Legalism
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Confucianism doesn’t make people sheep, Legalism does
Interesting interview this morning on NPR. Jiang Rong is the author of Wolf Totem, a book which seems to open itself to various interpretations. I was taken by this comment of Jiang's from this morning's interview: "Confucianism wants people to… Continue reading
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Han Feizi on the Economic Crisis
A long story at Bloomberg (hat tip CDT) on the vicissitudes of China's billionaire class brought Han Fei Zi to mind. The article chronicles some lurid stories of corruption and shady-dealing that have produced very, very large sums of money… Continue reading
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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
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John McCain, Legalist Power-Monger
I have been completely obsessed of late with the bizarre and depressing turn of events in the Republican presidential campaign. The more I consider Sarah Palin, the worse John McCain looks. What does his choice of her tell us about… Continue reading
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The Face of Legalism Today
I know, I am beating a dead horse but I couldn’t not post about the sad and frustrating stories coming out of Burma. It seems that the military dictators are more interested in going forward with a sham… Continue reading
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Anachronist Legalism
In February I posted three times about the New Legalists, a web site that takes as its motto: "End capital’s hegemony in the name of liberty, build a new world with original Chinese Taoist-Legalist civilization as a prototype." … Continue reading
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Just to be clear about it: Neither China nor the US is a Confucian country
The annual report from Amnesty International on executions is out and, to no surprise, China leads the list with the US taking fifth place. To me, this points to a fundamental similarity between the two places, however much… Continue reading
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Tibet: Media Bias versus Media Control (with reference to Han Fei Tzu)
I’ve been quiet on Tibet since my first post. It takes time to absorb the events as they unfold, and to hear various points of view. But one thing has struck me of late, the question of media… Continue reading
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Breaking News: Mencius Right, Legalists Wrong
Nothing like some current psycho-social scientific research (hat tip: Zhongnanhai) to verify claims that have been around for a couple of thousand years: Common game theory has held that punishment makes two equals cooperate. But when people compete… Continue reading
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Once More Into the Breach: The New Legalists and the Tao Te Ching
One more thing about the New Legalists (am I going on too much about this? Probably. But what the hell, it’s kind of fun….): they want to enlist the Tao Te Ching in their efforts to construct a… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 