分类：Life & Notes

When the Fisherman Meets the Shepherd

Life & Notes2006.11.08
When the Fisherman Meets the Shepherd
Occasionally I write some words that make no sense at all. Literati and recluses of old have always had a special fondness for “retiring to the mountains and forests.” Though I hardly count as a man of letters, in recent years I too have developed an increasingly strong hankering for seclusion and withdrawal from the world. Of course, I am still young, and have not even yet stepped into this “world”; how could I talk about escaping it? It is only idle fancy. I will always have to go wild in this world for a while, and only after I have played to my heart’s content will I go in…
philosophy everyday life China faith
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2006年11月8日
On the A Yi “Crying Poor” Incident

Life & Notes2006.10.06
On the A Yi “Crying Poor” Incident
The so-called “Peking University associate professor crying poverty” incident has become quite a sensation lately; for the specifics, a quick search online will tell you. The original blog post should be: http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/48dcce8e0100061k The follow-up journalist interview can be seen at: http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/48dcce8e01000687 After reading these two pieces, I still have some sympathy for this associate professor. The fact that teachers’ pay is not high is indeed a problem, and from the current reform trend in the educational system—for example, the personnel system reforms causing such a fuss at Peking University—I do not see any obvious tendency for professors’ situation to improve. Professors’ income depends on moonlighting; professors’ professional titles depend on…
everyday life education Peking University
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2006年10月6日
On Learning Middle School Mathematics

Life & Notes2006.10.05
On Learning Middle School Mathematics
I had wanted to write this article before the summer vacation, but I never got around to it…… A teacher once said: if you can’t learn math well, you’re stupid; if you can’t learn English well, you’re lazy. I am obviously a lazy person, but apparently not stupid…… But in fact, although doing mathematics does indeed depend heavily on a certain kind of talent, and the fact that men are better at math than women is hard to deny, just as women are better at language than men, the influence of talent may show up more clearly in top-level mathematics competitions. For the mathematics required in elementary and middle school,…
everyday life education mathematics analytic philosophy
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2006年10月5日
The Philosophy of History Is Quite Interesting

Life & Notes2006.10.01
The Philosophy of History Is Quite Interesting
Inspired by an offhand suggestion from ZW, I thought of and chose the course “Popper’s Philosophy of History.” This course falls under the category of Marxist philosophy, but however the class may be taught, this topic is in itself well worth choosing for me. Popper is a very special philosopher. His primary identity is that of a philosopher of science, the founder of the so-called “falsificationism,” which is often paired with Kuhn’s historicism. He is also a liberal thinker of enormous influence, and moreover an important critic of Marx and Hegel. In philosophical circles, it would be more accurate to say that Popper is widely looked down upon than widely…
philosophy everyday life philosophy of science history
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2006年10月1日
Recent Life Jottings (October 1, 2006)

Life & Notes2006.10.01
Recent Life Jottings (October 1, 2006)
Some time ago I was living in a very abnormal way, wasting a long stretch of time again in games and cartoons. My grandfather’s death hit me very hard. It was the sort of blow that others could not see. Apart from choking up uncontrollably at his bedside when he passed away, I did not cry again when the coffin was laid out, and after I returned to school everything seemed normal. But at bedtime every night, and when I called home every week—only Grandma would answer the phone now; it could no longer be Grandpa… In the past, when I called Grandpa, I actually did not say much: ask…
philosophy everyday life Peking University psychology
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2006年10月1日
Let me post a few earlier photos (the frozen Weiming Lake, heavy snow, a 28-inch bicycle)

Life & Notes2006.09.30
Let me post a few earlier photos (the frozen Weiming Lake, heavy snow, a 28-inch bicycle)
When I was little, I did take quite a lot of photos, but after I grew up I stopped liking to be photographed (though I do like taking pictures for other people). I suddenly realized that there have been very few photos over the past couple of years. And most of the tiny portion I did have was lost because of the sudden failure of a certain computer hard drive… I found a few photos on the long-abandoned Chinaren alumni directory, taken around New Year’s Day in 2005 during my first winter in Beijing, when I rode a bike on the frozen surface of Weiming Lake. It felt really great….
everyday life childhood
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2006年9月30日
The Guangling Melody

Life & Notes2006.09.17
The Guangling Melody
Today, at Sanliji, under Lao Yang’s instigation, I casually bought a CD of the ancient guqin piece “Guangling San,” and when I listened to it I unexpectedly felt that it was extraordinarily good. A long time ago, when I heard “Guangling San,” I wasn’t all that moved; it felt like beating cotton, as it were. But this time I really felt it was very good. Could it be that my “level” has improved? Hehe～ The version I found online is different from the CD, but it is also very pleasant to listen to. By the way, the Sanliji Bookstore now has a newly added batch of academic books, and they’re…
everyday life culture book review
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2006年9月17日
The Actual Effect of the Philosophy Popularization Display Boards

Life & Notes2006.09.17
The Actual Effect of the Philosophy Popularization Display Boards
Today, as soon as I got off the train in Beijing, I headed straight to the Ditan Book Fair. Going on a wild book-buying spree is the best way to brighten one’s mood; Sanlian Bookstore and many other academic presses were all at 50% off, so I bought a whole pile in one go…… And of course, while I was at it, I had to take a look at how the display boards I wrote had turned out. What I provided was the (original) text and the (excerpted from Philosophy Coffeehouse) illustrations; the boards were produced by the Beijing Philosophical Society and exhibited at Ditan in the Social Science Popularization…
philosophy everyday life sociology experts
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2006年9月17日
In Deep Mourning for Hu Gende: Memorial Service—Words of Thanks

Life & Notes2006.09.16
In Deep Mourning for Hu Gende: Memorial Service—Words of Thanks
（The words of thanks were written by my mother, read by my father, and I did not participate. The memorial service was held at 4:00 p.m. on September 15 at “Jingyuan” in the funeral parlour on Xibaoxing Road, Shanghai） To all the leaders, all the guests, all our relatives and friends: Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to come and attend my father’s memorial service. In particular, I would like to thank the leaders of Zhongxin Company for personally presiding over my father’s memorial service; and thank the leaders of the Huangpu Social Security Center and the leaders of Huangpu Integrated Chinese-Western Medicine Hospital…
everyday life life
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2006年9月16日
Grandfather

Life & Notes2006.09.12
Grandfather
Grandfather Hu Tianding posted on 2006-09-12 02:15:25 Mourning Grandfather 1 My grandfather had the best temper imaginable. He was always thinking of others, always worrying about others. He was often fretting over this and that for other people, while never causing trouble for anyone himself. Even when Grandpa was gravely ill, whenever he was lucid he would always ask his family to go back home and not stay with him at the hospital: the air in the hospital was bad, his children should not delay their work, their own health was not good either… One day, my uncle-in-law kept watch over him through the night, and Grandpa called him over…
everyday life human nature Chinese
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2006年9月12日