The Rat Race and China's own St. George
lo yeeOn
Qin Dynasty which is known for many things, including its book
burning.
So did Li Si, Qin's powerful Prime Minister, discovered the Rat Race
and its implications on human conditions?
Li Si was apparently a shrewd lawyer, like many powerful politicians
we find in Wasington DC today. Unfortunately for him, he met his
horrible death eventually by a method he himself had devised and put
into practice.
So, those who raise the sword shall be killed by the sword, as Jesus
observed? It is quite probable, though not universal. For example,
in prehistoric time, according to the Judeo-Hebrew Bible, Cain killed
his brother Abel. When confronted by God who said to him something
like:
"Cain, your brother's blood is crying out for justice, where is he?"
Cain smugly replied,
"Now God, am I my brother's keeper?"
God then essentially told him to cut his bull and expect punishments.
Cain might or should have told God something like:
"Geez God, you wanted blood for sacrifice as something more
worthwhile than fruit and vegetables. So I gave you just that, my
brother's blood. Why should you be complaining now?"
But he went his way and then found that his fruit trees stopped
growing fruit and his farm stopped producing grains and vegetables.
Worse: everyone now saw him as a criminal and often threatened to kill
him, since, they reckoned, God hadn't minded his business!
So, Cain went to God and complained that his punishments were really
more than he could bear: he had a hard time finding food and had no
peace, and his survival was under constant threat.
So God said,
"Ok, Cain. From now on, you'll still have to toil but if anyone
comes around and threatens you, he will be punished many times worse
than I have punished you."
So, God has set the precedence that justice is selective, at least
in the view of some.
Now, here is the rat race story about Li Si, Prime Minister of the
first ''unified'' Chinese dynasty Qin.
According to the Wikipedia:
Li Si was originally from the kingdom of Chu. When he was young, he
was a minor official in Chu. According to the Records of the Great
Historian, one day Li Si observed that rats in the outhouse were
dirty and hungry but the rats in the barnhouse were well fed. He
suddenly realized that "there is no set standard for honor since
everyone's life is different. The values of people are determined by
their social status. And like rats, people's social status often
depends purely on the random life events around them. And so instead
of always being restricted by moral codes, people should do what they
deemed best at the moment". He made up his mind to take up politics
as his career, which was a common choice for scholars not from noble
family during the Warring States Period.
So indeed, he sounded very much like the politicians of our time.
By the way, the historiographer Sima Qian, the author of the all
influential Records of the Great Historian mentioned about, was
instrumental in helping the enduring Han Dynasty institutionalize
Confucianism for China, there was never another school of thought to
arise from the long history of China again, despite the huge numbers
of people who have since lived and died there.
One of the examplary records he presented was the story of a young man
whose mother had died when he was still young and his father married
another woman and gave him another son. The step brothers got along
fine but the mother wanted her biological son inherit the household
when the time comes. So, she convinced her husband to have his older
son murderd.
So, one day the father summoned his son and told him to go somewhere
and meet someone. Being a Confucian son who knew his place, he
readily agreed and embarked on his journey.
His stepbrother knew from his mother the plot who, recognizing his own
Confucian place as a younger brother but also his Confucian place as
an obedient son to his father (the mother had a very lowly place in a
Confucian family so she didn't count, obviously), realized that he now
faced a dilemma.
What is for him to do?
What is the dialectic resolution he came up with that Sima Qian
approved?
And what was an obedient son to do when he found out that his father
wanted him killed? What would Master Kong want him to do?
I've told this story once at an internet posting and would leave it up
to the reader to remember or find out.
And I would say that it would be a miracle if China could have been
anything else except the emaciated image the world has come to know
it.
So, some posters wanted to know about Chinese philosophical thoughts.
Yet all the philosophies the world can find in its long history came
from the span of about a hundred or two years before the dynasties of
(the short-lived) Qin and Han. Contrast that with the 1700s and the
1800s in Germany, we saw the rise of Kant, Herder, Hegel, Marx, and
Mach, the latter's Hegelian view of scientif method greatly influneced
Einstein and others in their thinking about measurements and reference
frames of observation, crucial to the arrival of relativity theories.
One thing we should remember is, seriously, philosophy is about
critical thinking, as every credible philosophy department in a
college would make sure the students get to realize. Master Kong's
philosophy? Give me a break!
Now, we heard Saint George killed the dragon. And this Saint George
has been revered and worshipped in many European cultures including
Russia, Georgia, ethnic groups on the Balkan, the Britons, etc.
And it seems that China might have its own version of Saint George
killing the dragon, though maybe not the same one.
Liu Bang - China's St. George?
According to the Wikipedia:
Liu Bang {pronounced as Bahng} was born into a lower class farming
family in Pei (present Pei County in Jiangsu Province). At the time,
Pei was part of the State of Chu. He relied on his brother's family
for food. Though there was more than enough food to feed everyone, his
sister-in-law went to the kitchen to scrape the pots, thus causing all
his friends to leave, as they thought that the family was too poor to
feed them. His sister-in-law's contempt for his roguish ways was what
made Liu think about actually studying and serving his country for a
while.
After he grew up, Liu served as a patrol officer in his county. Once
he was responsible for transporting a group of prisoners to Mount Li
in present Shaanxi province. During the trip many prisoners
fled. Fearful that he would be punished for the prisoners' flight,
offered the remaining prisoners their freedom if they would fight for
him. In legend, the released prisoners fled, met with a cobra snake
and went back the way they came, running into Hearing their story, he
went and killed the cobra himself. The cobra was supposedly larger
than a full grown tree, and its breath was poisonous, killing many
prisoners. Liu Bang was brave enough to kill the snake at dawn. From
then on, the prisoners respected him and made him their leader, hence
became the leader of a band of brigands. . . .
Liu became the founding emperor of China's Han Dynasty which revived
Confucian teaching after the book burning of its predecessor, the Qin
Dynasty.
Of course, history is often said to be the verdict of the victor.
So, who knows what kind of a snake the founding emperor of Han
actually killed, right? Maybe it was the one like Antoine de Saint
Exupe'ry described, the one he imagined when he was a little boy, in
his famous novel Le Petit Prince.
And who knows . . . Given how cunning Liui Bang was (according to the
Records of the Three Nations), he was able to persuade one of his arch
enemy to loan him his prized fort - militarily strategic position and
thus enable him to defeat the third nation and unify the then China),
he might have brought along a big fat pig along and then tied it next
to where the snake lied while he hid in wait for the action, knowing
the big fat pig inside the snake's stomach would make it prey for him.
But, whatever, the real story is the victor writes the history.
That's the lasting truth of humanity. So ladies and gentlemen,
remember that!
lo yeeOn
========
lo yeeOn
Qin Dynasty which is known for many things, including its book
burning.
So did Li Si, Qin's powerful Prime Minister, discovered the Rat Race
and its implications for our wretched human condition?
Cain smugly replied,
So God said,
According to the Wikipedia:
influential Records of the Great Historian mentioned above, was