The Useless Tree

Mencius

  • Mencius on Lying

         The book Mencius differs from the Analects in that many of the passages in the former are longer and more elaborate than those of the latter.  Mencius develops key points, engages ethical conundrums (might it be filial to… Continue reading

  • Tell Rumsfeld He Better Watch Out

         What Mencius might say to the former Secretary of Defense: It’s clear from this that Confucius deplored anyone enriching a ruler who didn’t practice Humane government.  And he deplored  even more people who waged war for such a… Continue reading

  • Mencius on Sectarian Violence

        I’ve been reading Mencius with my class this week.  Many of his passages jump off the page with contemporary resonance.  Here’s one that gets at both the futility and self-reproducing quality of the kind of violence that we… Continue reading

  • Mencius in Zhushan Village

          Frustrations boiled over in Zhushan village in Hunan province a few days ago, as people trying to take the bus to Lingling town were confronted with price gouging.  Roland has the links, and pictures!       People are… Continue reading

  • Mencius on Shenzhen

         In an earlier academic life, before Aidan turned me toward philosophy, I studied and wrote about China’s Special Economic Zones, of which Shenzhen is the largest and most important.  My work focused on the origins and early development… Continue reading

  • WWPD? (What Would Pavel Do?)

        Following up on my last post, just below, I just found this China Daily story that suggests the collectivist/spiritualist (Korchagin?) tendency among Chinese youth may not be as strong as the Party pollsters had hoped: Students look down… Continue reading

  • No Justice, No Harmony

        The Chinese Communist Party is still doing wrong by Chen Guangcheng: BEIJING, Nov. 27 — The retrial of a blind legal activist kicked off in eastern Shandong province Monday, but not without some of the same courtroom tumult… Continue reading

  • Why Bush Persists In Failure

        Mencius knows: When you attempt something and fail, always turn back to yourself for the reason.  Rectify yourself, and all beneath Heaven will return home to you. (125)      Bush seems congenitally unable to do this, to… Continue reading

  • North Korea: Retaining Heart

          Something about this picture (from CDT) struck me:              They are a North Korean couple.  Apparently urban, fairly well-off: his suit suggests that he is a cadre with some job or link to… Continue reading

  • New Left or Old Mencius?

         A nicely written profile of Chinese "New Left" theorist Wang Hui in the IHT: In the last few years, Wang has reflected eloquently and often on what outsiders see as the central paradox of contemporary China: an authoritarian… Continue reading