i'm in the library reading a book called "the invasion of Europe by the barbarians" which describes the clash between northern nomads such as the Germans and the southern European empire namely Rome. and this bit of information is interesting:
The Huns belong to the Mongolian division of the great group of races which also includes the Turks, the Hungarians, and the Finns. It may be called the Ural-Altaic race Group, and is divided into two great sections, the Uralic and the Altaic. The Uralic Section falls into three classes: (1)the Finnic, of which the Finns are the best known representative: (2) the Permian (3) the Ugrian, of which the Hungarians are the most important. The Altaic section falls into several classes , of which one is the Turkish and another the Mongolian. This classification is based on a comparison of the Language of these People.
...
Our knowledge, such as it is, of the early history of central Asia is derived from the annals of China. From these records we know that in the third and early fourth centuries the dominating people in these regions was the Sien-pi, and that towards the middle of the fourth century their power was overthrown by the Zhu-zhu, who succeeded them to the dominion of Tartar Asia, and finally founded a great empire extdnding from the coast of the North Pacific, from Corea to the borders of Europe. It may be suppose that it was events connected with the rise to power of the Zhu-zhu that disturbed the Huns and induced them to move westward.
...
The name Huns, Greek ounnoi, is generally supposed to be a corruption of the word Hiung-nu-the name, meaning common slaves, that was given by the Chinese to all the nomadic people of Asia.
so what, did chinese give the name Hun to the Hungarians? i'd always thought all these weird words were transliteration from the babarian tongue. this is new to me. isn't it interesting?
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Lin Zexu (LinTse-hsu) writing to Britain's Queen Victoria
to Protest the Opium Trade, 1839
This selection is from Wallbank, et al, Civilizations Past And Present, 1992. Most scholars do not believe that the letter ever reached the Queen.
[Wallbank introduction] Lin Tse-hsu saw that the opium trade, which gave Europe such huge profits, undermined his country. He asked Queen Victoria to put a stop to the trade.
"After a long period of commercial intercourse, there appear among the crowd of barbarians both good persons and bad, unevenly. Consequently there are those who smuggle opium to seduce the Chinese people and so cause the spread of the poison to all provinces. Such persons who only care to profit themselves, and disregard their harm to others, are not tolerated by the laws of heaven and are unanimously hated by human beings. His Majesty the Emperor, upon hearing of this, is in a towering rage. He has especially sent me, his commissioner, to come to Kwangtung, and together with the governor-general and governor jointly to investigate and settle this matter.
"All those people in China who sell opium or smoke opium should receive the death penalty. If we trace the crime of those barbarians who through the years have been selling opium, then the deep harm they have wrought and the great profit they have usurped should fundamentally justify their execution according to law. We take into consideration, however, the fact that the various barbarians have still known how to repent their crimes and return to their allegiance to us by taking the 20,183 chests of opium from their storeships and petitioning us, through their consular officer [superintendent of trade], Elliot, to receive it. It has been entirely destroyed and this has been faithfully reported to the Throne in several memorials by this commissioner and his colleagues.
"Fortunately we have received a specially extended favor from is Majesty the Emperor, who considers that for those who voluntarily surrender there are still some circumstances to palliate their crime, and so for the time being he has magnanimously excused them from punishment. But as for those who again violate the opium prohibition, it is difficult for the law to pardon them repeatedly. Having established new regulations, we presume that the ruler of your honorable country, who takes delight in our culture and whose disposition is inclined towards us, must be able to instruct the various barbarians to observe the law with care. It is only necessary to explain to them the advantages and disadvantages and then they will know that the legal code of the Celestial Court must be absolutely obeyed with awe.
"We find that your country is sixty or seventy thousand li [three li equal one mile] from China. Yet there are barbarian ships that strive to come here for trade for the purpose of making a great profit. The wealth of China is used to profit the barbarians. That is to say, the great profit made by barbarians is all taken from the rightful share of China. By what right do they then in return use the poisonous drug to injure the Chinese people? Even though the barbarians may not necessarily intend to do us harm, yet in coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard for injuring others. Let us ask, where is your conscience? I have heard that the smoking of opium is very strictly forbidden by your country; that is because the harm caused by opium is clearly understood. Since it is not permitted to do harm to your own country, then even less should you let it be passed on to the harm of other countries - how much less to China!"
Friday, February 16, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
anne frank's dad's letters to an american were uncovered, mainly communicating his desperate effort to get to america. in this age, when few write letters, what will be left for the coming generations to uncover? nothing. our civilization will become unreadable inaccessible hidden information, the bits on harddiscs, cds and servers. with the rise of the digital age, the intellectual side of us becomes more and more concealed. when we get buried by volcano ashes there will be nothing for the archeologists in the future to interpret, because the virtual world where all information is stored will crash more cleanly than the physical world. maybe that's why we don't find evidence for past advanced civilizations. maybe all of their intelligence eventually got into some kind of abstract storage which vanished with their creator, leaving no remains.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
esherick also propose that the communist revolution in china shouldn't be looked at as a peasant revolution, or proletarian revolution, but a bourgeois revolution. the first thing that the communists did was land reform, which ensures that individual peasants own a share of land. this promoted private property. and they were highly supportive of market economy in the rural area. such action won them support from the peasants. it was later in the 50's when they started establishing communes and practised collectivism that they touched upon real communism, but such policies caused them to lose support from the peasants. it is a fresh angle certainly. i need to think about it...
i had a revelation today during esherick's lecture.
think about the late 19th century around the time of opium war. huge amount of products, mainly tea and also porcelain, was exported from china to britain. naturally huge amount of silver (actually mined in the new world) flowing into the middle kingdom. apparently, as much as 50% of the mexican silver that the europeans obtained ended up in china. to balance the trade, the british tried very very hard to pursuade the Qing emperors to open up ports so that they could sell the products of their industrial revolution, such as textile, knives and forks and clocks. but self sufficient as the Qing empire was in the nineteenth century, the chinese people wouldn't buy any, cos obviously they didn't need any. so the british smuggled in opium, a product that had a promoting demand, and, when challenged by the chinese prohibition of opium, waged a war. thus modern chinese history starts.
and then i thought, look at the trade. tea into britain and opium in to china. the former is a neuro-stimulant and the latter a neuro-depressant. it is no wonder why the former nation grew and the latter fell. how lousy a trader is britain!
think about the late 19th century around the time of opium war. huge amount of products, mainly tea and also porcelain, was exported from china to britain. naturally huge amount of silver (actually mined in the new world) flowing into the middle kingdom. apparently, as much as 50% of the mexican silver that the europeans obtained ended up in china. to balance the trade, the british tried very very hard to pursuade the Qing emperors to open up ports so that they could sell the products of their industrial revolution, such as textile, knives and forks and clocks. but self sufficient as the Qing empire was in the nineteenth century, the chinese people wouldn't buy any, cos obviously they didn't need any. so the british smuggled in opium, a product that had a promoting demand, and, when challenged by the chinese prohibition of opium, waged a war. thus modern chinese history starts.
and then i thought, look at the trade. tea into britain and opium in to china. the former is a neuro-stimulant and the latter a neuro-depressant. it is no wonder why the former nation grew and the latter fell. how lousy a trader is britain!
Monday, February 12, 2007
Looking at this, there's no reason i should move to the east coast for grad school.
according to National Georgraphic "Cities with More Single Men than Women: Los Angeles/Long Beach/Santa Ana urban area (Largest plurality: 40,000 more single men than women) Seattle Las Vegas Phoenix Houston
Cities with More Single Women than Men: New York/N.J./Conn. urban area (Largest plurality: 185,000 more single women than men) Washington Philadelphia Chicago Baltimore"
from 1010 wins
according to National Georgraphic "Cities with More Single Men than Women: Los Angeles/Long Beach/Santa Ana urban area (Largest plurality: 40,000 more single men than women) Seattle Las Vegas Phoenix Houston
Cities with More Single Women than Men: New York/N.J./Conn. urban area (Largest plurality: 185,000 more single women than men) Washington Philadelphia Chicago Baltimore"
from 1010 wins
Monday, February 05, 2007
the chinese seem to have retained the coherence of our identity largely through the preservation of the language and cultural system, specifically the confucian values. this is why the various foreign rulers of china have failed to strip the chinese of our chineseness, and instead have become sinified on various levels. the mongols, turks and other nomads came and went without causing much change in the chinese societal structure, while the manchus got assimilated into the chinese society themselves and are not to be distinguished from the general han population. i believe the reason why the chinese were able to do all these things was their wariness and on some level suspicion and hostility against the foreigners, which all resulted in a strong urge to maintain the cultural self. similar to the jewish identity that have been kept through the ages of banishment and insults. the more a group is against its enemies, the more the groups sticks together.
the embrace of foreigners by the chinese in recent years is going to change the situation. the new attitude is formed mainly due to the advances in the west and the contrasting backwardness of china's own economy. this is a reality learnt through harsh defeats and treaties. the people have come to wordship the affluent west and grown tired of the improverished motherland. this change in attitude breakes the cultural great wall and is going to bring an end to the lifeline of the chinese, its culture. the ernest study and proper use of the chinese language is already on a decline. traditional art forms struggles to keep alive and are failing more and more to do so. people's focus is more and more on the economical development and expansion, much like the west. the study of western languages with its obvious profitability rises in priority. and with the study of western culture, western values come to infiltrate the society with much ease, replacing the traditional values. maybe soon the word chinese will be merely a political term, describing things and people found within the current chinese border. much like egypt, whose content has nothing much to do with the original connotations of the name.
it's not that i'm emotionally attached to confucian values. such old principles are very very outdated and impedes the development of a healthy modern society. i just want to point out, the changed that occured in the last century seems to be the first time that the chinese are systematically abandoning the values that have held the country together for two thousand years and more. china and the chinese race seem to be on the verge of unprecedented and irreversible change. oh well, old things die and new things come. it's no big deal. and who knows. maybe in the process of developing a modern globe, all cultures would lose its original contents as a result of mixing sooner or later. my attitude on the issue of chinese culture is like that on any other thing. while i'm excited to see what's to come, such as all the modernity, freedom and fantastic possibilities, i can't help but feel a little pity for the old dying thing. because the interesting and beautiful half and the dull and ugly half necessarily die together.
the embrace of foreigners by the chinese in recent years is going to change the situation. the new attitude is formed mainly due to the advances in the west and the contrasting backwardness of china's own economy. this is a reality learnt through harsh defeats and treaties. the people have come to wordship the affluent west and grown tired of the improverished motherland. this change in attitude breakes the cultural great wall and is going to bring an end to the lifeline of the chinese, its culture. the ernest study and proper use of the chinese language is already on a decline. traditional art forms struggles to keep alive and are failing more and more to do so. people's focus is more and more on the economical development and expansion, much like the west. the study of western languages with its obvious profitability rises in priority. and with the study of western culture, western values come to infiltrate the society with much ease, replacing the traditional values. maybe soon the word chinese will be merely a political term, describing things and people found within the current chinese border. much like egypt, whose content has nothing much to do with the original connotations of the name.
it's not that i'm emotionally attached to confucian values. such old principles are very very outdated and impedes the development of a healthy modern society. i just want to point out, the changed that occured in the last century seems to be the first time that the chinese are systematically abandoning the values that have held the country together for two thousand years and more. china and the chinese race seem to be on the verge of unprecedented and irreversible change. oh well, old things die and new things come. it's no big deal. and who knows. maybe in the process of developing a modern globe, all cultures would lose its original contents as a result of mixing sooner or later. my attitude on the issue of chinese culture is like that on any other thing. while i'm excited to see what's to come, such as all the modernity, freedom and fantastic possibilities, i can't help but feel a little pity for the old dying thing. because the interesting and beautiful half and the dull and ugly half necessarily die together.
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