10 replies to this topic

[HappyHistorian]

Message from CHF Founder

China History Forum was founded by me in June 2004 after realizing that there was no English forum dedicated to the discussion of Chinese History. Previously, I had founded and run Simaqian Studio (http://www.simaqianstudio.com), another forum focusing on world history. I felt that there needed to be a specialized forum for Chinese History. So, in late May 2004, I began to create such a forum.

We started off with only twenty members and five forums. In June 2004, we were officially opened and new members began to pour in. Membership began to grow rapidly as a result of the spread of 'words of mouth' across the Internet. In September 2004, CHF moved to its official site http://www.chinahistoryforum.com. During the first year, I used much of my own money to fund the advertising of CHF on Yahoo. I also monitored the traffic and improved the search engine optimization. CHF's focus on developing the quality content of the site soon proved to be the right move as it allows Google to rank many of CHF's pages at the top. Ultimately, the Google's ranking depends on the relevance and quality of the content. Due to search engine factors, CHF was able to continue to attract many academic-oriented members to come to CHF.

From 2004 to 2006, CHF had progressively expanded to more than seventy forums and membership reached almost four thousand. CHF's topic coverage included not only Chinese History, but also many other Chinese Cultural topics.

While CHF was expanding, problems also began to crop up.

CHF being larger also attracted some unwanted troublemakers, including trolls, spammers, members who discuss history with political agenda, ultra-nationalists etc. By October 2006, the large presence of these troublemakers not only made the moderation of CHF more difficult, it also disrupted peace and degraded the quality of discussion in CHF.

To remedy these problems, the staff team finally came up with the plan of a compulsory "Imperial Exam". Any members who reached thirty posts had to sit for this exam. This exam proved to be useful in filtering troublemakers. Secondly, it helped to upgrade the knowledge of members on Chinese history and raise the knowledge level of members in CHF. Later, the Imperial exam system was expanded to include an "Exemption" designed for those who feared taking the exam, but were still interested in Chinese History and Culture or Asian History.

It was also at this time that CHF had decided to position itself as a true academic-oriented forum. That means to say, it decided to target only those who are interested in Chinese History and Culture. Soon, the Chinese Current Affairs forum was closed down in order to minimize any form of political discussion that might disrupt peace in CHF.

From 2007-2008, CHF enjoyed relatively growth and peace. The most important event during January 2008 was the re-establishment of CHF Editorial Board as an independent staff team dedicated for the creation of the Newsletter and Han Lin Journal. Kaiselin had been chosen as the Chief Editor. Together with a team of writers being recruited, the Newsletter and Han Lin Journal were not only exceptionally professional, it also provided rich source of information relating to CHF, as well as academic Chinese history and culture information.

In March 2009, CHF faced a major crisis. The site was effectively hacked, stolen by a malicious hacker. Not only were administrators' accounts compromised, the web URL http://www.chinahistoryforum.com was also stolen. The hack was a great blow to CHF, as it caused CHF to be down for almost three weeks. Luckily, with the help of many kind members, CHF managed to get back its domain name.

One crucial observation about the history of CHF is that it will always face a situation of ups and downs. That is the Dao of CHF. However, when CHF declines, you will be sure that both the staff and other members will be doing something to make it rise again.

Our primary goal of CHF for the next half year is to regain our strength, traffic and manpower. While making sure the quality of content is maintained or even improved up, our zeal was to strengthen friendship and communication across all CHF members. "Getting to know each other" and "Getting to talk to each other in forums" will definitely be part of our strategy to build friendships across CHF. While continuing to attract new members, we also plan to attract our old members back. This will take time.

There remains further opportunity in the development of CHF. The Jinshi exam has not yet been developed and will be developed in the future to help complete our exam system. Certain projects in CHF are not yet completed and waiting for further development. There is also the possibility for creating additional features such as new skin. We are also planning to revive our award system, which had been stagnant for quite some time.

Finally, it is the enthusiasm and enlightenment of all of our members which will continue to drive the growth and improvement of the CHF. I encourage every member to get involved in ways that best suit them, and to learn from each other in a spirit of co-operation and mutual respect. I never cease to be amazed at the talents our members bring to this site. Your input is so fantastic.

I am so pleased that you have chosen to be a member of the China History Forum, and value your participation.

The future of China History Forum looks bright and is full of potential for further development.

General_Zhaoyun

Letter from the Editor

The June 2009 Newsletter is a special edition celebrating five years since China History Forum's inception. There have been ups and downs throughout these five years. As General_Zhaoyun eloquently stated, the enthusiasm of CHF members keeps the forum moving forward. On behalf of the Editorial Board, I would like to thank the countless members who have read and contributed to our two publications: the bi-monthly newsletter and the bi-annual Han Lin Journal. I would also like to give special thanks to past and present staff members of the Editorial Board who have produced and continue to produce CHF publications for nearly five years.

With this in mind, I also would like to encourage CHF members to be more active and contribute to CHF publications. Without the ongoing support of dedicated staff members of the Editorial Board and CHF members (such as yourself) there would be no CHF publications. This month has been a very busy one. Many members of the Editorial Board were unable to contribute to the June Newsletter since they had other duties. Our editorial team has decreased since the hacking crisis. This is naturally a cause for concern. The Editorial Board desperately needs more CHF members to volunteer their services for CHF publications. Without volunteers there is a real concern that the future of CHF publications will be in jeopardy. We have a new and talented contribution by Shenjie on Mencius. Contributions, such as this, reinvigorates CHF publications with new ideas and greater variety. So I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to contribute to the CHF Editorial Board in whatever capacity you feel. You can submit articles for the CHF Newsletter, essays for the Han Lin Journal, or you may even consider being a Columnist.

Happy 5th Birthday, China History Forum!

HappyHistorian
Editor
CHF Newsletter
CHF Han Lin Journal

[HappyHistorian]

Page 3
CHF Community News

The Emperor's Court

FEATURED MEMBER AND TOPICS

Page 4
WangGeon

Page 5
Featured Topics

ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE

Page 6
Human Nature According to Mencius

Written by Shenjie

Page 7
Modern China: A Very Short Introduction

by Rana Mitter

Reviewed by HappyHistorian

Page 8
Professor Rana Mitter: China in a New World Order

Page 9
Q & A
Featuring Bao Pu

Page 10
WANT ADS

Page 11
FINAL WORDS & IMPORTANT INFORMATION

[HappyHistorian]

*****

CHF default skin changed back to blue skin

Hi all,

This is to inform you that I've decided to change CHF's default skin back to the old blue skin. The reason is because I have realized that most old members are still feeling more comfortable with the cool light blue skin. The cool light blue skin gives a more comfortable cooling atmosphere when browsing through CHF and makes it more 'attractive' to stay in CHF.
The old logo also gives a better 'branding' as most of the members are familiar with the old logo of CHF. The blue skin also makes reading the information in CHF easier.

The new orange brown skin is still available, if you like it. You can choose it based on your preference. All you have to do is to go to the bottom left of CHF and choose the following:

IP.Board Pro - Default original blue skin

CHF skin 2009 - The new orange brown skin

*****

CHF e-mail restored and back in service

Hi all,

I'm sorry to inform you that over the past 1 week, the CHF's e-mail has not been working well. That means to say, when someone is signing up for a new account, he/she will not receive any validation e-mail due to the e-mail service problem.

I realized this problem after noticing that there is a large number of accounts not being validated. After some investigation into this problem, I found out that the problem lies with the e-mail server of this site: it was not sending out e-mail.

I've quickly informed my webhost and they have resolved this issue for me. Now, the forum's e-mail is back on service.

*****

CHF traffic fell to a brink low in April 2009

Hi all,

This is probably the first time I'm reporting a 'bad news' in terms of CHF's traffic. Each time you read a news announcement about our traffic, we are always reporting the good side. However, I feel that it is necessary for certain bad news to be made transparent to all good members of CHF, so that all CHF members are well-informed about our challenges and can stay united and be motivated to fight this downturn in tide.

Fair to say, we have been building strong member's loyalty ever since the founding of CHF. When the worst hacking incidence struck CHF during March 2009 causing a down time of more than 3 weeks, many members feel so much lost and unwilling to "lose" such a wonderful forum like CHF. It was in our greatest opportunity that we managed to 'survive' the crisis, fight back and obtain back our forum.

Just as a country faces its ups and downs, CHF also faces periodic problems due to fluctuation in the internet environment. In the good times, our traffic booms (just like an economic boom) and in the bad times, our traffic plunges (just like an economic recession).

CHF traffic report for the past 1 year from 1st March 2008 till April 19th 2009

Below show the traffic statistics for the past 1 year



It shows that traffic reached a new height during December 2008, decreases for a while during January 2009 and then increased during March 2008. The hacking incidence of March 2009 caused the site to be down for more than 3 weeks.

But during April 2009, traffic plunges to a new low.

Page Loads
On 9th March 2009, the page load (i.e. page views) was about 10,892. However, on 21st April 2009, the page load was only about 5,691 . This is almost a decrease of 50%. Page load is a measure of how much pages were viewed and is the most direct measure of traffic.

Unique Visitors
On 9th March 2009, the no. of unique visitors to CHF was about 5,244 (a break-record). However, on 21st April 2009, the no.of unique visitors fell to 2,298 (by almost 50%). The unique visitors means the total number of visitors who visited CHF.

Returning Visitors
On 9th March 2009, the no. of returning visitors to CHF was about 441. However, on 21st April 2009, the no.of unique visitors fell to 323. That means to say around 100 old members or visitors of CHF did not return to CHF during this time.

How traffic decline affects CHF

Traffic is of vital importance to CHF. If there are less visitors to CHF, it will lead to inactiveness in CHF. If CHF is a dead website, that means to say the 'economy' of CHF (measured by volume of discussion activities in CHF) will seize to function.

The concept of 'economy' in CHF is really dodgy to say. We roughly have this concept of traffic/economic 'booming' and 'decline' in CHF measured in terms of activeness of members, volume of posts (expressed in terms of amount of discussion activities) etc. If there are less posts, it means less discussion activities (inactiveness) and the 'economy' declines. If there are a lot of new posts, it measn increasing discussion activities and the 'economy' boom.

April 2009 is considered to be recession for us as traffic fell to a new low. This has lead to greater inactiveness in members and a decrease in discussion activities.

Causes of Traffic Decline

The main causes to the traffic decline are as follow:

1. Hacking Incidence
The hacking incidence of March 2009 delivered the greatest blow to CHF. Not only did CHF loses quite a number of old members, CHF also lost a lot of indexed page on search engines like google. Up to now, we have yet to 'correct' back to our domain name. This can only be corrected back towards late May 2009.

The hacking incidence also makes quite a big portion of members lose confidence in CHF. Although much of the effort had been carried out to restore confidence, there are still some members who are concerned about the security issues.

2. General Inactiveness of Members
The loss of 5 seniors staff members to CHF was considered to be a blow to CHF, as we lost some valuable staffs who had been important strength to CHF. There are also many inactive staffs and some members continue to be inactive out of many reasons.

3. General Worldwide Economic Receission
Recession is worldwide and now, members are spending more time finding new jobs rather than coming to CHF

Challenges and Tackling the Issue

Despite facing this challenges, we feel that this problem will only exist for a short-term. The CHF staff team are working on this problem and coming up with solutions to tackle the issue, to reverse the tide of inactiveness and to rejuvenate CHF through an active plan and strategy. It will only be a matter of time before CHF will regain its strength and power.

We kindly seek your continuous participation in CHF and be patient with us!

*****

CHF's URL changed back to chinahistoryforum.com, Successful change

Hi all,

This is to inform you that I've successfully changed the URL of CHF back to chinahistoryforum.com. It might take up to 24-48 hours for the URL to replicate across the internet. Note that I've not yet transferred this URL back to my registar. I can only do so towards end of May.

I do apologize for the inconvenience caused.

*****

Hannibal27 joins CHF Staff Team!

Hi all,

I'm pleased to inform you that Hannibal27 has joined the CHF staff team as moderator for Chinese Art of War forum

Welcome to the staff team!

*****

CHF reaches another historical milestone! Population reaches more than 7000 members!

Congratulations to CHF as we pass the 7000 member mark and move closer to 200k posts!

*****

GZ will remain as admin of CHF staff team, But not as Chief admin/Vice Admin

Hi all,

As you may well know, I've actually submitted my resignation from CHF staff team during late December 2008. The "hacking crisis of March 2009" actually "forced" me to return to CHF staff team to help CHF recover from the crisis. 1 1/2 months had almost passed by since our site is restored back after the hacking. We have managed to recover from the decline and traffic is beginning to pick up.

Initially, I plan to resign from CHF staff team during late May 2009, but I fear that CHF would lose an important supportive strength if I'm gone. Therefore, I've consulted and discussed with other staff members. After the discussion, I've decided to remain as an administrator of CHF. That means, I won't resigned from the staff team. However, I will not be the Chief administrator or Vice-Admin, as that position goes to Pattie and Bao Pu respectively. I prefer my role as an advisor and supporter, and not as a major decision maker.

I will continue to help CHF and will support CHF in whatever I can.

I hope this is a good news to everyone! Hope that can help to raise the morale of CHF!

*****

SWOT Analysis of CHF - May 2009

May 13 2009, General_Zhaoyun

The Strategy adopted by CHF should be focused on maximizing Strength and Opportunities, while minimizing Weakness and Threats.

Maximizing Strength

Other than working on sustaining its present core strength, CHF should work on developing other additional attractive features that will help to make CHF even more attractive. For e.g. plans to develop Jinshi exam, creation of Han Lin Journal, Newsletter or other activities can help add more attractiveness to CHF.

Maximizing Opportunities

There are many other 'unknown' areas (in chinese history/culture) waiting for CHF to tap into. It's CHF's duties to uncover more refreshing information on Chinese history/Culture. More books were written, more research were carried and they can all be sources for more discussion in CHF. Interestingly, the whole world also has increasingly number of sinophiles.

Minimizing Weakness

Inactiveness problems can be solved by choosing more committed staff members who can be active. Traffic fluctuation can be minimized by constant search engine optimization. Member's activeness can be resolved by creating a stronger attraction to post.

Minimizing Threats

Security can be improved by having better security policy, such as backup, more powerful password, constant change of password, more layers of security etc. Negative rumors can be avoided by better moderation, better enhancement of good-words circulation etc. In addition, CHF should make it more attractive to good members to stay. Bad members should be contained or kicked out to avoid creating any trouble in CHF.

*****

Language Files updated to latest version for CHF

Hi all,

I've noticed that under the member's profile, the "About Me" and "Signature" cannot be updated. After checking the technical problem with IPB staffs, it was realized that the language files for CHF were outdated. To display "About me", the files need to be at least version 2.3.5.

As such, all the languages files had been updated to the latest version. This technical problem is now resolved.You should be able to update "About me"

*****

CHF's Domain name back to GZ's registrar

Hi all,

I'm pleased to inform you that China History Forum's domain name http://www.chinahistoryforum.com has been successfully transferred back to my own registrar.

As you may well know, CHF's domain name http://www.chinahistoryforum.com was stolen and illegally transferred to another registrar during the hacking incidence of March 2009. Fortunately, the hacker returned the URL back to me after 3 weeks by providing me with the login details to that registar. However, to transfer the domain name back to my registar, it would require 2 months before transfer can take place.

I've waited for two months and now I have successfully transferred it back to my registar.

I would especially like to thank Fcharton for 'negotiating' with the hacker, without which, the hacker would probably not have returned the URL to me.

*****

Google Search Box moved to top of CHF

Hi all,

As suggested by Tang_Scholar, I've moved the Google Search Box from the bottom to the top of CHF. This is to facilitate easier search of information in CHF and the internet.

Do try the google search within CHF. It's pretty powerful.

*****

CHF Traffic rising on the upward trend

Hi all,

I'm pleased to inform you that after two months of 'hard work' and staff effort in recovering and revamping CHF, CHF's traffic has managed to rebound back to its normal level. It's now rising on an upward trend. Both the total number of visits and pageviews have rosen over the past 2 months.

Below show the total number of visits from 1st April to 1st June 2009.

Source: Google Analytics


No. of visits from 1st April till 1st June 2009. On 1st of June 2009, total number of unique visits reached 2,600 (almost 3,000)


Pageviews from 1st April till 1st June 2009. On 1st of June 2009, pageview reached 8,111

I forsee the rising trend to continue, as I continue to work on search engine optimization and getting more pages onto google.

Our traffic had suffered from a downcrash after the hacking crisis of March 2009. We lost many indexed pages in google and quite a number of members left CHF. However, two months of re-work had helped to restore confidence amongst the members. Many old members had also returned to CHF.

*****

Two new Subforums created in CHF

Hi all,

This is to inform you that two new subforums have been created within Chinese Art of War forum to help organize the information. They are "Chinese Military History" and "Chinese Military Treatise".

They can be access at http://www.chinahist...p?showforum=105 and http://www.chinahist...p?showforum=106

*****

Brightness joins CHF Staff as moderator

Hi all,

I'm pleased to inform you that Brightness has joined CHF Staff as a moderator. Let us all welcome him!

*****

CHF celebrates its 5th Year Anniversary

Hi all,

I'm pleased to inform you that China History Forum is effectively 5 years old. Today, we celebrate the 5th year anniversary ever since we were founded on 1st June 2004.

CHF has just effectively recovered from the hacking crisis of March 2009. I'm very delighted to know that many members still continue to come back to support CHF even after the hacking crisis. The hacking crisis had led to some form of decline in CHF, seen in decrease of traffic, because many google pages were dropped out after the hack. Also, many members became 'lost' or lose confidence as a result of the hack.

However, 2 months of re-work and re-vamp of CHF has proven to be effective in CHF. We manage to regain our staff man-power. Traffic has also rebounded back and is now continuing on an upward trend.
The forum continues to have various discussion activities and the staff team is planning further more activities.

Our upcoming plan includes:

1. Jinshi exam -something which we will be initiating in the next couple of weeks or months.

2. Re-work on China History Info site - the site might be re-designed and will host the articles written by CHF members

3. Enhancement of CHF security - we might be installing web firewall to help protect CHF against hacking

4. Re-activate our award system, which has stopped for quite some time.

We hope all members can continue to support CHF as this forum would not have been in place without you!

Thank you

*****

Re-organization of Military-related Forums

Hi all,

This is to inform you that we have re-organized the Chinese Military-related forums.

Chinese Military History is now a main forum
Chinese Military Treatise subforum is removed and merged with Chinese Art of War Forum
Chinese Military Arts is a now a main forum.

We've re-organized these forums as we receive feedback that putting Chinese military history as a subforum makes it very difficult to navigate.

Also, we feel that Chinese Military History is an important forum, so it should become a main forum on its own.

[HappyHistorian]

A fantastical Chinese tale by a witty philosopher opens with a short tale of a tiny fish roe called "Kun" that turns into an incredibly large roc called "Peng" who flies off to the Lake of Heaven. It is a transformation so incredible that most cannot comprehend. As childish as it sounds, I like to fancy myself being that fish roe waiting to transform into Peng so I can find my own Lake of Heaven. Simple childlike meanderings aside, one of the greatest of journeys of transformation is the simple act of going about day-to-day life.

Permit me to step aside from my usual ramblings and introduce specifics about myself more properly. I was born and raised on US soil and I am 24 years of age. I moved to California from Guam in 1998. When I entered the University of California, Riverside, I declared my major as Creative Writing. Writer's block took over and that was the quick end of that story. I switched to Asian Studies, while pondering about what it meant to be hyphenated American. My focus at the time was Japanese language and culture with several excursions into Chinese civilization. During my undergrad years, I also was briefly involved in local political issues as a leftist activist.

After college, I became an English as a foreign language instructor in Korea for two years although my original plan was to go study in Japan. Cultural experiences there tickled my curiosity and so I became extremely fascinated with Korean civilization. I entered the University of California, Los Angeles in an East Asian Studies Master of Arts program with Korean culture as my area of specialization. Life has not at all been easy as I've had to deal with a variety of complicated financial and family related issues.

Much of my time is devoted to poring over page after page of scholarship on Korean culture and history or the odd history article on Chinese or Japanese topics, whatever is required of university coursework or whatever that just so happens to be on my mind at the time. In essence, I might as well be Zhuangzi's caricature of a "cramped scholar." No room for a serious social life here! The only "fun" thing I do these days is the gayageum zither instrument. I used to do martial arts when I had money - Taekwondo for 6 years, Tajiquan for 4 years, Taijiquan spear style for 2 years.

My user name "WangGeon" is a reference to the first king of the Korean Goryeo dynasty, but I am actually a person of Chinese heritage; my parents were Chinese-Vietnamese "boat people" who fled Vietnam amidst a time of upheaval. I don't actually speak Chinese (not any more, that is), unfortunately. Instead, I'm an ABC (American-born Chinese) who doesn't speak his own mother tongue, who is a native-speaker of American English, and who speaks Korean like a farmboy without his lightsaber.

My interests are mostly in folk culture, lived experience, and folk religion. I like cultural history a lot and I'm more interested in the ways people lived and the systems they lived under. Somehow, the mundane just seems to me more fascinating than the grandiose and monumental sides of history such as military or politics. But then again, I've always been the kid who likes to play with lego blocks...

I happened upon CHF through the recommendation of a forum-goer at another forum. I hope to have enlightening and engaged discussions in this forum on Chinese cultural history and the history of other Asian cultures. In the area of Chinese history, I would be interested in learning more about folk culture and lived experience in both pre-industrial and contemporary China.

[HappyHistorian]

There have been quite a few lively topics recently. There are three that are specifically worth mentioning:

Qin Tomb http://www.chinahist...p...15&start=15 Discussion has been focused on whether it is efficacious to excavate the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi. There have been quite a variety of views, so check it out!

19th Century- China's Century of Humiliation? http://www.chinahist...showtopic=31323 As the title suggests, this thread has been focused on whether the 19th century was humiliating for the Chinese. There has been discussion on whether there were other periods in China's history that were more humiliating. Moreover, there has been engaging discussion on whether such a personal emotion such as humiliation can be applied to a country. What do you think? Join the discussion!

When did the Chinese discover the Earth is round? http://www.chinahist...p;#entry4975922 Although not attracting a great deal of interest, I still feel it is a fascinating topic. It is interesting to see how the Chinese have dealt with problems and comparing it with Western ideas.

[HappyHistorian]

Mengzi 孟子 (391-308 BCE), was born in Zou 鄒, present Shandong province, and is regarded as the second most important Confucian philosopher (after Confucius himself). Styling himself as having "the mantle of Confucius fall upon him", Mencius used his essays on human nature to defend and explain Confucius' central insights. This later went on to inspire Neo-Confucianism (9th Century).

Confucius 孔子 (551-479 BCE) devoted his life to the task of explaining how a person might become a superior man or a man of morality. But he did not explain why man ought to do good rather than evil and be a moral person. Mencius belonged to one of many philosophical schools, and all these schools were competing among themselves for disciples and for the favour of the rulers which would bring wealth, power, and positions. In this philosophically turbulent time, according to A. C. Graham, it was the doctrines of the Individualists and particularly those of their most authoritative representative, Yang Zhu 楊朱 (370-319 BCE) – that first posed the problem of human nature in relation to the will of Heaven, thus provoking the harsh reaction of the Confucians. Mencius was forced to face the problem of why man ought to do good and act morally, and he attempted to solve this problem with his theory of human nature.

Our main access to Mencius's thinking is through the Mengzi (Mencius), probably compiled by his disciples or disciples of his disciples. Mencius' discourses on ren xing人性 (human nature), scattered throughout his book, can briefly be summarised within the following points: the conception of the si duan 四端 ("four sprouts"); the notion of qing 情 (loosely translated as "emotion") as the inclinations that are genuinely or distinctively human, and the idea of xin 心 as the evaluating and prioritizing mind.

• Mencius believes that there is the potential for goodness in human nature (not goodness itself). Supporting this, he refers to the four "sprouts", spontaneous impulses within human beings which, when nourished, mature into the "cardinal virtues" of ren 仁 (humanity, benevolence), yi 義 (righteousness, correct judgment), li 禮 (propriety, rites), and zhi 智 (wisdom, knowledge). These seeds must be developed and cultivated to the extent that man can "serve heaven and even fulfil his destiny". At the same time, however, he mentions that we merely preserve man's original nature. Part of the long passage of 2A.2 explains that when we grow something, we must do many things, but at the same time we must never make it grow. In a similar way, we must cultivate and develop our original nature by promoting the Way, accumulating righteousness and practicing virtue on the one hand, but let it grow naturally on the other.

• In response to the rival theories that there are both good and bad tendencies in human nature, or that "our nature may become either good or bad," Mencius speaks in 6A.6 and 6A.8 about the qing 情 of human beings – that which is distinctively or genuinely human about them. In 6A.6 he speaks of the goodness of human nature; in 6A.8 he posits that, just as cutting the trees on Ox Mountain does not prove that the nature of the mountain was to be devoid of timber (cai 材) , abuse of human moral potential does not prove a lack of capacity (cai 才), nor does it involve this qing. It is this qing that is important rather than the accidents or abuse that may ruin or damage the human potential for goodness. The fact that human dignity or self-respect may be stronger even than the will to survive suggests that a preference for morality is within all of us in the same way as the si duan 四端 themselves.

• Mencius has a view of the human mind 心as an agency of deliberation, which weighs alternatives and is capable of choosing the great desires (da ti 大體, "the moral") over the small (xiao ti 小體, "the sensual", "material"), just as it chooses between the major and minor parts of the body .

• Mencius identified goodness with the innate human tendency to become good, and he considered wickedness, which could be defined as an absence of good rather than an effective reality counter posed with goodness, to be a factor independent from the natural qualities of the individual. It is significant that, in describing evil and having to indicate the concept opposite to shan善 "good," "goodness", Mencius never used the term e 惡 "evil,"" wickedness", as Xunzi did one century later; rather, he used bu shan 不善 "not being good," "not becoming good." Evil is therefore explained in terms of "failure," an inability to develop one's own potential and be in harmony with the dao, the Way.

Bibliography:


Yang Bojun 楊伯峻. Mengzi Yizhu 孟子譯注. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1960.

Wing-tsit Chan. A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.

Graham, A. C. Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature. Singapore: The Institute of East Asian Philosophies, 1986.

Legge, James. The Chinese Classics, v.2. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895.

Liu, Xiusheng and Ivanhoe, P.J. Essays on the Moral Philosophy of Mengzi. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2002.

Fung Yu-lan. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, trans., Derk Bodde. New York: Macmillan, 1966, originally published 1948.

Wang Rusong 王孺松. Mengzi lun xing yu xiuweixue 孟子倫性與修為學 [Study of Mencius]. Shanghai: Jiaoyu wenwu chubanshe, 1974.

[HappyHistorian]

Rana Mitter's Modern China: A Very Short Introduction presents a concise overview of China's history since the nineteenth century. It is an amazing feat that Mitter is able to condense the depth of modern Chinese history to 140 pages. The Oxford professor eloquently articulates the tumultuous transformation of China whilst conveying the traditional elements that lay at the heart of understanding the Celestial Empire. The book is written clearly, which is easy to understand for general readers who have little or no knowledge of modern China. Black and white pictures accompany the text, providing a visual sense of modern China. Even with its simplicity, the primer is able to engage with deep themes of modern China, which maintains the premiership of historical scholarship.

However a flaw with Mitter's primer is its emphasis on postmodernism. The primer is structured according to different themes of modernity, ranging from society to the economy to culture. Mitter's work is based from a Western interpretation. He implies that modernity is a sign of progress for the Chinese, which is evident in structuring his work on different themes of modernity. It would have been better if Mitter structured his work chronologically, rather than from a value-laden demarcation of the primer. Mitter creates a misrepresentation of China as a deterministic society with a linear, progressive narrative. However modern China was a dynamic society and cannot simply be interpreted based on Western thematic concerns.

Nonetheless, Mitter presents a fascinating, quick and easy to read account of modern China. If you prefer an empirical account of Chinese history, then Mitter's introduction is probably not for you. However if you are looking for a quick overview of modern China or want to learn more about the historiography of sinology, then this is just for you.

Please view the short YouTube clip of Rana Mitter discussing China in a new international order on the next post.

[HappyHistorian]

Professor Rana Mitter: China in a New International World Order

[HappyHistorian]

1. How did you become so interested in Chinese history?
I became interested in Chinese history when I wanted to know more about the people and culture of those who wrote the early Daoist classics: the Daodejing and Zhuangzi.

2. If you could go back to any period of history, what would it be?
That is difficult to answer. Ancient China would be interesting, but not knowing the language would be a problem.

3. Who is your favourite author?
I mostly read non-fiction and have many, many authors I like. My favourite fiction writer is probably William Gibson.

4. What area of Chinese history are you most interested in?
I am mostly interested in pre-Han China: the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty, the Warring States period.

5. What is your favourite colour?
I don't like one more than another. They are all delightful in the right contexts.

6. What are your hobbies?
Read and write about early Chinese philosophy and culture. Work out at the gym. Biking. Spending time with my cats. Photography. Listening to music.

7. Who is your most admired historical figure?
Probably the Chinese "philosopher" Zhuangzi. Mahatma Gandhi was pretty cool too.

8. What do you consider your greatest achievements?
I am healthy and happy.

9. What is your motto?
Good health, happiness, and harmony.

10. How did you come up with your pseudonym Bao Pu? “Bao Pu” 抱樸 (抱朴) is an idiom found in chapter 19 of the Daodejing, meaning something like "embrace your unadorned, simple nature." Since this is an aspiration of mine, it seemed a nice nickname to adopt.

[HappyHistorian]

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Join Us as a columnist today!
Send a PM to HappyHistorian or Kaiselin if you are interested in joining or have any further questions.

[HappyHistorian]

LAST WORDS FROM THE EDITOR

I hope you have enjoyed the June 2009 Newsletter! Please seriously consider contributing to CHF publications (CHF Newsletter or Han Lin Journal). As always it has been a privilege serving the CHF community. CHF has prospered in its first five years. From a small community driven by the tenacity of General_Zhaoyun, it is now indisputably "the premier portal for discussing Chinese history and culture". Let's continue to make CHF even better for the many years to come.

HappyHistorian

Kaiselin, Chief Editor
Fireball, Editor
HappyHistorian, Editor

Aaron, Columnist and Artistic Designer
Anita Mui, Columnist
Changsham, Columnist
William O'Chee, Columnist

Special Thanks to the CHF Community

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The next issue of the CHF Newsletter is scheduled to be published

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