Shinto shrine near...
The National Diet Bldg...
Built around 800 years ago originally with a background of the Japanese myth...
Review of First Chinese Empire as Revolution
"You need two bells to learn truth" - a proverb of Haiti
So, I say even a capitalist is a human being; even Stalin is a human being.
If a capitalist fails in being rich as a capitalist, he would try hard to be a Stalin to be rich.
If Stalin fails in being a Stalin, he would try hard to be a capitalist to be rich.
SECTION I: From the Beginning: Arrogance
King of Qin with the personal name Zheng (Sei in Japanese) (259 BC – 210 BC) defeated all the enemy kingdoms that had sprung up or got independence after the fall of the predominant Shang (Shou in Japanese) kingdom to unify whole China in 221 B.C. Then he carried out notable imperial inspection tours through his territory five times in 220 B.C., 219 B.C., 218 B.C., 215 B.C., and 210 B.C.
It was the second tour that decided the fate of not only First Emperor Zheng (Shikoutei in Japanese) himself and his Empire but also China in the next 2200 years and also Japan.
First Emperor Zheng went up Mount Tai (Taizan in Japanese) in the east part of the continent to perform a mysterious ritual that was only allowed for a king or an emperor according to an ancient mythical teaching.
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Religious worship of Mount Tai has a tradition of 3,000 years, it has been practiced from the time of the Shang to that of the Qing Dynasty. Over time, this worship evolved into an official imperial rite and Mount Tai became one of the principal places where the emperor would pay homage to heaven (on the summit) and earth (at the foot of the mountain) in the Feng (Chinese: 封; pinyin: Fēng) and Shan (Chinese: 禪; pinyin: Shàn) sacrifices respectively. The two sacrifices are often referred to together as the Fengshan sacrifices (Chinese: 封禪; pinyin: Fēngshàn). Carving of an inscription as part of the sacrifices marked the attainment of the "great peace"[4]. In 219 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, held a ceremony on the summit and proclaimed the unity of his empire in a famous inscription. During the Han Dynasty, the Feng and Shan sacrifices were considered the highest of all sacrifices [4].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tai
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It is still controversial specifically how First Emperor Zheng performed the religious ritual at the summit of Mount Tai and what true intention he had. The Emperor himself did not make it clear or recorded how he had performed his own ritual as the sole ruler on the Chinese continent or the main part of the continent. (But, why must have it be kept secret? So as to avoid criticism or due to a lack of self confidence?)
Yet, when First Emperor Zheng was going down after the ceremony where he is believed to have associated with Heaven and Ground, it suddenly started a strong rain as if the heaven had been displeased. But, there was a big pine tree by the wayside that gave a convenient shelter to the Emperor. So, after the tempest, First Emperor Zheng showed his appreciation to the pine tree by conferring a peerage, which was very extraordinary since a noble title was given to a plant by an emperor.
Then, First Emperor Zheng continued to travel with soldiers and officials to the east coast of the continent to meet a master of tao sorcery called Xu Fu (Jyo-Fuku in Japanese) from a kingdom called Qi which had been conquered by Qin in 221 B.C. in the last stage of Zheng's war of conquest. Though the Emperor was just around 40 years old at the time, he accepted Xu Fu's petition to send him to three holy mountains in legendary islands in the east sea and bring back the legendary elixir of life for the Emperor. Accordingly, Xu Fu, a mysterious man, later left for the legend islands with 3,000 boys and girls as well as various types of craftsmen in addition to seeds of various grains, though Xu Fu and his band never sailed back to China.
And then, First Emperor Zheng and his great imperial procession continued, sailing upstream in the Long River to a place called Xiang Shan. From there his great party tried to cross a river in vain. A tempest again stood before First Emperor Zheng who got so irritated. So, he asked a scholar about a god of the river. As the scholar answered that it was mythical daughters of the most respected mythical Emperor Yao (Gyo in Japanese), angry First Emperor Zheng ordered his soldiers to cut down all the tress in a mountain on the river where a mausoleum dedicated to the goddesses was situated as if taking clothes from the goddesses.
So, a causal circle started to work.
The Qin Dynasty collapsed after First Emperor's death through a series of large-scale fierce battles against insurgent army in 207 B.C.
Yet, according to various local legends in Japan, that master of tao sorcery called Xu Fu (Jyo-Fuku in Japanese) reached some part of Japan after sailing across the East China Sea. Though it is not established whether or not Xu Fu contributed to any development of culture in Japan around 200 B.C., there are many Japanese today who believe that Xu Fu actually reached a certain location of the Japanese Islands, since the Islands had been regarded as the holy islands in the east sea by ancient Chinese philosophers. Some Chinese even assumed Xu Fu's linkage to ancestors of the Japanese Imperial Family.
As a lesson, it is noteworthy that First Emperor of China Zheng became so arrogant as to challenge gods and goddesses and Heaven after his conquest and unification of whole China. So, his empire Qin crashed when his son ascended the imperial throne after the death of First Emperor Zheng during his last imperial inspection tour.
In this context, it is noteworthy that First Emperor of China Zheng (259 BC – 210 BC) shared a similar fate with Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC), though, over a century gap.
The most impressive thing about First Emperor Zheng of Qing is that there is unbelievable imbalance between the great achievement of Qin and the mean spirituality of Emperor Zheng.
"How could the first empire of China be built by this flimsy personality of Emperor Zheng?" must be a common feeling among those who have ever studied the ancient Chinese history. But, it tells power of something new at the time. It is apparent that Qin or its king Zheng, before their imperial establishment, had something so powerful that made their revolutionary achievement possible.
In other word, if any great revolution occurs in China, it can be mostly accompanied by mean spirituality of leaders who are engaged in the great deed.
That is why you must not simply respect or trust Chinese Communist leaders of today only because their predecessors achieved the great Chinese revolution in the early 20th century.
The New York Times might be thinking that Chinese revolutionary leaders and their successors have been all as great as American independent war heroes and their successors. But, it is not necessarily so, or rather it is opposite as proved by the case of Chinese First Emperor Zheng of Qing.
SECTION II: What Made Revolution Possible
It is of course revolutionary thinking like communism Karl Marx formulated.
Qing people eventually adopted revolutionary thinking in comparison with ideological traditions having been observed in the preceding period of history, namely between 770 B.C. and 221 B.C.
Especially the era between 770 B.C. and 476 B.C. in China is called the Spring and Autumn Period; the one between 476 B.C. and 221 B.C. the Warring States Period. The former is symbolized by the emergence of Confucius and other philosophers; the latter by wider use of iron and its application to weapons (though Qin in this period used highly advanced bronze weapons as effective as iron weapons that had been just started to diffuse).
As time went by, Qin started to view in a revolutionary manner the paradigm of Confucianism and other moral teachings and also apply iron to their weapons in an advanced manner, gaining a great military and political advantage over other kingdoms. However, they were all made possible without a king who was sufficiently a person of noble character and admirable integrity.
Put simply, the kingdom of Qin happened to meet the necessary conditions to realize a revolutionary change and achieve its conquest without contribution from spiritual power of its king.
Again, it tells how powerful and effective the combination of advanced thinking, at any moral level, and advanced weapons, if not original ones, is in carrying out revolution.
You may like to feel some glory in the terms of the First Chinese Empire and the First Chinese Emperor, but true glory was not in them. It was in the history or the era; otherwise, it was among poor people so living and fighting honestly for their own life and causes.
Even today, only poor people, but not elites, in China deserve the honor of recent economic development.
That is why it is stupid for The New York Times to blindly believe what Chinese elites say about the Senkaku Islands and the recent law-enforcing action by the Japan Coast Guard around them. Indeed, total 300 or more Chinese fishing boats are captured, and violent crews on board are arrested by South Korean authorities every year for their illegal fishing operation within the sea territory of South Korea. Though there are no islands such as the Senkaku Islands in the sea between China and Kore, it does not matter for the Chinese fishing industry. It is the norm for Chinese fishing boats to violate a territorial sea of a neighboring country.
But, of course, Japan does not blame poor crews of Chinese fishing boats. It is the fishing industry, related authorities, and elites and governmental agencies of China that has to take responsibility.
Now, The New York Times had better think which Palestine and Jerusalem belong to, Arabs or Israelis, since the existence of Israel looks so revolutionary after WWII.
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Japan's Prime Minister Mr. Naoto Kan is reportedly facing a crisis.
The 40-years-long politician of the same ruling party DPJ Mr. Ichiro Ozawa has rejected a demand from Party Head Mr. Kan that Mr. Ozawa should explain in a parliament committee specifics of the now-legal case of Mr. Ozawa's political-fund scandal.
They met and discussed the matter taking 1.5 hours in the Prime Minister Office today.
As Mr. Ozawa has an influence on 200 national lawmakers of the DPJ and P.M. Mr. Kan 206, according to the result of the recent party leadership election, it is a crisis for the prime minister.
The DPJ is virtually split into two camps, one led by P.M. Mr. Kan and Chief Cabinet Secretary Mr. Yoshito Sengoku and another commanded by Former P.M. Mr. Yukio Hatoyama and his senior ally Mr. Ozawa.
In these months whenever liberal Mr. Kan took a tough stance against old-fashioned Mr. Ozawa, the former's popularity rose. The recent low-approval rating, around 25%, for the Kan Cabinet has all the more made it necessary for P.M. Mr. Kan to resolutely deal with Mr. Ozawa. Yet, Lower-House member Mr. Ozawa took a major part in various political strife since early 1990's; he is a die-hard political guy with various sources of political funds.
This is the biggest news in Japan: Kan vs. Ozawa.
Of course, seeing the big picture, the point at issue is whether or not the conservative pro-American opposition LDP can come back to power through the next general election, though it fell from power last September after half a century dominance in the Japanese political domain.
My advice to the prime minister is to forget about Mr. Ozawa.
Let Mr. Ozawa alone, since he will be soon forced to make appearance in a court as a defendant. He cannot be prime minister. And let him manage his faction in the party. There is no need to expel Mr. Ozawa out of the party, since it will increase instability and uncertainty of the foundation of the DPJ regime.
What I want the prime minister to do is to remove the limit of the amount of government bonds to be newly issued in the next fiscal year. Issue 10 trillion yen more bonds to raise funds for a large-scale revamping of social and welfare infrastructure including various facilities and systems from agriculture to medical care and other high level of public work. If the Kan Cabinet cannot take a bold course of issuing government notes, it has to have the Bank of Japan buy more government bonds worth 10 trillion yen ($115 billion) from market.
Mat 12:19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
Mat 12:20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.