually descend into the most tawdry of popular cultural media events (at least I don’t think I do…) but I just want to register here my dismay and disgust in regard to the sordid haggling over… Continue reading

  • Confucianism in Everyday Life

         I guess I have to comment on this article in yesterday’s China Daily: Filial piety plays a part in promotions Updated: 2007-04-09 06:43 Want a promotion? How about being nice to mom and dad? Administrative skills alone are… Continue reading

  • Dick Cheney, Please Read Mencius

         The Vice President cannot seem to accept reality; he is impervious to facts. He says, on a right-wing radio show, that al-Qaeda really did have a close, working relationship with Saddam Hussein, a charge that is rebutted fairly… Continue reading

  • Virtual Qing Ming

         I’m not sure if today is the exact day (because the exact day is calculated based on the Chinese calender), but it is the day usually referred to as Qing Ming.  This is the day when, according to… Continue reading

  • The Desire for War

         Some conservative pundits are dismayed that the UK-Iran standoff has ended peacefully.  They seem to believe it better to have taken take up arms, however implausible and destructive, than accept a deal, perhaps even a prisoner swap of… Continue reading

  • Flexible Ritual – Where’s Elijah?

         One of the key concepts of Confucianism is Ritual – Li.  The term has a somewhat negative connotation in contemporary English, suggesting something dryly formal, done without feeling or commitment, just going through the motions.  This is not,… Continue reading

  • Confucius is Dead – and Koreans killed him…

         …that, at least, is the thesis of a punchy op-ed in tomorrow’s (I love globalization!) Seoul Times by Taru Taylor.  I’ll let him speak for himself: Neo-Confucianism killed Confucius. In other words, it stereotyped him. Confucius, the great… Continue reading

  • Bush Lost The War

        Now that the Senate has also passed a bill that sets a timetable for US withdrawal from Iraq, we are going to hear a lot of noise from Bush and company, and their ideological defenders in the media,… Continue reading

  • Teenage Suicide: Losing Their Way

        Another sad story about suicide in China: …Recent statistics from the Chinese Association of Mental Health show that suicide has become the No 1 killer of Chinese people between the ages of 15 and 34. Suicide accounted for… Continue reading