"when men shall hate you" - Mysterious Agent Jing Ke

 Oh-arai Port in Northeast of Tokyo

Mysterious Agent Jing Ke

Jing Ke ("Keika" in Japanese; ? - 227 BC) was the most respected terrorist in ancient China.

But he was sent by the crown prince Dan of Yan to the court of Qin for the purpose to assassinate King Zheng of Qin state who was to become the First Emperor of China after he unified all the warring states through fierce battles and wars.

In 228 BC, the Qin army was already at the Zhao capital, Handan, and was waiting to approach the state of Yan. Jing Ke agreed to go to Qin state and pretend to be a nobleman begging for mercy.[2] According to events at the time, Dukang (in present day Hebei) was the first part of the Yan state that the Qin wanted, by reason of its fertile farmland.[2] The plan was to present a gift of the map of Dukang [2] and the severed head of the traitorous Qin general Fan Wuji [2] to the king of Qin, in order to approach him.

At the time, General Fan Wuji had lost favor with Qin and wanted revenge against it [4]; whereas the Qin state put a bounty on capturing him of 1,000 gold pieces.[5] Jing Ke went to Fan himself to discuss the assassination plan. Fan Wuji believed that the plan would work, and agreed to commit suicide, so that his head could be collected.  

Prince Dan then obtained the sharpest possible bishou, refined it with poison, and gave it to Jing Ke.[4] To accompany him, Prince Dan assigned Qin Wuyang as assistant. Qin Wuyang was known to have successfully committed murder at age 13.

In 227 BC, Prince Dan and other guests wore white clothing and white hats at Ji river to send the pair of assassins off.[4] Jing Ke reportedly sang a song "Piercing wind, freezing river of Yi. The hero fords, and he never returns!". The King of Qin received the message of visitors presenting a gift to him, and was willing to accept at the city. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jing_Ke

Jing Ke eventually failed to take on King Zheng while his assistant Qin Wuyang felt so intimidated as the two assassins approached to the throne of Zheng in the Qin's royal court. Qin Wuyang crouched down to shiver from fear when Jing Ke started to attack the king with the knife hidden in the map. Qin Wuyang was of no help to Jing Ke who also failed to stab King Zheng by a hair's breadth. 

If Qin Wuyang could have helped Jing Ke chase the king and held him before the dagger Jing Ke wielded, their mission could have been successful. But, King Zheng could narrowly escape the knife blade with help from a court physician who threw a medicine case at Jing Ke. The king, though in a panic, could draw his long sword from the sheath after a struggle. He cut a thigh of Jing Ke. Jin Ke, while falling down, pelted his knife at the king only to miss the aim. Then King Zheng put the assassin to the sword eight times.
So, Jing Ke failed, though he became one of the greatest hero in the Chinese history for his courage and nerve.

But, it is said that Jing Ke did not want to take Qin Wuyang as his party or an assistant for the planned assassination. Jing Ke was waiting for somebody to come to him while he was prepared for the cruel mission. Historian Si-ma Qian who reported this failed assassination of the future First Emperor of China did not mention who Jing Ke was waiting for till he was pushed so urgently to start the one-way journey to Qin by the crown prince Dan of Yan. And there are some theories about who Jing Ke was waiting for.

Nonetheless, if somebody should accompany Jing Ke to the throne of King Zheng, it must have been Crown Prince Dan. As Dan's hatred of his old friend King Zheng was so strong, he must have surely helped Jing Ke take on King Zheng by any means.

So, Jing Ke might have been waiting for Crown Prince Dan to volunteer to follow him to the royal court of Qin and the audience room where they would be received by the future First Emperor of China. Then, the future First Emperor of China must have been surely taken on by his old friend Crown Prince Dan of the state of Yan and the very sophisticated and courageous terrorist 2239 years ago.   

http://4travel.jp/overseas/area/asia/china-zhejiang_province/travelogue/10362671/


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Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
Luk 6:23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

"for ye shall laugh" - TEPCO's Report on Fukushima Daiichi

TEPCO's Report on Fukushima Daiichi

Tokyo Electric Power Corporation (TEPCO) finally issued a report on the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

So far, four Japanese organizations have been studying the accident to compile and deliver their own reports.

The Japanese Government set up a special investigative committee that already issued an interim report on the Fukushima Daiichi accident.  Their report denied the claim by former prime minister Mr. Kan that TEPCO tried to totally withdraw or run away from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant from fears in a coward manner on Maych 15, four days after the start of the nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011.  Its final report is expected to be delivered this summer.

A private committee, supported by journalists associated with The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, made public its report on the accident, though it is intended not to make true cause of the nuclear accident clear but mostly to save former prime minister Mr. Naoto Kan while the public doubts ability of Mr. Kan and suspects that he made a big failure in prevention of the accident and protection of Fukushima people and parties concerned.  Mr. Kan was in charge of handling the Fukushima Daiichi accident as prime minister of Japan from March to August 2011.

This private committee has no legitimate and official authority.  They could not even get cooperation from TEPCO.  TEPCO staff all refused to be interviewed by members of this committee who from the beginning tried to save face of former PM Mr. Kan.  In his 30-year career as a lawmaker, the liberal politician Mr. Kan has been helped or fostered by the liberal newspaper company The Asahi Shimbun newspaper.  As 80% of the Japanese voters think that former PM Mr. Kan made the situation worse in Fukushima Daiichi, The Asahi Shimbun set up this committee to defend Mr. Kan so tactically and politically.

A more authentic report is expected to be issued by an official investigating committee set up by the Japanese parliament (called the Diet).  The committee, with institutional power, has been interviewing many parties involved, including TEPCO executives.  This committee is to make public its report in a month.  As this committee is under supervision of all the parties of the Diet, it is expected that its report is not biased by any political groups, especially by the one linked to the ruling party DPJ where former prime minister Mr. Kan belongs.

Now back to the TEPCO's report, it is still unclear how the four nuclear reactors in the power plant were damaged and radioactive material was discharged after the great tsunami on March 11, 2011.

The No.1 Unit of Fukushima Daiichi released 14% of all the radioactive material discharged (which is about 900,000 tera Becquerels); No.2 accounted for 40%; No.3 for 36%; and No.4 for 10%.

(However, radioactive material discharged from the No.2 Unit seems to account for 90% of radioactive contamination in the land of Fukushima Daiichi and other prefectures.)

However, the No.2 reactor unit did not suffer a hydrogen explosion unlike all the other three Units.  The building housing No.2 Unit is not so severely damaged.  At 6 a.m. on March 15, a big exploding sound was heard from the Unit No.2, and the pressure in its pressure suppression pool decreased so sharply.  And from 7 a.m. of the day, doses measured at the main entrance to Fukushima Daiichi increased from hundreds of micro Sieverts per hour to 10 milli Sieverts per hour, taking several hours.  And around the same hour of the day, a surveillance video camera captured white smoke rising from Unit 2 and its periphery.

When an endoscope was inserted into the No.2 Unit reactor this March, it was found that a water level inside the reactor was just about 60 cm (2 feet).  So, water is leaking from the reactor while cooling water is input at a rate of 8.8 tons per hour.  But it is still unknown where the leakage has occurred.

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/OmMaNiPadMeHum/diary/201103160001/

The key to understanding the true cause of leakage from Unit N o.2 must be in the structure of the pressure suppression pool.

http://pegasus1.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2011-03-12-2

A possible sequence of radioactive leakage from the Unit No.2 facilities is as follows:

1. An M9.0 earthquake damaged the structure of Unit No.2.

2. A great tsunami hit the Unit No.2 building.

3. Electric power to circulate cooling water to/from the reactor vessel was lost.

4. A meltdown of nuclear fuel started.

5. Some radioactive atoms flew into the Pressure Suppression Pool with heated water.

6. Vapor increased pressure against the wall of the Pool already damaged by the quake.

7. Water vapor with radioactive material leaked out inside the Unit building.

8. Heat from melted nuclear fuel accelerated leakage of radioactive vapor to the outside.

However, TEPCO claims in its investigative report that the M9.0 earthquake of March 11, 2011, never damaged the structure of any reactor buildings of Fukushima Daiichi.

(to be continued...)


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Luk 6:21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

"Blessed be ye poor" - Swedenborg

On the Beach in Northeast of Tokyo

Swedenborg

A notable 18th-century Swedish scholar wrote about what will happen after one is dead.

World of Spirits 

(This is not to be confused with “the spiritual world,” which is a general term referring to the whole extent of Heaven, Hell and the World of Spirits) The traditional idea was of resurrection on Judgment Day at the end of history. Swedenborg says judgment takes place in the World of Spirits immediately after each individual’s death. After we die, we wake up in the intermediate region of the spiritual world, neither in Heaven nor Hell, but in the neutral "no man's land" Swedenborg calls the World of Spirits. Here we gradually lose the ability to pretend and the spiritual “real us” comes out. The resulting stripping of one's self bare, even to one's most secret thoughts and intentions, is the judgment. “There is nothing concealed that shall not be uncovered, and nothing secret that shall not be known …” (Luke 12:2, 3; Matthew 10:26, Heaven and Hell, #498). Following this judgment the new spirit goes on to Heaven or Hell of his or her own free will. God does not force them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_and_Hell_(Swedenborg)

However, the scholar Swedenborg cannot be trusted as a faithful follower of Christ Jesus, since he was rich and he wanted to enter Heaven without becoming poor in this world to save the poor.

But those who know anything of the spiritual sense of the Word think otherwise; they know that heaven is for all who live a life of faith and love, whether rich or poor. But who are meant in the Word by "the rich" and who by "the poor" will be told in what follows. From much conversation and intercourse with angels it has been granted me to know with certainty that the rich enter heaven just as easily as the poor, and that no man is shut out of heaven on account of his wealth, or received into heaven on account of his poverty. Both the rich and the poor are in heaven, and many of the rich in greater glory and happiness than the poor.

http://swedenborg.newearth.org/hh/hh39.html

But it is still likely that Christ Jesus chose Swedenborg for some kind of holy mission.

In April 1745, Swedenborg was dining in a private room at a tavern in London. By the end of the meal, a darkness fell upon his eyes, and the room shifted character. Suddenly he saw a person sitting at a corner of the room, telling Swedenborg: "Do not eat too much!". Swedenborg, scared, hurried home. Later that night, the same man appeared in his dreams. The man told Swedenborg that He was the Lord, that He had appointed Swedenborg to reveal the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and that He would guide Swedenborg in what to write. The same night, the spiritual world was opened to Swedenborg.

The point at issue is that poverty causes pain in a human being.  In his private and social life, a poor man cannot obtain essential products and services, so that he has to suffer more, working more in worse condition.  He is also forced to be subject to a rich man who would pay wages to him.  Such a rich man can avoid a painstaking task as he can force a poor man to do it.  A rich man keeps his pride by sacrificing the pride of a poor man.  And a poor man cannot enjoy a high-level medical services a rich man can use casually.  So, poverty causes big pain in the poor man while money spares the rich man even health problems.  Accordingly, a rich man cannot be admitted into Heaven so easily while a poor man can, since a rich man is one of causes for pain a poor man suffers. while he can be stopped being such a cause if he has love to the poor.

Nonetheless, Christ Jesus chose Swedenborg, a rich Swedish scholar, for a certain mission.  Accordingly, even Immanuel Kant studied writings of Swedenborg.  And though Kant first criticized Swedenborg even by publishing a book to deny Swedenborg's intellectual and spiritual ability, he changed his view on Swedenborg 14 years after the publication of the book.  Kant accepted an idea of existence of the spiritual world or the world of spirits Swedenborg depicted in his books, saying, "It constitutes a special realistic world.  It must be understood that this world is distinct from the world we perceive."

Indeed, what we see is too simple; there must be another world we cannot easily see but our spirits are linked to.

http://www.7netshopping.jp/books/detail/-/accd/1101494954/subno/1


(to be continued)

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Luk 6:20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth" - The Six Tests to Assess a Man

A Pacific Coast Line in Northeast of Tokyo

The Six Tests to Assess a Man

When King Zheng of Qin became the First Emperor of China, as he unified all the warring states in the era, in 221 BC, there was prime minister of Qin who had helped Zheng's father, once only one of princes of Qin, ascend the throne.

Lü Buwei (291?–235 BCE), Lord Wenxin, was a Warring States Period merchant who schemed his way into governing the State of Qin. He served as Chancellor of China for King Zhuangxiang of Qin, and as regent and Chancellor for the king's young son Zheng, who became Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. Lü Buwei committed suicide after being implicated in plotting with the Queen Dowager and her "eunuch" lover. Lü notably sponsored an encyclopedic compendium of Hundred Schools of Thought philosophies, the 239 BCE Lüshi Chunqiu ("Mr. Lü's Annals").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BC_Buwei

In the encyclopedic Chinese classic text, there listed are six tests to assess a man.  Some wise ancient Chinese set six criteria to judge how well a man could be trusted and promoted in a royal court.

1. Make a man feel happy, and see how he becomes relaxed and sloppy.

2. Make a man enjoy what he wants, and see toward what he has an inclination.

3. Make a man angry, and see how he loses his control.

4. Make a man have fears, and see how much he could keep his principle.

5. Make a man suffer, and see how much he could keep his spirit high.

6. Make a man feel sad, and see how he would lament according to his caliber.    

By applying these six tests, you can find how a man is suitable for any office in the government.  You may find, according to a result of the tests, that a man should assume office of the prime minister or of a petty official.

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Mat 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

"John had said unto Herod" - A Former Enemy

A Pacific Coast on the Honsyu Island, Northeast of Tokyo

A Former Enemy

In ancient China, namely before the era of First Qin Emperor, there was a state called Qi under authority of the collapsing Zhou Dynasty.

But the ruleer of Qi, called Duke Xiang, was an outrageous man.  Accordingly, the Duke was killed by his cousin.  Yet, this cousin of the Duke was also killed by soldiers.  So, ministers of Qi decided to call back other younger brothers of Duke Xiang who had already fled from Qi as they were afraid of terrible Xiang.

And then, one official named Guan Zohng  was bringing back one, and another official called Bao Shuya was taking another brother to Qi back from other state.  But Guan Zohng tried to prevent another brother of the late Duke from reaching the state of Qi first.  So, Guan ambushed his target coming in a carriage, shooting him with an arrow.  But, the arrow hit only a metal part of armor of this good prospect for the next ruler of Qi.  So, the attacked one pretended to be killed in a carriage but sped up his horses to his home state.  Eventually, this younger brother of the former ruler, protected by Bao Shuya, could return to the royal palace of Qi earlier than his rival brother helped by Guan Zohng who tried to assassinate him.

Now, the one supported by official Bao Shuya became the ruler of Qi.  So, he wanted to kill Guan Zohng who actually shot at him.  But, Bao Shuya remonstrated with the new ruler, recommending, with enthusiasm, forgiving Guan Zohng and rather appointing him to a key position in the government.  So, the new and young ruler of Qi, now called Duke Huan of Qi, suppressed his bitterness and decided to see Guan Zohng in person, following advice of his loyal subject Bao Shuya.

When Guan Zohng met with Duke Huan, he eloquently explained how to govern the state Qi, making it stronger and prosperous.  So, immediately the new ruler of Qi appointed Guan Zohng to the prime minister.  Bao Shuya voluntarily took a lower position to serve new prime minister Guan.  And, the state Qi became the leading state among several competing states in the era called the Spring and Autumn period (770 BC - 403 BC).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_(state)

At the time, still the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC) had nominal sovereignty over local states, though actual political power shifted from the royal court of Zhou to each government of virtually independent states.  So, Duke Huan of Qi behaved sometimes arrogantly before the Zhou authority.  In such a case, Guan Zohng  always remonstrated with Duke Huan so as not to cause unnecessary political friction.  And, his lord  Duke Huan always accepted Guan's advice.

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Mar 6:18 For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.