Ming Dynasty encyclopedia "Yongle dadian" won a bid for 970 million yen

Recently CNN.co.jp reported the following:

明代の百科事典「永楽大典」、９．７億円で落札

2020.07.09 Thu posted at 11:20 JST

Jack Guy, CNN

中国の明代に作られた百科事典「永楽大典」が競売に出品され、予想を１０００倍以上上回る８００万ユーロ（約９億７０００万円）で落札された。

永楽大典は、明の３代皇帝の永楽帝の指示によって編纂（へんさん）された。永楽帝の在位は１４０２～１４２４年。

競売を行ったフランス企業によれば、１４０４年から１４０８年にかけて行われた編纂には２０００人以上の学者が携わった。

永楽大典は世界でも最大級の百科事典でもともとは２万２８７７巻からなる。

１５６２年には副本が作られたが、原本は戦争や盗難などのために散逸した。

今回出品されたのは副本のうちの２巻で非常にまれなもの。当時は印刷技術も発展していたが、分量の多さから手で記されている。ひとつは中国の湖について書かれており、もうひとつは葬儀について記されていた。匿名の買い手が手数料を含む８１億２８００万ユーロで落札した。事前の落札予想額は５０００～８０００ユーロだった。

大英図書館には２４巻が所蔵されている。

Translation

An encyclopedia "Yongle Dadian" that was made in China's Ming Dynasty was put up for auction, and it was sold for 8 million euros (about 970 million yen), which was 1000 times more than expected.

The Yongle Daidian was compiled based on the instructions of the third emperor of Ming, Yongle. The reign of the Emperor Yongle was 1402-1424.

According to a French auctioning company, more than 2000 scholars were involved in its compilation from 1404 to 1408.

Yongle Dadian was one of the largest encyclopedias in the world and originally consisted of 22,877 volumes.

A duplicate was made in 1562, as the original was lost due to war and theft.

Two of the duplicates that were exhibited this time were very rare. While printing technology had been developed at the time, but due to the large volume, it was written by hand. One volume was about lakes in China and the other was about funerals. An anonymous buyer won the bid for €8,128 million including fees. The estimated price before bidding was between 5,000 and 8,000 euros.

 The British Library held 24 volumes.

              I am interested in knowing who is the buyer of these two volumes.

Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Nye, Joseph, Jr. 2004. Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs.

- ch. 3 – the US has enormous soft-power resource. But the US is not alone. Others, both countries and non-state actors also possess soft power that can be used to help or hinder the US’s achievement of its preferred outcomes.(73)(non-state actor – NGO)

- the decade-long economic slowdown of the 1990s tarnished Japan’s reputation for economic prowess, but it did not erase the nation’s soft power resources.(86)But there are also limits to Japan’s soft-power. Japan has never full come to terms with its record of foreign aggression in the 1930s.(87)

- ch. 4 – military power is to threat and fight. Economic power is used similarly. Soft power is more difficult to wield, many resources are outside the control of government, and their effect depends on acceptance by the receiving audience. (99)

- shaping public opinion becomes even more important where authoritarian governments have been replaced by new democracies. Even when foreign leaders are friendly, their leeway may be limited if their public and parliaments have a negative image of the US and its policies. (105)

- there are 3 dimensions of public diplomacy. The first and most immediate dimension is daily communications. Government tells the press on how to carry out a decision. The second dimension is strategic communication much like an advertising campaign. For example, the British tourist authority was busily advertising British tradition, ceremony and history. The third dimension of public diplomacy is the development of lasting relationships with key individual over many years through scholarships, exchanges, training, seminars, conferences, and access to media channel.(107-9)

-it is important to remember that the same words and images that are  most successful to domestic audience may have negative effects on a foreign audience.(112)

- rigid censorship is not always the answer. An aspect of soft power that the Pentagon got right in the second Gulf war has been the embedding of reporters with forward military units. This limited Saddam Hussein’s ability to create international outrage by claiming that American was deliberately killing civilians. (116)

- democracy is more than voting. It could lead to “one man, one vote, once” if done hastily. Since the autocratic regimes in the Middle East have destroyed their liberal opposition, racial Islamist often represents the only alternative dissent in many countries. (120)

- ch. 5 – anti-Americanism has increased in the past few years. A widespread and fashionable view is that the US is a classically imperialist power. (127) In the US skeptics about soft power believe that popularity is ephemeral (i.e. people are forgetful) and should not be a guide for foreign policy in any cases. The US can act without the world’s applause. We are so strong that we can do as we wish. (128)

-power depends on context. We see that in the global information age, power is distributed among countries in a pattern that resembles a complex three-dimensional chess game. On the top chess board of political-military issue, US is in the lead; on the economic board, in the middle, the US is not a hegemony or an empire. On the bottom chessboard of transnational relations, power is chaotically dispersed. (136-7)

- many transnational issues such as climate change, international crime and terrorism cannot be resolved by military force alone. Representing the dark side of globalization, these issues were inherently multi-lateral and require cooperation for their solution. Soft power is particular important in dealing with these issues. (137)

Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Nye, Joseph, Jr. 2004. Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs.

.

Main points:

- Ch. 2 – the US has many resources that can potentially provide soft power. Not only is the fact that America is the world’s largest economy, but nearly half of the top 500 global companies are American. 62 of the top global brands are American. (33)

- opposition to American policies is not the same as general opposition to the US. The image or attractiveness of a country is composed of foreigner’s attitudes on a variety of levels and types, American policy constitutes only one. (35)

- many intellectuals and critics disdain popular culture because of its crude commercialism. They view pop culture as an anesthetizing and apolitical opiate for the masses. Such disdain is misplaced because popular entertainment often contains subliminal images and messages about individualism, consumer choice and other values that have important political effects. (47) (c/f  pop songs)

- simple items like blue jeans, Coca-Cola, or a cigarette brand acquired an added value that helped younger generations to give expression to an identify of their own. (48)

- Soviet audiences watching films with apolitical themes nonetheless learned that people in the West did not have to stand in long lines to purchase food, did not live in communal apartment, and they owned their own cars. All these invalidated the negative view promulgated by the Soviet media.(49)

- all countries pursue their national interest in foreign policy, but there are choices to be made about how broadly or narrowly we define our national interest. Polices based on broadly inclusive and far-sighted definition of national interest are easier to make attractive to others.]60-61)

-the US, like 19^th century Britain, also has an interest in keeping international markets and global commons, such as the oceans, open to all. To a large extent, international order is a public good. (61)

- the image of the US and its attractiveness to others is a composite of many different ideas and attitudes. It depends in part on culture, in part on domestic policies and values, and in part on the substance, tactics, and style of the US foreign policies.(68)

(to be continued)

Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Nye, Joseph, Jr. 2004. Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs.

Main points:

- Preface – What is soft power? It is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payment. It arise from the attractiveness of a county’s culture, political ideals, and polices.(x) [c/f also one's own good past records]

- the first chapter analysis the changing context of power in international politics, and the reason why soft power is becoming more important than in the past. (xii)

- the second chapter examines the sources of American soft power. American is not the only one with soft power; the third chapter looks at the soft power of other nations and non-state actors. Chapter 4 examines the practical problems of how to wield soft power. The concluding chapter summarizes what it all means for the foreign policy of the US in the aftermath of the Iraq war. (xiii)

- ch. 1 – at the most general level, power means the ability to get the outcome one wants. (1) Power resources cannot be judged without knowing the context. You need to understand what game you are playing and how the value of the cards may be changing (4)

- soft power rests on the ability to shape the preference of others. At the personal level, we are all familiar with the power of attraction and seduction.(5)

-hard and soft power are related because they are two aspects of the ability to achieve one’s purpose. The distinction is one of degree; there are command power and co-optive power. The types of behavior between command and co-option range along a spectrum from coercion to pure attraction. (7) Soft power resources tend to be associated with the co-optive end of the spectrum of behavior, whereas hard-power resource is usually associated with command behavior. (7)

- in international politics, the resource that produce soft power arise in large part form the values an organization or country expresses in its culture, in its internal practice and polices, in the way it handles its relation with others. (8)

- the soft power of a county rests primarily on 3 resources: its culture, its political value, and its foreign policies. Let’s start with culture. Culture is the set of values and practice that create meaning for a society. (11)

- when a country’s culture includes universal values and its policies promote values and interest that others share, it increases the probability of obtaining its desired outcome. (11)

- in a diverse world, all three sources of power –military, economic, and soft – remains relevant, although in different degrees in different relationships. (30)

- the soft power in the information is in part a social and economic by-product rather than solely a result of official government action, nonprofit institution with soft power of their own can complicate and obstruct government efforts. (32)

(to be continued)

North Koreans in Japan

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Ryang, Sonia. North Koreans in Japan. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997.

Main points:

- ch. 2 – (chapter title: From performative to performance) - in 1993 Chongryun launched a three-year program of curricular reform. Under the new curricular, subject such as things about the childhood of father Marshall Kim II Sung were abolished.

- this chapter focuses on various changes related to the circular reform and considers its implication for re-adjusting the identity of children as overseas national of north Korea. (51)

- of greatest interest with regard to the new Korean educational  program was the emphasis on teaching the spoken version of Korean. In the new textbook, fourteen out of 28 lessons were dedicated to informal, spoken ending forms. (57)

- some young teaches told the author that the revision of the textbook came at the insistence of the second generation teachers. (58)

- the emphasis on teaching the spoken version of Korean was structured in such a way as to replace the spoken Japanese children use outside the school, thereby encouraging the use of Korean in the after-school hours. Yet when child spoke to teachers, they used the Korean honorific with formal ending. It was unthinkable for teacher to conduct class in informal Koran. (65)

- yet outside school the children switched to Japanese. Children’s knowledge of informal Korean could not extend beyond the classroom. (65)

-pupil were getting better reading Korean, yet their daily language was increasingly distanced form the school-taught Korean language. Children were no longer capable of identify themselves as ‘loyal children’ of Kim Ii Sung. They no longer took such an identity as a point of departure, as the language used to form that identity was no longer imposed on the children. (66)

- ch. 3 – (chapter title: The rise of legitimate identity) - in 1945, the peninsula was divided into American and Soviet occupation zones. In the eyes of many Korean in Japan, events in Southern Korea appeared to take a far less satisfactory turn. The situation was chaotic. Riot and uprising, protesting against the military government occurred in many areas in the south. October 1945 saw the release from prisons of many Korean communist in Japan. On 15 October the League of Korean was formed in Tokyo. (79)

- following Korea’s political and territorial division the League of Korean opted for political conviction at the expenses of regional attachment. Its opposition to the South Korean regime meant that it would abandon repatriation to the south because the majority of Koreans in Japan originally came from the southern provinces; this option was a costly one to them. (81)

- from the outset two different orientations had coexisted with the League of Korean: Communist internationalism and nationalism. According to Ernest Gellner, “Nationalism is primarily a political principle, which holds that the political and national unit should be congruent”.  In terms applied to the Korean case, those who associate with North Korean regard the latter as the only legitimate state representing the whole Korean nation. (82)

-  in many ways the League could be regarded as the predecessor of Chongryun. (83) The League was dissolved in September 1949. (87) Following the dissolution of the League, in 1951, during the Korean war, the Korean communist and leftist-nationalist in Japan organized the democratic front of Korean – Minjon .  Minjon inherited the factionalism between internationalist and nationalist within the League of Korean. (89)

- among those nationalist who were frustrated by the communist party’s stance was Han Dok-su, chairman of Chongryun. In March 1955 Han denounced the Internationalist. On 25 may, 1955 Minjon was dissolved and Chongryun emerged with Han as the chairman. (90)

- many member of the first-generation support Han because he shifted away from the subjugation to the Japanese Communist party. Elderly Chongryun Koreans believed that Kim II Sung allowed them to live in Japan as North Korean’s ‘overseas nationals’. (92-3)

- the term ‘overseas nationals ’of north Korea, central to Chongryun’s legitimate discourse, occurred frequently in the languages of the first-generation individuals. This identity replaced the identity of colonial subject. (92)

-  what was surprising was that many first –generation Chongryun Koreans’ story regularly jumped from the ‘colonial past’ to the time they became ‘overseas nationals of north Korea’ mediated by the phrase ‘thanks to the love and care and wise guidance of the Great Leader Marshal Kim II Sung. (93)

- Mrs. Kwon, a Korean, usually conducted her life in Japanese. In the earlier part of the conversation with me, she spoke Japanese. As she moved on to talk about the organization and matters related to Chongryun activities and north Korea, she changed to Korean.  Sometime the language was intermingled. But by the time she was telling me about Kim II Sung, her whole sentences were in Korean. It was obvious to me that she was better at Japanese than Korean; indeed she said she learned Korean only after she became a teacher at a Korean high school. I found such regularity in switching language when I talked to other Chongryun related Korean.(97)

- the example could only be explained in terms of institutionalized training whereby the speaker learned to say certain terms and not to say other. In this case, turning the ‘thanks to’ phrases into a norm as an contrast to colonial humiliation. (97)

- such training should also prevent speakers from telling their own stories with their own expression. We can already see a certain type of censorship at work here. Let us turn to the linguist life of adult member, since this control was closely related to the rise of the legitimate identity of Chongryun. (97)

- Juche literally meant ‘subject’ and was often translated as ‘self-reliance’. According to Kim, ‘establishing juche means that the people approach the revolution and construction of their own country as masters’. (97-8)

- “the implementation of Kim II Sung worship strengthened north Korea’s authority over Chongryun. This in turn provided Chongryun with a rationalizing device: by emphasizing that Chongryun activities were in the served of Kim II Sung and the fatherland.” (102)

- “chongryun workers begin their day with a choson shinbo reading session at which they take note of current slogans and aims of the organization’s activity. It is important that they register the set of rhetorical expressions used in the paper.” (103)

- the regular criticism session functioned to maintain Chongryun’s linguistic orthodoxy. The systematic use of fixed terms by cadres would influence the members by exhibiting what was supposed to be ‘good speech’. (105)

-“it became the norm to mention their identity as ‘overseas nationals’ of north Korean in connection to the ‘thanks to’ phrase. In such a process, they reordered their past, remodeled their memory, and reformulate their experience in what is regarded as a ‘proper way’ of speaking. Even Mrs. Kwon represented her adolescence in a well-to-do family as slavery under colonialism.” (106) (c/f using a keyword to describe a period)

“In this sense, it is highly indicative that Chongryun’s official publications hardly refer to pre-Chongryun days, official history begins only after Koreans in Japan came to be benefited by the glories benefactor.”(106)

- two factors were involved: obliteration of nonorthodox identities, such as the well off or docile colonial days; the omission what was regarded as irrelevant including domestic violence and disproportionate personal privilege enjoyed by the top ranks. This was of course censorship. The best censorship was not so much to suppress speaking negative or unusable words but not to give the word at all. In study meetings students were given Korean words related to Chongryun only positively; negative words were used only with reference to ‘enemies’. (106)

- a fundamentalist commitment become a manufactured identity helped by strategies as marking and making, obliteration and omission. Language here again played a decisive role in both forgetting and selecting experience and replacing and displacing memory. (106-7)

- nevertheless, this was not to say that their identity was false. This was not a matter to verify in terms of true-false opposition. By internalizing Chongryun’s discourse, the majority of first-generation Chongryun Korean lost alternative language to represent themselves.  In this process they had indeed become ‘overseas nationals’. (107)

(to be continued)

North Koreans in Japan

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Ryang, Sonia. North Koreans in Japan. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997

Main points:

- this book pursues a number of closely connected themes. First it looks at how an organization such as Chongryun that was loyal to North Korea could exist in Japan. The key to investigate was to find out how individuals used their socially constituted linguist capacity and linguistically constructed social resource. (12)

- part I (ch. 1 & 2)  of this volume probes into the system of discipline that shaped Chongryun’s students . In chapter 1, the book discusses the acquisition process of the appropriate socio-linguistic competence by Chongryun’s schoolchildren. Chapter two goes on to examine the changing curriculum and its effect on schoolchildren. (13)

- in chapter 3 of part II (ch. 3 & 4)  a view of the first generation of Chongryun recalled the historic background. (14) In chapter 4, the book considers the connection between Chongryun’s strategies that had enabled Chongryun to find a niche within the framework of the Japanese state.

- in part 2 (ch.3-4), the book thus look at the historically determined condition for the ongoing reproduction  of Chongryun’s identity. (14)

- in part 3 (ch.5-6) it focuses on the contemporary debate inside Chongryun by highlighting dilemmas and difficulties that the second generation faced. Ch. 5 concentrates on a teacher in Chongryun School; it provides a glimpse of a typical second generation.  Chapter 6 summarizes the world of three generations in a comparative perspective. This chapter is about migration and diaspora. (15)

- in conclusion the book summarizes the forgoing discussion, returning to the theme of language, ideology, and identity.  (15)

- ch. 1 – (The performative and its effects) as a self-financing kakushu gakko,(hidden school) Chongryun’s schools were exempted from regular inspection and other forms of intervention by Japan’s central and local education authorities. (25)

- children were also subjected to extra-academic pressure, as their parents were generally keen to see them perform well in school. No text was critical of Chongryun, North Korea, or Kim Ii Sung. To teach negative terms, lessons used examples of South Korean regime, Japanese imperialism, and US imperialism (31)

- the linguistic life of students was placed under collective control inside the school; the implementation of the using the Koran language was an important concern of Chongryun schools.(31)

- the Korean language schoolchildren spoken predominately text-dependent: it was the written form that was spoken. (36)

- Korean was the only language used in Chongryun’s public life; Japanese was the language used in private life. (44)

- the linguistic practices of Chongryun had two interrelated effect. First they fostered a positive relationship between its users and Chongryun. Second a clear distinction between the spheres of application for Korean and Japanese keeps the two sociolinguistic domains relatively independent form each other, the division bring about more efficient social control. (44)

- Bourdieu referred to bilingualism as that the same speaker changed his or her expression, moving from one language to another, without even realizing the fact. Thus, for as long as habitus and field were in agreement, the habitus ‘comes at just the right moment’, and without the need for any calculation. (44-5)

- the utterance of Chongryun students carried strong element of the performative statement. Performative statement, according to Austin, was not to be verified in terms of the true-or-false opposition but to be identified primarily as felicitous or infelicitous depending on the situation. (46)

- utterance was neither neutral or innocent; it amounted to a political act, legitimating Chongryun’s existence and recognizing  its authority. In this way, language and identity were linked.(47)

- by examining the institutionalized disciple, we were able to look at the process whereby individual acquired socially approved way of language use; this might not necessary be preceded by ideological conviction. (48)

- once acquired, the organizational language was at the disposal of individual users. In this process individual accrue a distinct, if only partial, identity as Chongryun Koreans. (49)

(to be continued)

A history of Anthropological Theory

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Paul Erickson and Liam Murphy.2003. A history of Anthropological Theory. Peterborough, Ont.; Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, c1998.

Main points:

-conclusion – generally speaking, at the dawn of the 21st century, the adherent of anthropological postmodernity and globalization theory arise form a camp of ‘human scientist’ whose proverbial tents are pith alongside those who defend narrowly materialist vision of their discipline. (174)

-we believed that there has continued to exit general agreement about the unity of anthropological theory and this unity remains largely intact. (176) for one thing, Boas, Geertz and Levi-Strauss remained firmly enshrined with an anthropological pantheon. This may reflect a significant defect in the postmodern critique: namely that it only succeed at throwing the historical baby out, questioning the work of ancestral generations but offer little substance to replace them. (176)

- we can speculate to a limited extent about trends of the future. We believe that one implication of the diversity encountered in this book is that anthropologist will continue to consider consensuses regarding the best theories and method the ‘holy grail’ of our discipline; this longing might well prove utopian. (178)

- we are living in and passing through a ‘Janus-faced’ moment, in which we are looking both to the past and to the future for inspiration.(178)

- equally important is that the history of anthropological theory is really a history of anthropological theory. We must allow for other anthropologies’, or other tales of discovery and cross-cultural encounters – other methods and context in which knowledge is formed. (179)

- it seems that the history of theory is defined not so much by ‘facts’, as by the tendency of different anthropological historians and the changing consensus that develop around one or another perspective. Only the most novice readers will conclude that theory is ‘out there’, ready to be plucked from the air by a fortuitous ‘discoverer’.(180)

A history of Anthropological Theory

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Paul Erickson and Liam Murphy.2003. A history of Anthropological Theory. Peterborough, Ont.; Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, c1998.

Main points:

Part II – the early 20^th century - 20^th anthropological theories represented a sharp break from that of the 19^th century. Anthropologist sought to distance themselves from the uni-lineal evolutionary and hereditation doctrines of their predecessors. (73) Under the influence of Franz Boas, anthropology in the US involved the cultivation of a distinctively holistic, ‘four-field’ approach to the study of human life. They helped to set the burgeoning field apart from its British and French counterparts as a distinctive expression of anthropological knowledge. (73)

- Ruth Benedict was interested in the relationship between culture and personality. According to her, each culture had its own personality configuration or gestalt. By studying three different cultures, she explained how the three cases illustrated the power of culture to shape divergent normative personalities. In typical Boasian fashion, she concluded that because what was deviant in one culture could be normative in another. Deviance was not determined by nature. (82)

- Sigmund Freud was a clinical psychologist who tried to help his patients overcome psychological disorders. He began to speculate on the origin of these disorders. (83) His central insight was that people in the present experience conflicts because humanity in the past experienced conflict. (84)

- for Freud, civilization was opposed to human biological nature because it tried to tame the animal instincts of people.(85) The story began with the primeval family, which, for Freud, was patriarchal and characterized by unrestricted sex. In the primeval family, sons desired their mother sexually, but their authoritarian father had priority of sexual access. (85)

- the theoretical foundation of 20^th century French anthropology could be found in Emile Durkheim. He influenced A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and his theory of structuralism. Durkheim was considered as the forerunner of French structural anthropology. (90) His theory developed in progression with the publication of four books. In his book ‘Division of Labor in Society’, Durkheim explored the diversification and integration of culture. (90)

- Durkheim’s central insight was that social solidarity could be achieved in two different, organizationally opposite ways. (90) His vision of society was very different from that of Karl Marx. For Marx, the state would wither away. For Durkheim, the government was necessary to regulate socially interdependent parts. (91)

- for Durkheim social facts were collective representation of the collective consciousness. Using suicide as a case study, he explained a particular social fact: suicide was an act that seemed to individualist yet, explained sociologically, could be shown to have a strong social dimension. (91)

- Durkheim in his fourth book, “The Elementary forms of the religious Life”,  exposed the societal origins of religion. For him the origin of something had its source in the group mind. (91)

- the intellectual transition from Durkheim to Claude Levi-Strauss was accomplished by Marcel Mauss. The most well-known elaboration of idea of the total social fact was expressed in his essay “The Gift”. One of the most important contribution was to shift focus from Durkheim’s’ ‘mind’ of group to the minds of individuals. (93)

(to be continued)

A history of Anthropological Theory

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Paul Erickson and Liam Murphy.2003. A history of Anthropological Theory. Peterborough, Ont.; Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, c1998.

Main points:

Introduction: anthropology was divided into 4 subfields. First was physical or biological anthropology which included paleoanthropologist. Second was the study of artifact. The third was linguistic anthropology. The 4^th was cultural or sociocultural, the study of human lifeways. (17) Arguably there was a 5^th subfield: applied anthropology. (18)

- in this book anthropological theory could be considered to be a branch of science, humanism, or religion. (19) In science, people and god were treated as secondary to nature. In humanism, god and nature are treated as secondary to people: “Man is the measure of all things.” In Religion, nature and people were treated as secondary to god. (19) God created ‘heaven and earth’. (20)

- anthropology could be seen as searching for answers to fundamental questions asked: “were did we come from?”, “why do we differ?” Therefore, all people had their own version of anthropology. This book derived from the western cultivation. (20)

- part one – the early history of anthropological theory - anthropology in Antiquity - in common with all western academic disciplines, the roots of anthropology lied in the intellectual traditions of the Greco-Roman “ancient” world.(21) Greco-Roman civilization produced several Classical intellectual traditions. Some traditions seem scientific, while others appeared more humanistic or religious. (21) The root of anthropology could be found in classical science. (22)

- the first group of classical thinkers was philosophers whose thought predated that of Socrates. The pre-Socratics were really cosmologist. Some of their speculations were materialistic, meaning that they invoked natural rather than supernatural cause. (22) Pre-Socratics philosophers saw people created by nature, not god. (22)

- in the 5^th BC, there was a major changed in Greek and shift in thought leading to new philosophical schools. One new school was Sophistry.  They taught practical skills (i.e. not for objective knowledge or absolute truth). Sophist Protagoras believed that human behavior was influenced by life circumstance. Behavior is a cultural convention, similar to the 20th century cultural relativism. (23)

- for some sophist relativism led to nihilism, the doctrine that nothing existed or was knowable. Feeling that knowledge was merely what was said to be true by people in power: an idea similar to the key part of Marxism. (23) (or Foucault) Some Athenian philosophers were opposing to sophistry. Socrates thought that there were universal values. Plato, his student, agreed that there was universal values existed because they were innate in the human mind. (23) (c/f. John Locke: clean paper human nature).

- Plato’s student was curious about the relationship among natural and social objects, his legacy included science. (24) Later Greek life and thought declined. (Shifted to Roman) Competing schools of thought emerged. Stoics believed that nature and society were highly orderly. This order was not created by people or god, but was a natural cosmic order. Sometimes called Logos. (25) A belief in a universals social order made it possible to compare and contrast particular social orders, a fundamental task of what today we called social science. (24) Contrary to Plato, Stoics believed in ‘blank state’, meaning that knowledge was not innate. (24)

- toward the end of the Roman Empire social conditions deteriorated. Several religions competed for appeal to the socially oppressed; all built on the Stoic idea of an overarching supernatural order in the universe.  They preached obedience to divine rather than civil laws. Outpacing competition, Christianity gained converts and became the state religion of Rome. (25) For anthropology, the most consequential Church father was Saint Augustine. According to Augustine, god was perfect and human nature was sinful. Human behavior was to be judged not by people or nature, but by god. (25) (saw the rise of god)

- the legacy of Antiquity to anthropology was the establishment of the humanistic, religious, and scientific intellectual outlook. These outlooks, especially the scientific outlook, had been preserved in anthropology ever since. (26)

- the Middle Ages: - in the period following Augustine’s death, Roman Empire was occupied by non-Christian ‘barbarian’. The Christian tradition flourished in the eastern Roman at Constantinople. (26) The interaction between Islam and Christianity occurred on the 8^th century when Islamic moors invaded Christian Spain. Christian theology became increasingly ‘rational’ meaning that human reason was brought to bear on theological issues. This trend culminated in the theology of Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas reasoned that people could, and should know god through knowing nature. (27)

- inevitably, cracks in the whole system surfaced, scholars began to choose. Once this happened the door was open for anthropology to develop. (27) Three complex events produced knowledge that, outside Thomas Aquinas circles, made the syntheses unravel. These events were the renaissance, voyages of geographic discovery, and the scientific revolution. (27)

- renaissance thinkers came to realize that the Ancients possessed a fuller and more satisfying grasp of human nature than the Christians. Renaissance interest in the ancient world produced a new sense of time which no longer was static, but capable of changes. This realization led to systematic contrast of ancient and medieval ways of life and, in turn, to question the authority of the medieval catholic church. This contributed to the protestant reform movement. (28) A paramount reason for the change of medieval into modern times was the scientific revolution, as a method of intellectual investigation. (34)

- epistemology was the branch of philosophy that explored the nature of knowledge. Two major epistemologies emerged. One is deduction. The most famous architect to deduction was Cartesian: ‘I exit, therefore god exit, therefore the real world exists’. (34) The second epistemology was induction, the process of discovering the general explanation. (34) ( facts led to the truth)

- the Enlightenment was the name given for the time period from Newton’s principle of mathematics to the time of the French revolution in 1789. Intellectual produced key concepts of social science, in anthropology the most important of these concept was culture. (37) “Newton believed that god has created the universe while, unlike a theistic philosopher, he did not invoke god to account for its day-to-day machinations. Metaphorically, the Newtonian universe was a clock, god the clockmaker.” (38)

- the most important part of Locke’s epistemology for anthropology was his idea, resurrected from the ancient Stoics, that the mind of each newborn person was a ‘blank stage’. (38)

- aping the accomplishment of Newton, some enlightenment intellectuals sought to discover ‘laws’ of human history (universal historians). According to Locke, human experience was understood to have accumulated as culture. (39)

- Vico described how humanity had passed through the three stages of god, heroes, and man. Turgot described the passage of humanity though the 3 stages of hunting, pastoralism, and farming. (39)

- the French revolution overthrew the upper-class privilege, unleashing a new middle class, the bourgeoisie. (40)

- the revolution was fought on the basis of enlightenment ideals that insisted on the human capacity for moral and intellectual progress and, ultimately perfection. When the revolution turned out badly, European intellectual turned their backs on these ideals. The result was a rise in conservative attitudes. (40) (c/f similar to pondering over science after the Titanic sinking) (or science and the brutality of the WWII)

- conservatism appeared in a number of guises. One was fundamentalist Christianity. Many new Christian denominations develop, espousing ‘Evangelical’. Newton’s clockmaker god was replaced by god of divine intervention. (41) Another guise of conservation was romanticism that glorified non-rational, emotional side of human nature, and denied the primacy of Cartesian thought. Finally there was the racism (c/f nationalism). (41)

- conservatism also affected social science. Social scientists also felt that it was time to put more emphasize on stability. The result was the all-encompassing philosophy of Positivism. Positivism was the creation of Augustine Comet.  He described how almost all branches of knowledge had passed through three stages: theological, metaphysical, and positive. Theological was to explain thing in terms of deities, metaphysics on abstract concepts, and in the positive stage, in terms of science. (41)

- in 1859, British geologist Charles Lyell marked the first scientific consensus about the great time depth of prehistory and was the symbolic birth of the science of prehistoric archaeology. (58) Like cultural evolutionist, archaeologist used the comparative method to reconstruct the prehistory past. (58)

(to be continued)

Postwar Japan as History

Recently I have read the following book. A summary is attached.

Book title: Gordon, Andrew ed. 1993. Postwar Japan as History. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Introduction:

- one goal of this book was to clarify the varied senses on postwar eras held by people when they defined the boundaries of postwar restrictively or extensively.

- it tries to delineate several contexts for the consideration of postwar history, to seek to place the history of Japan in broader historical, international and comparative context; to identify longer trends that have shaped postwar changes.

Chapters summary:

Ch. 1: It talks about the two systems: 1955 system and the San Francisco system. These two phrases remain suggestive to recreate postwar Japan as history; they reflect a worldviews, looking both outward and inwards. (5) 1955 system was a sequence of political and socioeconomic development in 1955, including the establishment of the LDP. It signified a domestic political structure characterize an internally completive but hegemonic conservative establishment. (4) Peace and democracy in postwar Japan began with the allied occupation, evolved into the San Francisco system. The peace treaty was signed in San Francisco in 1951. The general policy of incorporating Japan into the US cold-war policy was clear. Both had its genesis in the occupation-period reverse course (14).

Ch.2: It shows the interdependence of US and Japan. Their relationship will survive current and future storms only if economic interdependent and strategic dependence continued (61).

Ch.3:  The essay identifies four categories of the past: a. the progressive intellectuals, b. the conservative intellectuals, c. the purveyors of the popular past which included the television, comics, films, newspapers and d. the individual memories (pp.72-76). Gluck concluded that there were at least three sengo: a. the real sengo which was the period of reform and recovery, b. the penumbral sengo of dramatic economic rise, and third c. the sengo, the international postwar which finally end in 1989. (92-94). The myth of a new beginning, itself a radical ahistorical notion, not only prevented seeing the 20^th century whole, but also elided the prewar and wartime and perpetuated the notion of a long postwar. 50 years after WWII, it is not a matter of ‘postwar Japan as history’: but postwar Japan is history.

Ch. 6: This chapter was about social contract.  First it focuses on small business (148). It asserts that by comparative standards, it was clear that Japan’s small business effectively gained and maintained a position within the ruling coalition (154). About the organized labour, like the small-business sector, they could claim a number of gains in forcing government and big business to consider the welfare of its members in economic re-structuring (163). In conclusion, the essay revises a prevailing view on the attribute of LDP’s remarkable persistence to ‘creative conservatism”, i.e.  the seemingly unfailing ability of the ruling party, bureaucrats and big business to promote popular polices from above. A revised view was that: to see the small business and labour organization at work. (165). The social contract became a central feature in the Japanese conception of democracy in the postwar era. The public accepted the hegemony of the conservative coalition only as long as it seriously negotiated to accommodate the interest of various social organizations.

Ch. 7: The article argues that at first in Japan there was the consensus that economic recovery and growth were the over-riding national objective, but clashes between the cost and benefits of rapid growth produced a solution that included new regulations for businessman, compensations for damages, and improved social security (169).

Ch. 8: The goal of the chapter was to formulate analytically the transformation that had both standardized and differentiated postwar Japan (192). The thesis of the essay was that the postwar transformation must be traced on 3 levels: 1. Ideological process, 2. Institutional pattern, and 3. the everyday routine of individuals. The essay uses the families to support its argument. The three Itos and the three Kimuras. The book concludes that through their stories, one can find ample evidence of how the ideologies and institutions of the postwar decades had shaped both the convergences and divergence of their life ways. From tenancy to modern mechanized agriculture, from an old middle-class to new middle-class corporate employment (215). Neither elite coercion nor negotiated consensus could characterize the social order of middle and late Showa. Its order was better described as co-optive, complicit, and contested (216). It was interesting to note the introduction of this essay by William Kelly which pointed out that while one the surface was a homogeneous society, there was strong culture, class difference in the society.

Ch. 9. Marilyn Ivy talks about mass culture. The goal of the essay was concerned with tracing a critical genealogy of postwar mass cultural formation (240). Comic provide a point of continuity with prewar form, although large-format comic books were not widespread until after the war. Manga also become a point of critique of mass culture in the 1960s. (248). TV rapidly outstripped the movies as he prime source of entertainment. Throughout the period, Japanese development had paralleled those in the other advanced capitalistic countries. (257)

Ch.11.The goal was to trace the influence of “good wife, wise mother” in postwar state politics and society, in the context of ideological and social changes taking place in the 19^th century. It argues that  although overt attempts by the state to dictate womanhood had decreased in intensity since 1945, a vision of women as homebound wives and mother continued to influence state policies toward welfare, education, employment until the late 1980s.(295).

Book's Conclusion:

- Postwar Japan could be divided into 3 periods: first was from 1950-1955 (political confrontation, starvation, socialism) second from mid-1950s to early 1970s (LDP, high economic growth). The third period from early 1970s to 1990s (difficult to characterize, yet internationally there was the uncomfortable American ally; domestically the peace constitution and the emperor system). (449-451)

- this book tries to understand the history of “postwar Japan” as part of a longer process: one observation was the defeat and occupation had not brought a total rupture with the past. Legacy from the 1930s and the war era shaped the postwar political economy, international domestic (452). There were strong links between pre-war, war, and postwar eras embodied in the ‘passage-through’ of the old guards’ that wanted to rearm and revised the constitution. The political thought and organization of this old guard was rooted in the imperial order.

- about US hegemony, the global power of the US had not always shaped Japan’s development in a straightforward or intentional fashion (454). The landscape of postwar history was littered with irony of intended results, e.g. in economic policy due to the oil and yen shocks.

- locating the argument in this book in the context of existing perspective on postwar history was complicated by 3 fact: historian was slow in seeing it as history, postwar history discussion between Japanese and the West constituted two streams, and that the essays in this book did not speak in a uniform voice. They argued that the political or social system was continually reformulated or renegotiated (457).

- the book challenges the attempts to simply equate economic growth in the postwar decades with ‘success’. Taira in chapter 7 criticizes works that identified economic growth with national success. (458)

- the essays in this book stress uncertainty, ambivalence, or surprise that people felt about the ‘outcomes’ seen during the postwar era. Japan’s rise as an economic superpower looked smooth, but many who lived through it experienced it as an astonishing transformation (459). Both the authors of this book and the Japanese lived in this period remain divided in their reading of the ‘balance sheet’ of postwar history (460).

-the notion of Japan as a middle-class society emerged in the wake of the oil shock seemed to threaten social cohesiveness (463). 

'後現代'與'大話'

最近讀了 “感情的實踐:香港流行歌詞研究”一書, 有一些得著. 例如以前我對兩個詞彙不甚瞭解: 一個是 ‘grand narrative’ 另一個是 ‘post-modern’. 在這本書陳倩君在文章引用李歐塔(Jean-Francois Lyotard)加以說明這兩詞. 亦引用陳清僑指出post-modern (後現代)帶來的衝擊可簡化為三要點: 敘事解體,意義崩裂和主體分離. 至於‘grand narrative’(大話)一詞, 文章引用李歐塔指出,近代社會的一大特色是 ‘大話’ 的存在. 所有近代文明都會編做造一些理想, 說一個充滿意義的偉大故事來聯繫人心, 以保社會文化秩序的合理性和合法性.

註: 陳清僑編.“感情的實踐:香港流行歌詞研究. 牛津大學出版社, 1997. 這本書是由網友Alex郵寄送來.在此僅表謝意. 參考: http://blog.hoiking.org/2011/07/15/2571/

哲學家查尔斯·桑德斯·皮尔士(1839-1914)

Recently I revisited the book “Classic Philosophical Questions” edited by James A. Gould. My attention was attracted by the philosophical ideas of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). Part of the detail is briefly summarized below:

Charles Sander Peirce is seen by many American as a profound philosopher. He suggests that every individual has a philosophy, i.e. a system of belief on philosophic issues such as ‘love’, ‘good life’, ‘death’, ‘value of money’, ‘duty to one’s country’ , ‘the role of the government’ etc. Usually people form their beliefs through their parents, peers, church or perhaps even from reading various philosophers. A mature philosophy consists of making reflection on the experience in search of the underlying meaning and principle that guide one’s life. The particular approach used to tackle a philosophical question often determines the answer. Peirce distinguishes four common methods. First is the Method of Tenacity, which is fixing one’s belief according to environment or personal relationship. The second is the Method of authority, which fixing one’s belief according the person who is in authority (e.g. what the authority has said must be right). Third is the a priori Method, or the Method of intuition (i.e. the belief is arrived at independent of experience). The fourth one is the Method of science. Peirce only favors the fourth method.

I am surprised to note that many people are using Method of authority to form their philosophy in general, and in politics in particular. May God bless these poor souls.

(Reference: James A. Gould ed. Classic Philosophical Questions.NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc. 1998)

中國現代文化

最近翻閱 ”民族主義與中國現代化”一書, 在書序中見到陳方正有以下之言:
1. 經歷了過去一世紀多次運動與思潮衝擊之後, 中國知識分子已不會再熱衷於宣揚思想,主義, 或者引導群眾運動了. 他們焦點在於深層的文化反省. 這樣的研究必須從西方學術成果中吸收營養.
2. 文化建設不等於學術研究, 因為它還有觀念始創與大眾傳播的一面.
3. 人文社會科學和自然科學不同. 根源於地域與文化的個別性是必自然存在的. 所以中國知識分子必須用自己的心思眼光,為中國文化建設自自己的觀念系統與價值正規範.
4. 中國的意識,觀念,價值,什麼時候才會像日本主宰全球青少年神經的卡通電影那樣,成為衝擊西方哲學家,社會學家,歷史學家的思想與下意識的不可抗拒力量?

我也希望知道中國的意識,觀念,價值,什麼時候才會像日本一些流行文化般成為衝擊西方哲學家,社會學家,歷史學家的思想力量.
(參考: 劉青峰編. 民族主義與中國現代化. 中文大學出版社. 1994)

勵志文集(下)

“勵志文集”一書原作者是美國學者馬爾騰, 後被林語堂翻譯成中文. 這文集書共有八十四篇短文, 內容十分容讀, 意義清晰亦實用. 在其中包含了不少在職場有用的技能和一些可以提升你人生觀的方法. 值得一看. 現節錄其中四篇文章裏面的一些金句:

1. 失敗了以後 (十四頁)
“測驗某一個人的品格, 最好是在他失敗的時候 . . . 傾跌了以後, 立刻站立起來 . . . 是自古以來偉大人物的成功秘訣”.
“什麼是失敗? . . . 它是走上較高地位的第一階段”
2. ‘不小心的’悲劇 (十八頁)
“大地之上, 到處可以看到工作不小心所造成的悲慘的結果 . . . 做事絕對精密 , 絕對正確的名譽對於一個從事事業的青年, 其益處等於大量的金錢資本. 人人都能信用他, 都給他以便利"
3. 工作系統化 (二十二頁)
"工作沒有系統的商人, 每因辦事方法之失當, 而蒙大量之損失. . . 有一位商人, 曾將 ‘缺乏系統’ 一事列為許多公司失敗的大原因"
4. 等不得一等 (二十六頁)
"一個人能夠懂得光陰之可貴, 而不肯輕易放過一分一秒的時間, 則最後他的生命, 總會印上 ‘能力' 之標誌".
" 有些青年人, 就因為不能敏捷, 不能準時, 遂至失掉了上陞及得到高等位置的機會 "


如果讀者有興趣知道更多文章的內容, 可以找這本書看看.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) is known for his contributions in the fields of mathematics and physics. However, I also admire Newton for his viewpoint on knowledge. Newton had once said that "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

His another viewpoint on knowledge is reflected in the quotation by him as follows: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". Here Newton was borrowing the idea from Bernard of Charters (died in about 1130AD) who used to say that we were like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we could see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we were carried high and raised up by their giant size.

On the basis of their idea, I create my own analogy. I compare books and knowledge to the giant. Also I always compare those people who love reading books to equip themselves with those who seldom or never read books. To my mind, books and knowledge is the giant in the form of tools. In general it is always the case that, with the help of tools, people can do things better and faster than those who do it with bare hands. In the ancient time, with the help of tools, human could excel animals in survival, and eventually stood at the top of the food chain. By the same token, in modern time in the concrete jungle, similar law of survival may exit, I think.

Reference:
1. Bill Swainson ed. Encarta Book of Quotations. NY: St. Martin' Press, 2000.
2. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations- Third Edition. Oxford University Press,1980.

香港中文大學

“新亞書院概況” 這本書是我最近在卑詩大學亞洲圖書館買來的舊書. 不知為什麼, 近年我對中文大學或新亞書院等學府有一種無名的享往, 可能是它代表中國文化, 代表追求知識的地方. 相同理由, 自幼就對九龍塘一些滿佈名校的街道亦有一種無名的好感, 例如, 牛津道, 籣開夏道等. 本人出身草根, 更因一向讀書成績平平, 故很早就明白能進入這些學府的機會很渺茫. 在學生年代, 只是路經這些街道, 或是走過這些學校的大門時, 就已有一些滿足感. 多年後, 在不同途徑中漸漸對中大的成立背景有更深的認識, 例如看到錢穆寫於一九八九年的 “新亞遺鐸”一書的內容簡介中提到 “作者四十年前避共產黨赤禍赴香港, 創辦香港第一所流亡人士之大專院校 – 新亞書院.” 即時感覺第一代中大創校者的心血與期望, 和當時文化人面對的艱難歲月. 相片中 “新亞書院概況”一書是在六十年代末出版, 它的第七十頁列出了當時的學規, 揀錄如下:

“凡屬新亞書院.學生, 必先深切了解新亞書院.之精神. 下面列舉綱宗, 以備本院諸生隨時誦覽, 就事研究.
一. 求學與做人, 貴能齊頭並進, 更貴能溶通合一
二. 做人的最崇高基礎在求學, 求學之最高旨趣在做人
三. ……”

估不到的是, 排第二的學規是清楚地說明求學之最高旨趣在做人, 並非求什麼高薪厚職或者榮華富貴. 真感動.

參考:
1. 錢穆. “新亞遺鐸”. 臺北:東土圖公司印行. 一九八九
2. 香港中文大學. “新亞書院概況”. 鄧鏡波學校承印. 一九六八?
(Note: Should any reader like to have the book in the photo for more meaningful use, e.g. for school library collection or for research purpose, I am willing to give it away. Please contact me at winghojoki@yahoo.ca)

勵志文集(上)

"勵志文集" 這本書原著是美國學者馬爾騰, 它被林語堂翻譯成中文. 內容即使是有些老生常談, 但對年青人來說, 仍然不失其教育意義. 現節錄寫於一九九九年的代序如下:

美國學者馬爾騰博士所著的 “勵志文集”, 針對年青一代成長過程中所遭遇的各種問題, 分析入微, 說理透徹. 對頹唐者能振奮鬥志, 對消極者能激勵人心, 對迷途者予以引導, 對荒唐者予以警醒, 大有助於年青人培養品格, 建立自信, 健康正確地邁向社會. 當年林語堂先生曾受其鼓舞, 自謂 "讀馬氏的原書後, 精神為之大振, 人生觀念為之一變, 煩悶, 消極, 悲觀, 頹唐的妖霧陰霾, 已經驅除盡淨, 現在所面對的, 是光天化日下的世界和人世了.” 因此林先生遂將馬書譯成中文, 希望有助於激勵同時代的中國青年.

這書總共有八十四篇短文, 十分容易閱讀, 其意義清晰亦實用, 在其中包含了不少職場有用的技能, 值得一看. 其中部分短文的題目是:
1. 失敗了以後
2. 工作系統化
3. 生命的儲能
4. 交友的影響
5. 成功的機器
6. 不要恐懼
7. 怎樣補救缺陷的性格
8. 自求進步
9. 讀書的習慣
10. 學校以外之教育
11. 擇業不可不慎
12. 悲觀無益
13. 凡事須作積極肯定
14. 理想如何實踐
15. 怎樣鍛練思想 . . .

當我看完這本書之後, 有被 ‘塞錢入你袋’ 的感覺. (待續)

Freakonomics

最近我在相熟博客的網誌中看到介紹一書本 Freakonomics. 於是由圖書館借來一看. 它是在2005年出版, 是講一些有關美國的事情, 例如美國地產等. 部份主題的內容雖然是老生常談, 但它看問題的角度則頗有新意. 例如第五章的名稱 是 'What Makes a Perfect Parent?'. 它談及美國人教養小孩方法和它的有效性. 作者在分析十六個教導兒童有關的方法或者現象, 用統計數字來證實它是否有效. 書本第166頁摘錄如下:

According to the the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study ( ECLS) data, eight of the factors show a strong correlation - positive or negative - with test scores. The other eight don't seem to matter. Feel free to guess which are which.

1.The child has highly educated parents.
2.The child 's family is intact.
3.The child's parents have high socioeconomic status.
4.The child's parents recently moved into a better neighbourhood.
5.The child's mother was thirty or older at the time of here first child's birth.
6.The child's mother didn't work between birth and kindergarten.
7.The child had low birth weight.
8.The child attended Head Start.
9.The child's parents speak English in the home.
10.The child's parents regularly take him to museums.
11.The child is adopted.
12.The child is regularly spanked.
13.The child's parents are involved in the PTA.
14.The child frequently watched television.
15.The child has many books in his home.
16.The child's parents read to him nearly every day.

據作者(Steven D. Levitt)分析, 以上十六個主題, 只有八個是在統計學上與學生的測驗得分有關(正面或者負面). 我的感覺是以上的觀察可能只適合美國情況, 如果在世界其他地方, 可能未必適用, 不過仍然有參考價值. (答案: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15). 至於是正面或是負面影響及其原因, 讀者可以從書本中找到.

Note:
1.ECLS measured the student's academic performance and gathered typical survey information about each child: his race, gender, family structure, socioeconomic status, the level of his parent's education etc.
2. PTA is Parent-Teacher Association
3. Head Start is a federal pre-school program in the US

<陳寅恪的最後20年>

最近有關國學大師季羨林逝世的消息令我想起另外一位國學大師陳寅恪(1890 - 1969). 我於是從書架中取出多年前看過有關陳的書重溫一遍, 它帶給我的傷感與當年第一次看時的並無淡褪. 我為國家浪費了一個不可多得的人才而感到遺憾. 亦為一個有高尚氣節的文人學者的不屈精神作出敬意. <陳寅恪的最後20年>是天地圖書在1996年出版. 全書共二十二章. 這書的故事開始於1949年, 這是一個大時代, 不少人必須作出去留的決定, 包括陳寅恪在內. 書序由1948年底的北京講起, 北京大學校長胡適在十二月十五日登上一架冒險在南苑機場降落的飛機, 開始了 "搶運學人" 的序幕. 全書故事主要是講述陳在廣東中山大學的經歷, 詳細地介紹每一個與陳有關連的人物, 有十分感性的敘述, 值得一看.