10 Comments

Thanks for writing, Alice. This is fantastic and is exactly what I'd like to see more of on the internet. I'd love to read more of your favorite passages -- maybe even an addendum to this that is just "selected passages from Chinese history and philosophy, with some context."

Expand full comment

How are you studying the xunzi? Via translated texts or the original?

Expand full comment

translated, but I'll consult the original for passages that are important or obscure. I know enough mandarin to retain/distinguish hanzi but I don't have a background in classical chinese unfortunately

Expand full comment

You studying this full time? This is good stuff

Expand full comment

Hegel casts his shadow over all the ideas in this brilliant piece

Expand full comment

Does he, though? There’s no direct influence in either direction (very little Chinese writing in Europe in Hegel’s day) so it seems better to try to understand the system on its own terms.

Expand full comment

Aw man, now I have a new philosopher to look-up and be obsessed with. Thank you for the introduction to Xunzi!

Expand full comment

woah! are you a china studies scholar? fascinating deep dive

Expand full comment

Bravo! This kinda makes me think of the whole Zapatista thing about "building a world in which many worlds can fit." It truly is an under-appreciated idea that you bring up here about how the possibility of building this kind of society fluent in both communal-ties/organizational-competency is very much dependent on more people learning how to operate/think-in-terms-of complex resource distribution and small-scale governance rather than just... vibes. I think a lot of modern activism and political thinking (well intentioned as it is) hinges on sloganeering and "we'll figure it out later" hand-waving-- as opposed to actually getting down to the nitty-gritty type stuff you're talking about in this essay. Administration isn't sexy-- but we gotta do it! The film-dweeb in me can't help but make the analogy here that the future could stand to look less like a Godard flick and more like "Shōgun" (2024)😂.

Expand full comment