Thinking Citizen Blog — What Should Every 18 Year Old Know about China?
Thinking Citizen Blog — Monday is Foreign Policy Day
Today’s Topic: What Should Every 18 Year Old Know about China?
Does the geography matter? Should every 3rd grader be able to draw a map of China? With all the neighboring countries identified? How about an 8th grader? With how many provinces and cities? How good a map can you draw? Does history matter? What should every 18 year old know about Chinese inventions like the compass, paper, and gunpowder? Or about Chinese philosophy, notably Confucius? About the Japanese invasion and occupation of China? Or about the Great Famine, the One Child Policy and the Cultural Revolution under Mao? or about the story of the opening of China under Deng Xiao Peng? How much should every 18 year old know about Xi Jinping? About his policy toward Taiwan? toward the Uyghurs? toward Hong Kong? The complexity is mind-numbing. Today, a collection of quotes from three of the most influential Chinese texts of all time: the Analects of Confucius, the Art of War of Sun Tsu, and the Little Red Book of Mao Tse Tung. Which quotes from which Chinese texts would you consider most worth remembering? Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS — thematic continuity, definitions matter, reciprocity
1. “Isn’t it a pleasure, having learned something once, to return to it at due intervals.” — the first line. My. version: thematic continuity is key to depth of thought.
2. Zhong ming — usually translated “rectification of names.” Before any serious conversation, define your terms precisely. Without agreement on the meaning of terms, disaster follows.
3. Shu — reciprocity is the only solid foundation upon which to build a society.
THE ART OF WAR OF SUN TSU — knowledge, deception, timing
1. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
2. “To know your enemy you must become your enemy.”
3. “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”
NB: “Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”
THE LITTLE RED BOOK OF MAO — the barrel of a gun, paper tigers, not a dinner party
1. “Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
2. “All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful.”
3. “A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery… A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
Hong Kong–mainland China relations — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
Here is a link to the last four years of posts organized by theme: (including the book on foreign policy)
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest or most important thing you learned in the last week, month, or year related to foreign policy. Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in our life related to foreign policy.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to consolidate in your memory something important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is the key to depth of thought. The prospect of imminent publication, like hanging and final exams, concentrates the mind. A useful life long habit.
