Leader Who Is Hardly Known: Self-Less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition Ebook

FREELEADER WHO IS HARDLY KNOWN: SELF-LESS TEACHING FROM THE CHINESE TRADITION EBOOK

This is the SupChina Book List, books about China across all genres — fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and everything in between — ranked from to 1. We sourced broadly, in an attempt to create a unique, inclusive list that has something for everyone, neither Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self- less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition to a specific taste nor pandering to any preconceived idea of what such a list should look like. There was no criteria except availability in English. We decided to limit all authors to one title. In the end, this is what we came up with: A list with books by journalists and historians, migrant poets and politicians, Nobel Prize winners three, in fact and dissidents; on topics including sex, sorcery, food, debt, Chinese medicine, gay life, and footbinding; across all eras, from the 14th century Three Kingdoms to the books that come in at Nos. And of course, all Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition it ranked. The folly of ranking, I assure you, is not lost on me. We welcome disagreement. Tweet us supchinanewsor me personally anthonytao. Finally, I want to say a big thank you to all Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition our blurb writers, who are listed here along with, in the case of some, the China books they themselves have written. Sort by time period of primary subject matter :. Riding the Iron Rooster is a fine antidote to the colonialist travelogues of the first half of the 20th century, as well as the self-serious immersive reportage books that came to dominate in the first half of this century. Theroux spent a year crisscrossing the country by rail, going as far as Xinjiang in the west and the Shandong coast in the east, often accompanied by government minders. As in all of his travel writing, he is unfailingly human, at turns prickly, lascivious, poetic, or just plain fed-up. If you were lucky enough to take a trip by train in the days before high-speed rail, you will find yourself nodding along in recognition. This is Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition valuable first-person narrative from an author who spent almost a decade in Lijiang, Yunnan Province during the s and s. Originally a tour guide in Shanghai, the Russian-born Peter Goullart eventually became appointed by the Nationalists as chief of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives in Lijiang, where he learned to speak Naxi, the Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition of the dominant ethnic group. This controversial Chinese novel tells the story of Coco, a Shanghai waitress in search of love, whose ambition it is to become a famous writer. Within China, this book was officially banned inwith 40, copies publicly burned. Because of all the controversy and misconception, I decided to write my thesis in Literary Studies about this book years ago, arguing that it needs to be put back in its context of the PRC in the late s. What they did was bold, especially in s China, giving voice to a new generation of strong, independent Chinese women. Mark Salzman was among the first generation of Americans to teach in China, in the s, when he was in Changsha. After China, Salzman went on to a great career as a novelist and memoirist, with an impressive range of subjects. The Jade Kingor Funeral of a Muslimas the title is also sometimes rendered, is one of those books. The story of Han Ziqi, an orphan raised by Hui and tutored in the carving of jade ornaments, ranges from the late Qing Dynasty to the end of the Cultural Revolution, and from Beijing to London. China has no shortage of problems on its horizon, but perhaps one of the most alarming and underappreciated is its severe gender imbalance, which will see tens of millions of men go permanently without a female partner. In this book, journalist Mara Hvistendahl traces the origins of the problem, from Western fears of overpopulation in the s though the present day, where a patriarchal culture, strict birth limits, and sex-selective abortion have made China ground zero for this problem with global implications. Often they are unstable. Sometimes they are violent. Published inthe book was immediately banned for its political undertones as well as its raunchiness — which naturally increased its demand. Aside from Serve the People! A prolific writer of novels, novellas, and literary criticism, he has won several prizes, including the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Franz Kafka Prize. A subtly feminist work, at each major milestone in the lives of its two main characters, the author reminds the reader that for all the exotic trappings and social strictures of their time and place, women in Imperial China had their own voices, desires, and methods for exerting some measure of control over their lives. The book follows the life of the narrator, Lily, beginning with her experience of footbinding in early childhood and, perhaps paradoxically, its role in helping her rise from the social class of her birth through an advantageous marriage. Snow Flower provides an important and humanizing glimpse into the lives of women in Imperial China, giving a lyrical voice to individuals who have otherwise been all too frequently overlooked. French sets his reconstruction of the events of against the backdrop of a city and a nation on the verge of monumental change. A quiet, wooded mountain; a glint of sunlight; a patch of moss. Xinran does her best to pry open the trapdoor to what still goes unspoken. The stories she collects of rape, incest, domestic violence, forced abortion, kidnapping, and suicide are shocking — but even more shocking is the seeming mundanity of the brutalization of women and girls, sometimes by less extreme but far more insidious means. Perhaps Xinran could be faulted for trying too hard to pin the case on political and social chaos under the Communist Party; still, the stories she relates — including her own — are timeless and depressingly universal. Over the course of 12 short stories, Jonathan Tel conjures a vibrant, complex Beijing of multitudes, of idealists and thieves, migrant workers and musicians, of surreal twists and fantastical elements nevertheless grounded in the possible. This is the Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition I imagine telling people about when I talk to those who have never been here. I believe that sentiment, in the same way people believe in great fiction. The s witnessed a publishing boom in English- language or translated China memoirs that focused on individual experiences of political campaigns from the s through the Cultural Revolution. Overnight, she became an accused British spy and enemy of socialism. Condemned to six and a half years in prison, she endured physical and psychological torture and deprivation. Her beloved daughter, meanwhile, committed suicide. Cheng is a sharp observer and a gifted storyteller; her fierce intelligence, wit, and courage are evident on every page. McMahon also addresses ghost cities, state monopolies, and a manufacturing boom that has simultaneously generated huge prosperity and created what he sees as economic time bombs. Lin could perhaps be called one of the first anti-Orientalists, but also a debunker of the Yellow Peril. His words speak to those of us who try to square the reality of our intellectually dynamic, generous, and open-minded Chinese friends with their monolithic state, and remind us that there is indeed a difference. The premise is straightforward, if somewhat provocative: The dominant narrative of footbinding as a painful patriarchal practice imposed upon women for the pleasure of men is an ahistorical oversimplification — and one that serves to obscure the voices and experiences of the women at the heart of the story. While Ko, who teaches history at Barnard College, is careful to never fully condone or condemn footbinding, and does not shy from the unpleasant — and, as many would persuasively argue, brutal — realities of the practice, she does emphasize that for many Chinese women, bound feet were integral to their perceptions of dignity and self-worth. In this vein, Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition explores how different styles of footbinding emerged and flourished at different periods and locations, locating the various methods of breaking, bending, and binding the female foot within the more conventional history of Chinese fashion. First published inthis book is a classic introduction to Chinese medicine that is equally well-suited for an acupuncture training course, a university philosophy class, or the bedside table of anyone interested in Chinese culture. Its author, Ted Kaptchuk, is a Harvard professor who studied traditional Chinese medicine TCM in Macau and is also known for his work on the efficacy of placebo effects in medical treatment. Ultimately, this book is an ontological sketch of the Chinese universe. Like Joyce, Pai uses his naturalistic portraits of urbanites in service of a larger story about exile, nostalgia, cultural stagnation, and nationalism. Educators should put this excellent and highly readable book on their syllabi. Peppered with sly and sometimes not-so-sly humor, and with gleeful pop culture references, this book will provide a solid foundation for understanding contemporary China. Hong also captures the political and social background that contextualizes precisely how women are kept from advocating for even the most basic rights, such as protection from abusive partners and economic exploitation. In this beautifully written work of local and personal history, author Henrietta Harrison provides a gentle yet compelling corrective to the tendency for books about China to focus on individuals and ideas Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition outsize impact. At the same time, Harrison artfully demonstrates how seemingly abstract developments such as the gradual shift away from Confucian ideology had immediate and deeply felt personal impacts. But, as detailed in this memoir, after she enrolls in the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine — the first-ever foreigner to do so — she begins a decades-long journey traversing the country in search of discovery, understanding, and good food. Along the way, she becomes one of those rare Westerners in China to achieve true culinary enlightenment, able to enjoy the bits and pieces that the rest of us merely politely endure. Through personal anecdotes and historical research, she places the vast and varied world of Chinese cuisine into much-needed context, and — as a bonus for us — ends each chapter with a recipe. Bronze and Sunflowera page novel aimed at to year-olds, takes us back 40 years to a poor Chinese village during the Cultural Revolution. Sunflower has arrived with her artist father and other educated townsfolk, at the May 7 Cadre School in reality, a labor campwhere the adults will clear the land, build houses, and run a fish farm. The Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition seven-year-old eventually makes friends with a mute boy called Bronze from the nearby village, Daimadi, and together they share hardships and adventures both in the village and further afield. When it comes to English-language books on China, F. Mote takes emperors and eunuchs to task for their failings, unafraid to judge leading characters for their decisions without undue deference to received historical tradition. He then makes his history relevant by grappling with challenges of governance applicable across ages. The book is particularly strong in two aspects: information on steppe peoples and elite political philosophy. It perhaps works best as a capstone for a learner, bridging knowledge across dynasties and inspiring curiosity for deeper reading. It traces the ruination of a social class: scholars who were a source of national pride found themselves suddenly lampooned as a national embarrassment. Yang Jiang portrays self-serving relationships between colleagues, friends, and spouses, showing how individuals were manipulated into abandoning genuine expression in favor of performative political genuflection. At that time, Yang was punished for working on a translation of Don Quixotewhich she finished in She died in Beijing 38 years later, at age This is an early 19th-century book that crosses genres, blending memoir and novel to give us a portrait of a mid-level official and his relationship with his dear wife, who dies young. When I was first getting interested in China I read it and it sort of brainwashed me, in a very good way, making me realize the universality of ambition and disappointment, love and sadness, among people around the world. They get under your skin and stick with you, which is what great writing should do. In the fall ofa warlord named Shi Congbing was decapitated by his rival. His head stuck was stuck on a pole outside a train station. She dumped three rounds from a Browning semi-automatic into the back of his head, splattering his brains all over his prayer circle. Eugenia Lean gives a fine account of the gory details, the media circus, and the legal wranglings that followed, but her purpose is teasing out something about the sociopolitical character of the Republican Era. That is what they disputed: how should Tao be understood and practiced. The book is an excellent introduction to the differences between Confucius and Mozi and the Yangists and others. It clearly draws out distinctions between Confucius and Mencius and Xunzi. The Sophists and Zhuangzi are expertly analyzed. And it is fairly persuasive on a point that not everyone will accept: the nonexistence of a historical person, Laozi, the credited founder of Taoism. Surveys of this sort are difficult to pull off well without lapsing into textbook simplicity, but this one succeeds in both introducing basic concepts and also drilling deeply into fascinating philosophical, historical, and linguistic Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition. Handong, an unsympathetic business man with political connections, falls Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition Lan Yu, a young, seemingly naive newcomer to the Chinese capital. Over pages, the book follows their decade-long infatuation with each other, not shying away from explicit sex scenes, plenty of relationship conflict and emotional turmoil, and questions about the role of sexual identity and desire in the face of societal expectations — questions all too familiar to both current and older generations of men who love men in many other countries. As a cultural product, no other publication may be as representative of the gay experience in China. Instead, the book speaks to the constant need for adaptation and change faced by the Chinese queer community, which will find spaces to survive no matter what. Sir Edmund Backhouse is a reflexively interesting character. He was a reclusive linguistic genius and an English dandy, the best-selling chronicler Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition the late-Qing Dynasty and a literary fraud, the alleged lover of Oscar Wilde and the Empress Dowager Cixi. The two-odd years I spent decoding his handwritten memoirs — a dense thicket of polyglottal meanderings, contradictory claims, and byzantine literary allusions — were as mad and exasperating as any an editor is likely to encounter. It is not a book for everyone. The Leader Who Is Hardly Known (September 22, edition) | Open Library

Although the facts about the life of Chinese philosopher Confucius are scanty, they do establish a precise time frame and historical context. Confucius is known as the first teacher in China who wanted to make education broadly available and who was instrumental in Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition the art of teaching as a vocation. He also established ethical, moral, and social standards that formed the basis of a way of life known as Confucianism. His father died when Confucius was only three years old. Instructed first by his mother, Confucius distinguished himself as an indefatigable learner in his teens. His home was in Lu, a regional state of eastern China in what is now central and southwestern Shandong province. Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition Kongs of Lu were common gentlemen shi with none of the hereditary entitlements their ancestors had once enjoyed in Song. The common gentlemen of the late Zhou dynasty could boast of their employability in the army or in any administrative position—because they were educated in the six arts of ritual see below Teachings of Confuciusmusic, archery, charioteering, writing, and arithmetic—but in the social hierarchy of the time they were just a notch higher than the common folk. A previous marriage had given him nine daughters and a clubfooted son, and so Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition was with Confucius that he was finally granted a healthy heir. Confucius was candid about his family background. He found employment first with the Jisun clan, a hereditary family whose principal members had for many decades served as chief counselors to the rulers of Lu. Records of the time suggest that, as minister of crime, Confucius was effective in handling problems of law and order but was even more impressive in diplomatic assignments. Yet he held his office for only a few years. His resignation was the result of a protracted struggle with the hereditary families—which, for generations, had been trying to wrestle power away from the legitimate rulers of Lu. Confucius found the actions of the families transgressive and their ritual indiscretions objectionable, and he was willing to fight by fair means or foul to have the power of the ruler restored. A major clash took place in BCE. A plan to steer the families toward self-ruin backfired. The heads of the families suspected Confucius, and so he had no choice but to leave his position Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition his home. The self-exile took Confucius on a long journey: first to Wei, the state just west of Lu, then southward to the state of Song, and finally to the states of Chen and Cai. The journey lasted 14 years, and Confucius spent much of that time looking for rulers who might be willing to accept his influence and be guided by his vision of virtuous government. Confucius was emboldened to think that he could set things right in the world, because he was born at a time when such aspirations were within the reach of men living in circumstances similar to his. By the mid-6th century BCE the Zhou dynasty was approaching its th year. The political framework that the dynastic founders had put in place— an enfeoffment system held together by family ties—was still standing, but the joints had been giving out since the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, and so the structure, if not shored up, was in danger of collapse. The regional rulers, who were relatives of the Zhou king, should have been his strongest supporters, but they preferred to pursue their own ambitions. No one among the regional rulers was interested in the security of the empire or the idea of the greater good. Petty feuds for petty gains consumed most of their time, while lethargy took up the rest. The same could be said of the members of the aristocratic class, who had once aided their ruler in government. Now they were gaining the upper hand, and some were so brazen as to openly compete with their ruler for wealth and women. Their apathy and ineptitudehowever, allowed the common gentlemen—men like Confucius, who had once been in their service—to step in and take charge of the administrative functions of the government. Yet, if they worked hard enough and were smart, Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition could exert influence in most political contests. But the more discerning among them set their goals higher. They saw an opportunity to introduce a few new ideas about worth xian and nobleness shang —which, they felt, could challenge assumptions that had been used to justify the existing social hierarchy. Those who posed such questions were not merely seeking to compete in the political world. They wanted to change unspoken rules so as to favour the virtuous and the competent. This, in part, explains what Confucius was trying to teach. He believed that the moral resolve of a few could have a beneficial effect on the fate of the many. But integrity alone, in his view, would not be enough. Good men had to be tested in politics: they should equip themselves with knowledge and skills, serve their rulers well, and prove their worth through their moral influence. Despite the temporal distance between them, Confucius believed that he and the Duke of Zhou wanted the same thing for the dynasty: social harmony and political stability grounded in trust and mutual moral obligations, with minimal resort to legal rules. But the Duke of Zhou was royalty and Confucius was a professional bureaucratwhich meant that he had limited political authority. And even the authority he possessed was transientdepending on whether he had a government job. Without an official position, Confucius also would not be entitled for example to host a feast, to assist a ruler in a sacrifice, or to take part in any of the occasions that were the living components of the political order that the Duke of Zhou had envisioned and Confucius strongly endorsed. Thus, Confucius was distressed when he was unemployed—anxious about not being of use to the world and about not having material support. Men who knew him on his travels wondered whether his eagerness for a political position might have led him to overplay his hand and whether he had compromised his principles by allowing disreputable men and women to act as his intermediaries. His critics included the three or four of his disciples who accompanied him on his exile. He did not actively recruit them when he was a counselor in Lu. He did not found any school or academy. Young men from a wide range of backgrounds—sons of aristocrats, children of common gentlemen, merchants, farmers, artisans, and even criminals and sons of criminals—chose to attach themselves to him in order to learn from him skills that might get them started on a path toward an official career. Among his earliest disciples, three stood out: Zigong, Zilu, and Yan Hui. He was articulate and shrewd and quick on his feet. Confucius observed in him a resolve to improve his lot and the promise of becoming a fine diplomat or a financial manager. Zilu, unlike Zigong, was rough and unhewn, a rustic Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition. Besides, Confucius did not deny instruction to anyone who wanted to learn and was unwilling to give up when trying to solve a difficult problem. In return, he expected nothing more than a bundle of dried meat as a gift Analects No hardship or privation could have distracted him from his love of learning and his desire to know the good. It was these three—Zigong, Zilu, and Yan Hui—who followed Confucius on his long journey into the unknown. In doing so, they left behind not only their homes and families but also career opportunities in Lu that could have been gainful. Their first stop was the state of Wei. But none of these connections landed Confucius a job. Part of the problem was Confucius himself: he was unwilling to pursue any avenues that might obligate him to those who could bring him trouble rather than aid. Also, the ruler of Wei was not interested in finding a capable man who could offer him counsel. Moreover, he had plenty of distractions—conflicts with neighbouring states and at home in Wei—to fill his time. Still, Confucius was patient, waiting four years before he was granted an audience. Soon after their encounter, the ruler died, and Confucius saw no further reason to remain in Wei. Thus, he headed south with his disciples. Before reaching the state of Chen, his next stop, two incidents along the road nearly took his life. In one, a military officer, Huan Tui, tried to ambush Confucius as he was passing through the state of Song. In another, he was surrounded by a mob in the town of Kuang, and for a time it looked as though he might be killed. But who would have wanted him dead, and what could he have done to provoke such reactions? Historians in later eras speculated about the causes and resolutions of these crises. What can Huan Tui do to me! His utterance at the siege of Kuang conveyed even greater confidence that Heaven would stand by him. Emboldened by his purpose, Confucius continued his journey to Chen, where he spent three uneventful years. Eventually, a major war between Chen and a neighbouring state led him to journey west toward the state of Chu, not knowing that another kind of trial was Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition him. The brief account in this record prompted writers in later centuries to speculate about how Confucius might have behaved in this situation. Was he calm or vexed? How did he talk to his disciples? How did he help them come to terms Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition their predicament? And which disciple understood him best and offered him solace? None of these stories could claim veracitybut, taken together, they humanized the characters involved and filled, if only imaginatively, the gaps in the historical sources. Confucius and his companions went only as far as a border town of Chu before they decided to turn back and retrace their steps, first to Chen and then to Wei. The journey took more than three years, and, after reaching Wei, Confucius stayed there for another two years. Meanwhile, two of his disciples, Zigong and Ran Qiu, decided to leave Confucius in Wei and accept employment in the government of Lu. At once Zigong proved his talent in diplomacy, and Ran Qiu did the same in warfare. It was probably these two men who approached the ruler and the chief counselor of Lu, asking them to make a generous offer to Confucius to entice him back. Their plan worked. After his return, Confucius did not seek any position in the Lu government. He did not have to. They either approached him directly for advice or used his disciples as intermediaries. The number of his disciples multiplied. The success of Zigong and Ran Qiu must have enhanced his reputation as a person who could prepare young men for political careers. But those who were drawn to him for this reason often found themselves becoming interested in questions other than how to advance in the world Analects Others wanted to know how to pursue knowledge and how to read abstruse texts for insights Analects Confucius tried to answer these questions as best as he could, but his responses could vary depending on the temperament of the interlocutor, leading to confusion among his students when they tried to compare notes Analects This way of instructing was wholly in tune with what Confucius believed to be the role of a teacher. When old age did arrive, Confucius discovered that the act of holding his conduct and judgment to the right measure no longer bore him down. This, however, did not mean that Confucius was free of care. Historians and philosophers in later centuries typically portrayed a careworn Confucius in his final days. Yet he still rejoiced in life because life astonished him, and the will in all living things to carry on in spite of setbacks and afflictions inspired him. Mozi (Mo-tzu) | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

He is best remembered for being the first major intellectual rival to Confucius and his followers. Along with the Confucians, the Mohists were one of the two most prominent schools of thought during the Warring States period B. While Mohist communities probably did not survive into the Qin dynasty B. Between the late 4th and late 3rd centuries B. Mohist logic appears to have influenced the argumentative techniques of early Chinese thinkers, while Mohist visions of meritocracy and the public good helped to shape the political philosophies and policy decisions of both the Qin and Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition B. In these ways, Mohist ideas survived well into the early imperial era, albeit by being absorbed into other Chinese philosophical traditions. Modern scholars generally believe that Mozi was active from the late 5th to the early 4th centuries B. Little can be known of his personal life. Some early sources say that he, like Confucius, was a native of the state of Lu in modern Shandong and at one point served as a minister in the state of Song in modern Henan. According to tradition, he studied with Confucian teachers but later rebelled against their ideas. As was the case with Confucius, Mozi probably traveled among the various contending states to present his ideas before their rulers in the hope of obtaining political employment, with an equal lack of success. Mozi founded a highly organized quasi-religious and military community, with considerable geographical reach. Quite apart from propagating the teachings of Mozi, the Mohist community also functioned as an international rescue organization that dispatched members versed in the arts of defensive military techniques to the aid of small states under threat from military aggressors. Some scholars speculate that Mozi and the Mohists probably came from a lower social class than, for instance, the Confucians, but the evidence is inconclusive and at best suggestive. Nevertheless, if the conjecture is true, it could well explain the often repetitive and artless style in which much of the Mozi is composed and the anti-aristocratic Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition of much Mohist doctrine, as well as why the Mohists paid such attention to the basic economic livelihood of the common people. Most scholars believe that the Mozi Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition probably not written by Master Mo himself, but by successive groups of disciples and their followers. No part of the text actually claims to be written by Mozi, although many parts purport to record his doctrines and conversations. Intriguingly, the chapters that make up each triad often are very close to each other in wording without being exactly identical, thus raising questions about the precise relationship between them and with how the text assumed its present shape. One influential theory in recent times is Angus C. Much of the core chapters is written in a style that is not calculated to please. The contents of the ten triads and thus the outlines of the ten core theses are briefly described below:. The proper implementation of such a policy requires that the rulers attract the talented to service by the conferring of honor, the reward of wealth and the delegation of responsibility and thus power. The thesis applies to the world community as a whole, conceived as a single moral-political hierarchy with the common people at the bottom, the feudal princes in the middle, and the emperor at the summit, above whom is Heaven itself. The conclusion is that people ought to be concerned for the welfare of others without making distinctions between self, associates and strangers. Version C introduces a distinction between justified and unjustified warfareclaiming that the former was waged by the righteous ancient sage rulers to overthrow evil tyrants. Useless luxuries are condemned. The chapters also argue for the clear priority of functionality over form in the making of various human artifacts clothing, buildings, armor and weapons, boats and other vehicles. Here, the Mohists target practices beloved by their Confucian contemporaries, for whom the maintenance of harmonious moral order in society is best accomplished through strict fidelity to ritual codes. Here again, the Mohists contrast themselves with the Confucians, who regard Heaven as a moral but mysterious force that does not intervene directly in human affairs. The chapter consists of an exchange with certain skeptics, whom Mozi answers with arguments purporting to prove that providential spirits exist, but also that widespread belief in their existence brings great social and political benefit. In particular, the Mohists are concerned to offer a practical solution to the chaos luan of the world so as to restore it to good order zhi. But there are also several more distinctively Mohist twists to this underlying concern. First, the Mohists tend to equate the Way with a conception of what is morally right yi or renyi. In line with this focus on behavior, concepts that are naturally understood to be virtues or desirable qualities of agents e. Third, the Mohists see the morally right as conceptually distinct from the customary or traditional. The Mohists thus urge that, just because elaborate funerals and lengthy mourning are customary practices among the gentlemen of the central states, this fact alone will not secure their consistency with moral rightness. In other words, we can take yan in the core chapters as the verbal counterpart to a conception of the Way, a linguistic formula that identifies a Way of life and guiding the conduct of those who hold to it. Not only are Mozi and the Mohists concerned to advance a Way, they are explicit in verbalizing their Way as doctrine, offering arguments for it and defending it against rival doctrines. There is even a tendency to see the problematic conduct of people as largely springing from wrong doctrine, quite apart from the concern to offer arguments against various opponent positions. But such a Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition is at best underdetermined by the text. It is also unnecessary as long as we keep in mind that the sort of yan at stake in the Core Chapters is usually such doctrine as is Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition to guide conduct. In summary, the ancient sages are presented by the Mohists as widely acknowledged exemplars of past rulers who successfully conducted themselves according to the Way, and the Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition reason why they are acknowledged to be sage kings is precisely because they Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition sound doctrine and practiced the Way. Whatever their actual attitudes concerning the deeds and writings of the ancient sages as constituting a criterion of sound doctrine, the Mohists present themselves as addressing people who take the moral example of the ancient sages seriously. In this, their rhetorical practices do not differ from those of the Confucians. The two groups even share an overlapping taste in their choice of favored ancient sages: Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, and Wu. There is a strong tradition of modern interpreters, such as Fung Yu-lan, Angus C. Graham, and Benjamin Schwartz, who see the latter as primary and take Mohist doctrine to exemplify a form of utilitarianism. Other scholars, such as Dennis M. Ahren, David E. Soles, and Augustine Tseu, see the former as suggesting a divine command theory of moralityalthough this interpretation has been criticized by Kristopher Duda among others. This controversy is not well framed if it is stated purely in terms of the modern and somewhat alien categories of command theory and utilitarianism or consequentialism. It is further claimed that Heaven desires that people do certain sorts of things or conduct themselves in a certain manner because such conduct will promote the public good, an outcome that Heaven desires. In response, it is at least possible that while the question what ways of conduct are morally right? Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition this is right, then there is a sense in which the two criteria neither reduce to each other nor potentially conflict, as they answer to different concerns altogether. Scrutiny of the core chapters, however, suggests both more and less stringent interpretations of what it entails by way of conduct. At one extreme, the injunction seems to require that people ought to seek to benefit strangers as much as they do associates, and others, as much as they do themselves. At the other extreme, it only requires that people refrain from harming strangers as much as they do associates, and others, as much as they do themselves. A third, intermediate possibility says that people ought to seek to help strangers with urgent needs as much as they do associates, and others, as much Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition they do themselves. Whichever interpretation is taken, the basic injunction points toward an underlying notion of impartiality. They described a scenario in which the audience is asked to imagine that they are about to go on a long journey and need to put their family members in the care of another. There are several problems with this argument. It seems to involve a false dilemma since the options of impartialist and partialist hardly exhaust the range of possible choices. Even if the Mohists were correct to claim that the impartialist is the obvious and rational choice, all it shows is that partialists have good reason to prefer that other people conduct themselves according to the dictates of impartial concern, rather than that they have reason to so conduct themselves, as Chad Hansen and Bryan W. Van Norden have pointed out. Mohist doctrine as it is presented in the core chapters does not contain explicit discussions of the psychological aspects of the ethical life. Nonetheless, various aspects of Mohist doctrine might well entail commitments to potentially controversial positions in moral psychology and the theory of human nature. It was because the rulers delighted in such actions and offered suitable incentives to encourage them that they were done, even on a regular basis. On the basis of passages such as this one, David S. Nivison and Bryan W. Van Norden argue that either the Mohists held the view that human nature is infinitely malleable or they thought that there is no human nature. They hardly need the stronger and less plausible claim that people can be remolded in any fashion whatsoever given the right leadership and incentives. Furthermore, at least some of the historical examples cited by the Mohists suggest that they are thinking more of the people responding to incentives in the environment e. To be more precise, the Mohists do not appear to have considered the inclinations and predispositions that people already have as pointing to the contents of the Way. But they need not deny that these inclinations might, under suitable conditions e. The most important implications of such a hypothesis, for the Mohists, is that people will hold to different and conflicting opinions about what is morally right yion the basis of which they will condemn each other. The end result is a state of violent conflict and chaos. This chaos is fully resolved only with the installment of a hierarchy of rulers and leaders consistently enforcing a unified conception of what is morally right through surveillance and incentives. The conclusion of the argument is that such a solution is a necessary condition for social and political order. This doctrine opposes a form of meritocracy to the nepotism and cronyism prevalent among the rulers. It also insists that if the doctrine is to be successfully carried though, the rulers need to confer high rank, generous stipend and real power upon the worthy. Nonetheless, the main thrust of all three versions remains that meritocracy will bring great benefits to the state. In the other two triads, the criterion is applied negatively through detailing the harmful consequences that attend elaborate funerals and prolonged mourning, Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition extravagant music displays of the aristocracy. The more charitable interpretation, however, is that they are accommodating concerns in the region of distributive justice. That is, the common benefit of the world is in some sense impartially and equally the benefit of everyone; but since the Mohists — like most thinkers in ancient China — do not envision a radical elimination of the vast social, economic and political inequalities that are simply a fact of life in Warring States China, the distributive concerns are met by giving extra weight to the interests of the disadvantaged. A more serious charge against the Mohists, however, is that their doctrine on frugality commits them to an overly restrictive and hence highly implausible conception of the good. The Confucian thinker Xunzi defends elaborate Confucian funeral rituals and musical displays against Mohist attacks by claiming that they given form to, and meet, the emotional needs of people. Conversely, Mohist doctrine simply fails to take into account aspects of the human good not reducible to material livelihood. Insofar as Mohist doctrine does imply such a reduced conception of the human good, this is a cogent objection. But insofar as the main weight of the Mohist arguments lies in the thought that it is unjust of the aristocrats to provide for their own emotional needs through elaborate funerals and prolonged mourning or refined enjoyment though elaborate musical displays through an imposition upon the labor of the common people, the objection is not decisive. And since as even the audience agrees stealing, robbing and murdering are morally wrong, and since actions that cause greater harm to others are, to that extent, greater wrongs, military aggression is a great wrong indeed. To the reply that some of the Warring States appear to have greatly profited from their aggressive ways, the Mohists point out that they are the rare exceptions and seeking profit by such means is tantamount to calling a medication effective that cured four or five out of myriads. The earlier argument, on the other hand, appears to aim showing the gentlemen of the world that they ought to condemn military aggression if they are to be consistent with their own normative convictions — if they know that stealing, robbing and murdering is wrong and blameworthy, they ought also to consider military aggression wrong and blameworthy. In response, the Mohists introduce a distinction between justified and unjustified warfare, claiming that the former was waged by the righteous ancient sage rulers to overthrow evil tyrants. The precise criterion of the distinction between the two forms of warfare, however, is not explicitly spelled out in that chapter. Instead, justified warfare is associated with supernatural signs indicating that Heaven has given the ruler a mandate to wage war so as to visit condign punishment upon some wicked tyrant. This suggests that there are ample resources within Mohist doctrine to spell out the distinction in less exotic terms. Within the core chapters, the Mohists consistently portray Heaven as if it possesses personal characteristics and exists separately from human beings, though intervening in their affairs. In particular, they present Heaven if it is an entity having will and desire, and concerned about the welfare of the people of the world, even a providential agent that rewards the Leader Who is Hardly Known: Self-less Teaching from the Chinese Tradition and punishes the wicked through its control of natural phenomena or by means of its superhuman intermediaries, the spirits guishen. As the text puts it:. https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4574538/normal_5fc6d7e11ace9.pdf https://cdn-cms.f-static.net/uploads/4568969/normal_5fc352d9ab207.pdf https://cdn.sqhk.co/matthewdecoteauiw/hjhdlVA/stools-and-bottles-a-study-of-character-defects-31-daily-meditations-32.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4569356/normal_5fc48f187a86d.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4573808/normal_5fc4712f17ca7.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4573088/normal_5fc4f5419f91d.pdf