The Useless Tree

History

  • Even if he didn’t bury scholars alive, Qin Shi Huangdi was a bad man!

         Regular readers know that I do not like Qin Shi Huangdi.  So I was curious today when the Western Confucian made note of a talk last month at UCLA that took up the question of fenshu kengru – "the… Continue reading

  • Han Fei Tzu and Machiavelli

        A nice review of some new translations of various Machiavelli texts in the New Yorker.  As always, any talk of The Florentine brings to mind Han Fei Tzu; Machiavelli is, after all, the Italian Han Fei Tzu.    The… Continue reading

  • Twenty Five Years Ago

    Twenty five years ago last week, Thursday to be exact, I went to China for the first time. It's an easy date for me to remember as it is also my wedding anniversary. On August 22, 1983, on my third… Continue reading

  • Finding Taoism Everywhere

    Perhaps it is an occupational hazard, the result of my daily consideration of ancient Chinese philosophy, but I often find Taoism lurking in unexpected places.  OK, not "Taoism" per se, as a fairly clearly distinguishable stream of thought, but elements… Continue reading

  • “In with the old, out with the new”….

    So goes the opening line in a story in The Times (London) on an internet statement issued by some Chinese intellectuals, calling for historical figures to appear on PRC currency notes (hat tip, CDT).  It is interesting to note their… Continue reading

  • Martin Luther King

         Forty years ago today Martin Luther King was shot dead.  I remember it.  I was eleven years old and King’s assassination was a bracing moment in my political socialization.      My parents were both born and raised… Continue reading

  • Was “Lao Tzu” a Vegan?

        A reader, Chris, writes in with this question.  I have never really thought about it before, but I put my mind to it a bit today and the answer I came up with is "probably not."    … Continue reading

  • An Epistemological Dissent

          Over at The China Beat, David Porter has a helpful post about the cultural biases that plague American and, more generally Western, perceptions of China.  It is not really a new argument, but a well stated one that… Continue reading

  • The New Legalists: Distorting Chinese History and Chinese Philosophy for Nationalist Ends

        I have stumbled upon a website, The New Legalist, (Chinese version here, with much more stuff) and am dismayed at the distortions I find there.     It seems to be the product of people with a fairly… Continue reading

  • Dragon Mountain and the Selective Confucianism of Late Ming China

        I just finished reading Jonathan Spence’s most recent book, Return to Dragon Mountain and want to note down a few ideas it brought to mind.      A few years ago I so much enjoyed Spence’s God’s Chinese… Continue reading