Carve seals, write calligraphy, read books, translating classical works of China often left aside. Hungarian.
Joined April 2021
- Tweets21.4K
- Following1.7K
- Followers8.1K
- Likes79.8K
Pinned Tweet
Reading the letters again in Zhou Lianggong's collection《尺牍新钞》. Would any of you be interested in collected phrases from these that are sometimes profound, often funny, sometimes sad? I'll start the thread with a few from today and let me know if you want more. Maybe a 🧵
Still reading Brian Lander's book on early agriculture and political ecology of neolithic to Qin China. Made me realize something I never did before. Not only that, but it confused me. That being the almost dogged insistence on 山澤之產 "products of mountains and wetlands".
On the other hand this shows something that was argued for from the Guanzi to Marx: it is material reality that conditions thinking, not the other way around. The entire phrase about mountains and wetlands comes from the material reality of those who made the phrase up.
Based on the last few days this morning I wrote this Daoism inspired seal script calligraphy saying 辩不如默，大辩不言 or "Quarrel is not as good as silence, true debate is waged not with words". Seal is 清谷玄路 or "In a clear valley a path in shadows". Will explain tonight.
Rest in peace, Sir Patrick Stewart. I was so young I could barely register the world, but I knew Cpt Picard even in kindergarten. One of the most foundational characters and actors in my childhood and even in adulthood. Boldly go where no man has gone before!
So today there was a 2 hour long lecture on Kant's concept of human dignity at our department + a 1 hour long discussion. You know what I did? As opposed to yesterday, I kept silent. Simple as.
Could've said tons, like why is Kant talking about human dignity when he thought that Black people were naturally suited to servitude or that no civilized nation had ever existed whose people were not white, but they would've just accused me of whataboutism and dishonesty.