The Useless Tree

Mencius

  • How Mencius Undermines Tyrants

    I was reminded today of Mencius as I read this op-ed piece in the NYT: "How Tyrants Endure".   First a bit of background… Mencius is associated with the concept of "right of rebellion:" if a ruler is behaving badly,… Continue reading

  • A Mencius Moment

    Work is piling up again. Time is fleeting – not enough of it to blog as much as I would like.  But here is a thought from Menicus, whom we are reading in my tutorial this week.  No need for… Continue reading

  • Killing Chinese People

    Frank Dikotter has a new book out about the Great Leap Forward, Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe.  I haven't read it yet (mine is on order) but early reviews are in.  Here's Jonathan Mirsky: In… Continue reading

  • Obama is reading Sun Tzu, not the Tao Te Ching

    I'm emerging from the end of semester craziness.  My teaching is done for the semester (save one meeting with an independent study group this afternoon – always a pleasant meeting of minds) and the big pile of grading will not… Continue reading

  • Learning Nationalism

    In my class on East Asian nationalism were are reading the introduction and afterword of Liah Greenfeld's book, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity.  It is quite different from the Gellner book I mentioned in posts below.  She is much more… Continue reading

  • Mencius speaks to Republicans obstructing health insurance reform

    Mencius said: "Talk is easy when you don't have to get the job done." 孟子曰：“人之易其言也，無責耳矣。” (7.22; 4A.22) Continue reading

  • A Mencian thought on the passing of Ted Kennedy

    If you want to put my words into practice, why not return to fundamentals?  When every five-acre farm has mulberry trees around the farmhouse, people wear silk at fifty.  And when the proper seasons of chickens and pigs and dogs… Continue reading

  • Kim Dae-jung, Confucian Democrat

    Former President of South Korea, and long time advocate for democracy there and throughout Asia, Kim Dae-jung, died today.  His was not the perfect political career but his persistent defense of democratization in Korea certainly stands out in world historical… Continue reading

  • Pulling out the rice shoots

      A nice post over at Danwei on the discovery of some old "backyard furnaces" from the Great Leap Forward.  The furnaces (pictured above) were an attempt, as a part of the disastrous Great Leap Forward, to produce steel in… Continue reading

  • Thoughts on Urumqi

    The loss of life in Xinjiang is truly sad and depressing.  I fear that the reported death toll will rise in the coming days.  So many innocents killed…. In looking through various sources in the last couple of days, I… Continue reading