Suixuan

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Following the Grain and Finding Order: “Li means to work jade.”

Philosophy & Thought2008.07.22
Following the Grain and Finding Order: “Li means to work jade.”
“Wen” and “li” have undergone thousands of years of evolution in China, and then, further reshaped by modern Western languages and influenced by modern science, they long ago became unrecognizable. Hence the talk of choosing between the humanities and the sciences, of emphasizing li over wen, of the integration of wen and li, and so on. But what exactly is wen, and what exactly is li? These notions have long since become ambiguous and obscure, seeming to be something and yet not quite. In people’s minds, “li” probably means mathematics and physics, or more generally those activities that resemble “calculation”; while “wen” seems to mean handling brush and ink, or…
philosophy China Heidegger tradition
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2008年7月22日
Writing Is a Kind of Outpouring

History of Science & Scholarship2008.07.18
Writing Is a Kind of Outpouring
I often hear people say “write, leak.” This is not merely a coincidence of shape; in fact, “write” and “leak” were originally the same character. Jinshan Ciba says: “写，置物也。——《说文》。俗字亦作泻。” Perhaps the evolution of “写” into the meaning of writing merely stems from its original sense of “to place,” but Chinese characters are, after all, endlessly subtle. Whether or not this is a coincidence, these two characters have in any case been deeply bound together. People say good prose is “flowed out,” and I know that my own articles really are flowed out. In this way, I suppose they at least satisfy the necessary but not sufficient condition for becoming good…
scholarship language writing Chinese
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2008年7月18日
Seven Subjects of Moral Education (How to Do Moral Education?)

Culture & Public Commentary2008.07.17
Seven Subjects of Moral Education (How to Do Moral Education?)
Moral education is not the task of the university. By the time they enter college, most students are already adults, and their individual character has long since taken basic shape. A university ought to build a stage on which all kinds of different personalities can coexist, guiding each character to shine in its own distinctive way; it should not then try to remake students’ personalities. Primary and secondary education are different. Primary and secondary schools, together with parents, bear the mission of cultivating and shaping children’s character. The “not yet complete” in “minors” refers precisely to the fact that their personality and character have not yet taken shape, and their…
philosophy culture freedom education
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2008年7月17日
An Overview of Theories of Human Origins (Animal Biology Assignment)

History of Science & Scholarship2008.05.28
An Overview of Theories of Human Origins (Animal Biology Assignment)
The second assignment for *Animal Biology* took me a full two days and more, the greater part of which was spent fruitlessly searching Chinese Academic Journals for reference papers. In the end I once again discovered that nine out of ten papers written by Chinese people are garbage; books are still useful. And among books, only those written by foreigners are useful. Although the bibliography includes two Chinese books, one a textbook and the other one I bought specially, both clearly plagiarize whole passages from Richard Leakey’s *The Origin of Humankind*. But does saying that a book is “compiled” rather than “authored” mean one can omit notes? Even if “compiled”…
philosophy book reading notes Chinese
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2008年5月28日
The Train Was 7 and a Half Hours Late…

Life & Notes2008.01.28
The Train Was 7 and a Half Hours Late…
The Z21 express. It was scheduled to depart punctually at 7:30 and was supposed to arrive in Shanghai at 7:00 on the dot, but in the end it didn’t get there until almost 4 p.m. I suppose that counts as a free viewing of the snowy scenery… I really had never seen such a blizzard before; the snow piled up above the knees, and it was very fine and loose. I really felt like getting off the train and taking a walk. Latest comments Suíyuán 2008-01-29 19:55:29 Anonymous 124.17.18.213 [Reply] Hehe, Xiaogu has gone home for the New Year! Here I’d also like to…
everyday life Chinese travel
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2008年1月28日
[Repost] Is full English-language instruction in the philosophy department worth promoting?

Teaching & Courses2007.07.21
[Repost] Is full English-language instruction in the philosophy department worth promoting?
http://www.gotopku.cn/forum/viewthread.php?tid=52639&pid=587739 There is nothing here that is worth advocating! I remember Teacher Li Silong made a good point: after all, we are studying Western philosophy in China. The purpose is not merely to study Western philosophy itself, but also to understand philosophy in the Chinese context and to spread and develop it. This is neither about learning a useful skill nor about learning a game completely unrelated to our own culture. If Western philosophy is to be introduced into China, how to translate and teach it in Chinese is itself one of the missions of those who work in Western philosophy. Although a particular philosophy researcher may be free to…
philosophy culture course Chinese
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2007年7月21日
Return to Weiming Lake!

Life & Notes2007.04.10
Return to Weiming Lake!
I remember that during this period two years ago, every day I would carry three or five books on my back and sit by the shore of Weiming Lake or the lake in Langrun Garden for an entire afternoon. When I grew tired of reading, I would gaze at the water for a while, staying until evening or even sunset, and only after I had finished several books would I leave—both carefree and at ease, and astonishingly efficient. For more than a year, although I would occasionally still wander around Weiming Lake, whenever I walked by the lake there was always a heavy shadow pressing on my heart. Several times…
everyday life Peking University Chinese script
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2007年4月10日