Yesterday I attempted to post a documentary of Yumin's amazing obedience to verbal commands, but some browsers don't make the connection. For your viewing pleasure, I have placed it on YouTube or here

Beagle Obedience
Originally uploaded by Yugan Dali

In this amazing documentary, you see the ironclad discipline of the beagle mind as Yumin leaps to obey my command to come: 來 lai in Mandarin. Straight to you from Wulai, you see before your very eyes definitive proof that beagles do obey! ~ when the mood takes them, that is.

As a taxpayer in the ROC (Taiwan), I have a small per centage of my pay deducted every month for national insurance, which gives me cheap, convenient health coverage. For example, a few years back I was out hacking through part of the jungle and got a piece of wood lodged into my right index finger without my noticing it (stop snickering, you!). By the time I realized, flesh had grown over it. I took my National Health Insurance card to a hospital (a clean, airy, well maintained hospital), saw a doctor, arranged for minor surgery, came back a week later, and had the piece of wood removed very pleasantly and very efficiently, with little waiting, no pain, and no after-effects. Total cost, excluding bus fare, was something like NT$200, which is a bit less than six dollars US.

Lucky me! Americans, do you know that forty five million of your fellow citizens do not have health insurance? The Republicans have taken their revenge on LBJ for dreaming of the Great Society, with Medicare and good health for all. Privatization has made health care something 45,000,000 Americans can’t afford.

Go to this page and watch the video.

About one out of every eight citizens in a country that calls itself a superpower cannot afford to see a doctor. What distresses me is that the US could be providing excellent health care for all, at a fraction of the cost of the war in Iraq. Not could be, should be!

If you are still not sure you should have voted for Obama instead of McCain, watch this documentary very carefully.

恭喜發財 紅包拿來
這句似俏實劣的話，為甚麼那麼討人厭？一則，恭喜發財銅臭味太重，一年到頭想著錢不打緊，新年的祝詞難道不能想遠一點、雅一點的台詞嗎？國泰民安囉、風調雨順囉、增長智慧囉、身體健康囉都好，也可以祝人常聽優雅音樂、多讀聖賢書、看古人雅士繪畫雕塑書法、品上好茶、觀山賞月、玩灘溯溪、看螢賞鳥等等，人生百趣，何必一直繞著錢財逃不出？應該攤開胸襟看世界、看人生、看民生、看宇宙，若思緒像陳前總統離不開私囊不為天下著想，太自私，生活太貧乏。

叫人恭喜發財，是不是把對方看得太俗氣了？

做人，不妨含蓄一點、婉轉一點，活得比較有樂趣。火辣辣地命令人把紅包拿來，能算淘氣嗎？或者露骨、沒涵養、缺乏創意？

心想事成
萬事如意
We all wish everybody a happy new year!

When we had the roof repaired, the carpenters also put a new roof on the doghouse. I have decorated it appropriately for the new year.

我聽著人家說，有一位算命先生叫劉諒廉，算流年特準，所以大家慣叫「流年劉諒廉」。他這位山人呢，愛吃年糕，也愛吃榴槤，所以劉太動動腦，給他作榴槤年糕。熱乎乎時，山人說不好吃，可是冷了以後就很愛吃，今天牛年初一就吃了一盤。果然：
流年劉諒廉牛年愛冷榴槤年糕。
真糟糕。
己丑初一

游錫堃當行政院長的時候，在立法院質詢，被問到英文問題，答不出，勉強湊一句：My English is bad。馬上引起批評，學者教授說他講錯了，應該說，My English is poor才對。

第一，行政院長需要攷托福嗎？不需要。需要講英文嗎？不需要；若需要，有口譯在。行政院長英文好不好，又怎麼樣？
第二，他已經說自己英文不好，還要求甚麼？
第三，誰說My English is bad不對？誰規定要用poor才對？我個人認為用bad比poor好，因為poor通常當「窮」用。兩者，不如用lousy。
第四，bad也好、poor也好、lousy也好，都是中文式的英文：我的英文不好。這句的英文應該是I don’t know English very well 或I don’t speak English very well.

天垂異象
This morning I saw a sight I had never seen before.

Happening to wake just after five, I noticed that, contrary to the weather report, the sky was spangled with stars. A crescent moon was just rising in the trees to the south. I went out to admire the view, when a pale green meteor shot horizontally across the sky from west to east, a palm and three fingers above the moon. What was remarkable was that it had a tail, like the contrail of a jet. The tail appeared about as long as my hand, in my view field, and lingered for about ten seconds, the bright, pale green gradually fading, as the plume curved upwards into a smile. 吉兆吧。

The time was 5:05.

Actions speak louder than words. The US could spend years on diplomacy, publicity, and spin doctoring, but the world would remain skeptical. With the election of our first African American president, the world has to reconsider the American people’s standpoints and intents, not through their preconceptions, but by what we have done. Yes, racism still exists in the US, but how can you call the US a racist, fascist country with a black man taking the oath for the highest office in the land?

And not just any African American! What a speaker Obama is! If you haven’t seen his inauguration address, take twenty minutes to watch it here and here. 尤其要練英文聽力的人該仔細聽。因為這是一篇極為正式演講，所以他咬字特別清晰，應該比較容易聽懂。請注意：new念[nu]不是[nju]!!....我是英文老師嘛，三句不離本行。I was impressed by his emphasis on the skill and virtue of the American people. If anybody can revive the spirit of the American people, it’s President Obama. He reminds me of JFK.
If I were Osama bin Laden or his ilk, I would be worried!

Alleluia, today ends the era of Bush, and a new president takes office. In the words of Roger Cohen of the NY Times, "An American leader able to improvise a grammatical, even a moving, English sentence is no bad thing."

Memory plays fascinating tricks on us. This morning I was chopping some overgrown bamboo when a long-forgotten delight popped into mind, totally unbidden. I lived in Saigon for a spell when I was a teenager, and loved a sweet they make. It is wrapped in bamboo leaves, thick 糯米rice colored black (how, I forget) encasing 綠豆沙 green bean paste, a sweet, sticky, fragrant concoction that I used to love. I seem to remember it is called banh gai.

I hadn’t thought about this sweet for decades, to be sure, but this morning it popped into mind very tangibly; the smell, the taste, the feel of peeling the sticky confection from the leaf, everything came back with such startling clarity that my mouth watered. But I have not the faintest idea why this memory came back.

I just wish I had a dozen to eat.

PS: My memory is better than I thought. The name is bánh gai, and I found an article on Wikipedia tieng Viet. Hurrah for the Internet!
photo from Wikipedia, slurp slurp drooooool

一則民國六十幾年在臺北廣為流傳的故事

日據時代有一位農夫，農田雖然有一甲也不算大，因為孩子生了一堆，天天忙著務農，只能勉強糊口而已。可是很奇怪，每一次算命，都說他是大財巨富的命。每一次算，都這麼說，可是他就是那麼的窮，後來他不喜歡算命，也不相信命。

艱苦日子難熬，可是歲月荏苒，日本打敗了，臺灣光復了，臺灣經濟慢慢上軌道。臺北市也發達了，這位窮農到六十歲，商人來，出高價收購他的地，在農田上蓋了水晶大廈；那塊地賣了八千萬新台幣，一夜之間，入不敷出的貧農成了大富翁，全家人各各買了進口汽車，好不享受！

民國六十幾年的臺北人，茶餘飯後很喜歡講這個故事。如今，時代不同。第一，八千萬已經不算巨富了！第二，當年臺北大廈不多，說水晶大廈，大家都知道是座落信義路復興南路口的那一棟氣派、摩登的建築物。便如七十年左右，上計程車，只要與司機講「保固大廈」，不必多說，就送到羅斯福路水源路口。

Since the house is over twelve years old, maintenance work is a matter of course. Our new roof is finally finished. Most of the work went smoothly, apart from the rain holding up progress, and the time I slid off the roof.

Fortunately, it was only the roof on the back porch. There's not much sunshine or wind there, so I was on my hands and knees, head down, cleaning off accumulated gunk when I hit a slippery wet spot and started sliding. At least I got turned around head side up, aimed for a tree, and came down behind first, unharmed but for a cut on my right thumb. Chao and the roofers were more scared than I was. I told them, better that I fall of the porch roof than they fall off the house roof!

The other day I reported on the dogs' anxiety when they saw their doghouse roof being taken off.

Yumin oversaw the carpenters carefully as they went about their work.

Now the dogs have a wonderful new roof, and the whole doghouse has been refurbished. This has got to be the finest doghouse in Taiwan! So what do the doggies do? Curl up and sleep in the discarded tarp outside.

Wouldn't you know it!

We were waiting for the bus home from New Store when Abus, driving his son home in his taxi, spotted us and pulled over. We piled in. He has redecorated his taxi very tastefully; all the figurines on the dashboard jiggle together whenever the car vibrates. If anybody but an aborigine did something like that, it would be disgusting and obscene, but Abus, with Abus it's just exuberance. I hope his female passengers understand that.

"Yugan, you know, I am a good man, but my mouth is bad. That's my problem, my mouth is bad. I spent the last three or four days drinking. My mouth doesn't obey me, it just keeps drinking. What can I do? My mouth keeps drinking. I can't sew it shut, because I have to eat, you can't go without food, can you? But what can I do, my mouth keeps drinking.

“Look at society today! People stealing and robbing! That's terrible! We aborigines don't steal or rob, look at the news, it's never aborigines who steal or rob. We just drink ourselves to death.”

I asked, "Abus, I've told Sabiy about your beautiful Taiwan Mountain Dogs. How are they coming along?" Abus sighed, "Aw, Yugan, now I am raising frogs." "You mean in that little pond of yours?" "Yes, Yugan, I have frogs in my pond. They croak and croak every morning very early, so they are my alarm clock. They are always on time. They are better than an alarm clock." "But what about your dogs?" "Hai, Yugan, I gave them away." "Gave them away? What for?" "I was drunk and someone asked for them, and I said, 'If you like them you can have them.' When I sobered up, I regretted that, but I had given my word, so now I raise frogs."

"Yugan, 你知道嘛，我嘴巴不好。我人很好，就是嘴巴不好，這就是問題，嘴巴不好。所以我上礼拜喝酒，一喝就三四天，我嘴巴不聽話，一直喝一直喝。我能怎麼辦？我嘴巴一直喝酒。我不能虹【縫】起來，因為我還是要吃幻【飯】，不吃幻不行，對不對？可是怎麼辦，我嘴巴一直喝酒。

"看看今天的社會！偷呀搶啊，好可怕！我們原住民不偷不搶。你看新聞，原住民不偷不搶。我們都喝酒死掉。"

我問，「Abus，我跟Sabiy說過你養的土狗很漂亮。現在hozin su怎麼樣？」Abus嘆氣說，「嗷，Yugan，我現在養青蛙。」「在ngasan su sulu的水池嗎？」「嗷，Yugan，我水池裏養青蛙。天天一大早瓜瓜瓜，是我的鬧鐘。牠們一定準時叫，比鬧鐘好。」「可是你的狗呢？」「嗨，Yugan，我送給別人啦。」「送給別人？Mswa bi?」「Busuq ku la，有人跟我要，我說『喜歡的話就拿去囉。』等我醉醒，很後悔，可是話已經講出去了，所以現在我養青蛙。」

A great day for Taiwan
Cancer has been an increasing threat to the health of Free China ever since the running dog of tobacco imperialism, Ronald Reagan, forced Taiwan to import American cigarets and liquor. :::click here:::

Today, a new, far-reaching law goes into effect, curtailing public smoking indoors throughout Taiwan. Smoking is banned in any workplace with three people or more. Even outdoors, smoking is not permitted under any roof or near schools. Advertising is restricted, and all workplaces are required to post signs warning against smoking by minors or inciting a pregnant lady to smoke.

This is wonderful on two fronts. First, this will improve health and reduce suffering. Second, it is great to see the government engaged in progressive, positive, far-sighted activity designed to benefit Taiwan and its people. After eight years of corrupt incompetence and divisiveness under President Chen Shuibian, this is highly welcome.

I hope the US sees similar progress once Bush & Cheney, Inc. are gone.

Finally we've got a break in the weather, so Hsieh and the roofers came back to work today under a sunny sky. Well, okay, no rain, then. The temperature was 6C, which is cold for Taiwan. Cold clear days are rare in northern Taiwan, especially in the mountains.

All went smoothly until they ran out of the bolts they need to hold the new roof in place. That was at about 3, so they decided to work on the doghouse, which also needs a new roof. When they set to work, Tlahuy and Yumin displayed great distress. I realized I had forgotten to tell them that they were getting a new roof too. Yumin glared at the workmen and was very upset, until I explained the situation to him. He felt better, and went off to frolic with Byajing. (Byajing doesn't get much chance to sleep in there, anyway, because the Big Brothers usually stake out the territory.)

notice Tlahuy sitting on the tarp

watching apprehensively

Tlahuy had watched Hsieh build the doghouse in the first place, eight years ago. He showed strong anxiety as the shingles were taken up. I comforted him, but he was still morose. I took him over to the doghouse, and during a lull, he walked inside, turned around a few times, sniffed here and there, and felt a bit better.

Who said animals don't have feelings?

September 2000,

Hsieh building the doghouse

What every Puerh freak dreams of
Originally uploaded by Yugan Dali

For political reasons, after 1949 exports from the PRC (People's Republic of China) were strictly limited. PRC products were banned from the US and most of western Europe, as well as other places. Most of the 普洱 Puerh tea was exported to Hong Kong, Britain's last gasp of imperialism in the Far East. The tea merchants in HK aged their Puerh before selling it, and consumers took it for granted that the Puerh they bought from tea merchants had been properly aged. Nobody bothered to investigate too closely how the tea had been stored, or for how long.

The climate of HK is hot and humid, which is ideal for aging Puerh. However, when 1997 rolled around, HK tea merchants, uncertain about their future, sold massive amounts of Puerh to Taiwan. Historically, really fervent tea drinkers have been speakers of 閩 Min dialects, such as the main dialect spoken by Chinese in Taiwan, 閩南語; Taiwan has an ideal climate for growing tea, and tea is an essential part of life in Taiwan. Taiwan is probably the best place in the world for superior tea, so the HK merchants had no trouble unloading their supplies. Finicky tea drinkers in Taiwan started paying more attention to the age and provenance of their Puerh.

In the last six or seven years, as the economy of the PRC has taken off, the demand for Puerh there has taken off, driving up prices; there is also strong demand in South Korea and Malaysia. For this reason, the price of aged Puerh has gone into orbit, bringing with it several consequences.

First, people started drinking fresh Puerh. In the last several years, I have drunk Puerh months from the farm; this would have been inconceivable twenty years ago.

Second, people are buying Puerh in quantity and aging it themselves. I used to buy Puerh cake by cake. Now I buy it by the 筒bucket (7 cakes) or 件 piece (12 buckets).

Third, people are paying more attention to how Puerh is stored. This is good and bad. The good side is that improper storage can almost ruin fine tea, although a skillful tea maker can salvage even moldering Puerh, to some extent. The bad side is that some tea merchants seem to have made storage a mysterious, forbidding topic, while blowing out smoke and fog to confuse people, for their own profit.

Lately there has been much talk ~~ too much talk, some say ~~ about 乾倉 and 濕倉. First, a word or two on nomenclature. The first could clearly be translated dry storage. Translating the second as 'wet storage' is Chinglish, a very inept rendering of the Chinese into English. Damp storage or humid storage would be more appropriate. 說文：溼，幽溼也。从一，覆也，覆土而有水，故溼也。段注：凡溼之所从生，多生于上有覆而氣不渫，故从一土水，會意。廣韻：溼，失入切，水霑也。

However, novices should be aware that these are not necessarily descriptions of the warehouse in which tea was stored, but rather are often used to describe the condition of a particular cake of tea. The condition of the tea depends on a variety of factors, including mainly the skill and care of the warehouse personnel and the place in which this particular cake was stored. One cake may be described as乾倉 'stored dry' while another cake, stored only a meter away, at the bottom of the heap down in a musty corner, would be described as濕倉 'stored damp.'

Obviously, some locations are better for aging Puerh than others, but do not believe that Warehouse A is labeled Dry Warehouse and Warehouse X is labeled Humid Warehouse. Again, the skill of the tea maker is vital; I would rather have 30 year old damp stored Puerh than five year old dry stored.

Fortunately – or rather, fortunately for me, at least – my home in Wulai is just about ideal for aging Puerh. I live in mountains in subtropical rainforest, with fresh air and clean breezes, high humidity (usually at least 70%), and no frost. Those who live in dry climates should give some thought to storing their Puerh. I once gave a cake of Puerh to someone in Southern California who had several years experience drinking Puerh before she moved to California. When I saw the cake about a year and a half later, I was astonished: I simply did not recognize it. It had dried out, withered, I would say, and lost its vitality. So Puerh drinkers in such climates should consider either buying only aged Puerh and not attempting to age it, or maybe constructing something like the humidors used to store cigars.

Puerh likes to age in company. If you put one cake down in a fresh room, after ten years it will not be as good as a cake placed in an experienced storeroom with a hundred other cakes. The more Puerh you store in one place, the better, and the longer you store Puerh in that storage, the better resulting cakes will be. This is why some PRC tea merchants have been renting experienced warehouses in Hong Kong to age their tea.

Finally, while I am discussing nomenclature, I would like to mention the translation of 茶廠 as 'tea factory,' another graceless example of Chinglish. 廠 does not necessarily mean factory; it means a room, a chamber, or building, especially a spacious one. 廣韻：廠，昌兩切，屋也。敞，高也。Dictionary.com defines 'factory' as "A building or group of buildings in which goods are manufactured; a plant." Tea plant would be confusing, but to my mind, a factory carries an image of machinery, assembly lines, and putting parts together. I propose "tea workshop" as not an ideal translation, but a more pleasant image, and closer to the original.

大家實在太愛臺灣，所以不肯欣賞臺灣山川藪海自然美，不想看它的原貌；自然溪流不美，一定要破壞，一定要有建設，才美。溪水，幾千萬年來從山上流下來塑造、潤飾環境，我們看它不夠漂亮，必須灌水泥才漂亮：這才叫做愛臺灣。人類還沒有演化成形之前，這條溪已經在琱琢臺灣；我們說愛臺灣，所以挖畔毀岸，設步道，掘石拔草，鋪水泥，才說它美。
大家太愛臺灣，所以不肯欣賞臺灣樹林自然美，不想看它的原貌；必須要有櫻花才美！臺灣原生蔥綠茂盛的森林有甚麼好看？砍掉！種櫻花我們才要看！因為我們愛臺灣。

恐怕我不夠愛臺灣，因為我覺得，一整排櫻花很呆板，不好看；我寧可看原來的山林。

我們為了讓你們看那排呆板的櫻花，付出了很大的代價：請按這裡here……
可是呢，我心裡也很矛盾：不忍看美麗的山林被破壞，但從另一方面著想，八年來的經費都不知道在哪裡：在瑞士？在日本？至少，現在公帑花在公共場所。

I wrote this in March 2003.
I almost got knocked flat the other day…
… I was on my way down to catch the bus to the city to teach on Saturday morning. As I passed the Tribe, I heard some little kids calling out my name. I looked back to wave, and saw Ciana racing towards me. Now, Ciana (pronounced jya-NA!), Sinkang the busdriver's little girl, is my favorite kid in Wulai. She is a second grader with beautiful, intelligent eyes. I think they feed her on bricks. Some of these Aborigine kids are not particularly big, but they are about as light as a sack of bricks. Kids in the Tribe love for me to hoist them up into the sky and juggle them around, and with a couple of them, it's exercise.

So there is Ciana racing towards me, on a level a bit higher than the road I was on. I called out, Jump! and faithful Ciana launched herself at me. I suddenly understood how besiegers of medieval castles felt when the defenders dragged the catapults into action. She caught me straight across the chest, or should I say I caught her across my chest? Anyway, I whirled around a couple times until I found my balance, benchpressed her a couple times, and put her down.

There was no choice in the matter. I simply couldn't end up with that in my obituary: "died of head injuries sustained when knocked flat by a seven year old girl." But you ever do read that, you'll know what happened.

There are worse ways to go.

床前明月光，疑是地上霜，舉頭望明月，低頭思故鄉。
這首簡單優美的詩，七歲的孩子都倒背如流。可是到底講甚麼？

床前明月光，月光已經不明了。現代人酷愛光害，濫設照明，請問看倌，何時曾被月驚醒？扣除中秋節之外，你習慣舉頭望明月嗎？

除高山外，臺灣沒有霜，看倌知道地上霜是何種景象嗎？

臺灣沒有幾個人懂得何謂鄉愁，除了隨政府來臺的內陸人、外勞、留學生，其餘很少嚐過鄉愁的滋味。從前當兵要面對鄉愁，尤其中金馬獎的。現在縱使各在天一方，Skype一通，見了面了，鄉愁已褪了。似乎交通越發達，人情越淡薄。看倌常思故鄉嗎？


讀詩，各以其品。一百個人讀這首，一百個人感觸不同。有沒有誰是對的，誰是錯的？沒有。冷暖自知：讀論語也是如此。

朱子答王子合曰，「惟學為能變化氣質耳。」斯語略有語病。能變化氣質者多矣；勤看電視能變化氣質、常唱KTV能變化氣質、吸菸酗酒能變化氣質、嫖妓賭博能變化氣質、觀職業摔角尤能變化氣質。能變化氣質者實眾，唯其變化優劣而已矣。

I got a spam letter through YouTube from some crazy Christian, prophesying the apocalypse, as usual. I was just about to delete it when a section caught my eye:
PROPHESY: GEORGE BUSH THE PRESIDENT IS THE 3RD ANTICHRIST, THE DEVIL, AS IS DICK CHENEY THE V.P. IS A DEMON. GEORGE BUSH SR. IS SATAN.

Well, there could be something to that, you know.

ALL ORGANIZED RELIGIONS ARE THE WHORES OF BABYLON. THE VATICAN IS THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN. 12/21/2012, JUDGEMENT DAY WILL OCCUR, AS THE EARTH GOES THROUGH THE CROSSING WHEN THE SOLAR EQUATOR INTERSECTS WITH GALACTIC PLANE AXIS OF THE MILKWAY,GOING TO THE NORTHERN EDGE OF THE MILKYWAY.
Promises, promises. After Judgment Day (there's no e between the g and m in judgment, please. If you can prophesy the future, you should at least be able to spell at a junior high school level, and remember that prophesy is a verb, prophecy is the noun), the polemic continues:
1/11/2013 JESUS CHRIST TAKES THE THRONE OF GREAT BRITAIN, AND RULES THE WORLD… AUSTRALIA WILL BE THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
I haven't checked, but I was under the impression that they had water in the Garden of Eden. Australia, the Garden of Eden? That's the least believable part of the whole diatribe.

師大國文大一，論語是必修課，謝新瑞老師教授。我第一學期活當 ~~聽說現在沒有活當、死當，當時分數五十以上六十以下可以補攷，叫做活當，四十九以下要重修，叫做死當。第一學期活當了，這是預料中之事。

攷完補攷之後，老師叫我把整本論語抄一遍。寫了三個月，終于抄完交卷。老師鼓勵我好好讀論語；其實，我自己越念越起勁，慢慢嚼出了一點滋味來了。

第二學期期末攷，我蠻有把握，應該攷的不錯吧！沒想到，又是五十九分：活當，準備補攷。我問謝老師，我以為我攷的不錯，為甚麼不及格？老師說，你攷的很好，可是我要你多讀論語，因為論語在中國文化上太重要。

老師，我多讀了，到現在離第二次補攷三十五年，自量已升堂矣。

簡略心得報告：要讀古書，必須了解古書是古人寫的，所以他們許多理路、表達方式與我們現在不同；尤其是孔子。現在是一個沒耐心的時代，心動不如行動要買要快的科技、商業時代，現代人的要求不離「一步登天」四個字。電視節目絕不讓你思攷；即使像Discovery美其名為教育節目，也要很快地把訊息倒出來，也很快的撥廣告，怎麼樣也不讓你深思熟慮，因為等一下還有其它的節目！很精彩！非看不可！

用現代的表達方式說明，夫子不user friendly；你必須自己用腦，「退而省其私」。跟基督教、回教、馬列主義不同的是，夫子不提供標準答案。夫子說甚麼，你自個兒思攷，各以其品，你達到你自己滿意的答案，這就要看你本身的修養。

例如中庸：忠恕違道不遠。盡己為忠，民無信不立，但夫子又說，言必信，行必果，硜硜然小人哉。子貢問，有一言而可以終結行之者乎？子曰，其恕乎！卻又說，以直報怨，以德報德。忠恕違道不遠，仍違；因為要活用。道是活的，易也，無常；道可道非恆道也。若拘于忠恕，不入夫子之道；自己揣摩，凴個人修養摸索。孔子不立標準答案。

或許因為我開始讀論語，不了解它，對它沒有期待也沒有成見，所以我只在乎孔夫子他老人家怎麼說；從禮記、春秋求其旨，由攷古、人類、演化心理學尋旁證。我覺得，孔子的思想那麼的深邃活潑，為甚麼到後代好像悶死了？

前不久很幸運看了一本書，劉明武著打掃孔家殿﹝中華書局2003年﹞探討同樣的問題，歸咎董仲舒。這本書很值得細讀。

今天是元旦，不想長篇大論。簡而言之，論語需細嚼慢嚥，急不來。三十歲以前讀論語，一定看不懂，但常看，習慣孔子的理路，受用無窮。現在民國九十八年來臨了，黑皮‧怒‧矣爾。