Traditional Government in Imperial China

《中国历代政治得失》

Words are abstractions of reality, but not equivalent. People created words like "imperialism","capitalism" and "socialism" and tagged them with distinct features (out of the need for simplicity in communication, or laziness). Turnout is a history stained by illogical and black-or-white fallacy.

While Ch'ien Mu is criticized over his unorthodox as a history scholar and some fact errors in the book, he exerted great effort in reversing the over-criticism on imperial Chinese history. It is true that critical examination of what our ancestors did builds up confidence in current situation. However, criticism based on retrospective evaluation might bring about arrogance, a false feeling of superiority. After all, one might do even worse if he or she were the person being blamed.

Oct 30, 2018