Apparently nowadays they are setting up 

“historical markers” for totally absurd myths.

     One of the most brutal, sadistic rulers in Chinese history was the Deposed Emperor Liu Tzeye (宋廢帝劉子業 449 – 466), who ascended to the throne at the age of 15. For fun, he gave his uncles names such as殺王 King Killer or 賊王 King Thief. One uncle, 劉彧Liu Yü, was fat, so the Emperor had him stripped naked, thrown into a sty, and named him 豬王King Pig. One day the Emperor decided to slaughter King Pig and eat him. Liu Yü did not wish to be eaten, and managed to overthrow and kill his nephew. After some turbulence, Liu Yü became Emperor, 宋明帝. You can imagine that he was upset about his treatment at the hands of his nephew, so in revenge, he slaughtered all of his nephews, the eleven surviving brothers of the Deposed Emperor.

   The author Jiang Lang comments, “Power is totally blind to family and relatives. In power games, there are only two roles: the winner and the loser. It doesn’t make any difference if someone is your father or your uncle or your brother, these have nothing to do with power games.” (姜狼著金戈鐵馬p314：權力這東西最是六親不認的，權力場上只有兩個角色：勝利者與失敗者，沒有甚麼老爹老舅二大爺的區別，權力場上不講這個。)

    This is why power struggles have always been so vicious. The winner wins power and glory, the loser loses his life.

     We are fortunate that George Washington, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, various Adamses, and the other Founding Fathers did their best to tame power and civilize politics. They introduced reasonable discourse and mutual respect to government. “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say so.” This quote comes from Europe, but it was the American Founding Fathers who first put this into practice. Thanks to their efforts, it is possible for a retired President to spend his days in peace, and ever glory, something inconceivable in days when violence ruled politics. This American contribution is often overlooked, or even taken for granted.

     I am deeply worried that Trump is leading America back to the days of life and death power struggles. Yes, he may say his mind (or what you could call his mind), but he never thinks of consequences. 50,000 people have signed petitions to carry firearms to the GOP national convention! How can an armed man carry on reasoned, respectful debate? The very notion of carrying weapons to political discussion is a slap in the face of basic American political ideals.

    Trump has opened Pandora’s box, which is much worse than any of the supposed ills he mistakenly thinks he can deal with. Time will see whether or not the opened box can be closed. 

Fidel Castro said President Obama's speech was enough to give him a heart attack.

Let's send Obama back to Cuba for month-long speaking tour.

LINK

The funniest, stupidest, silliest news recently is about Trump on foreign policy. He obviously doesn’t have the slightest idea about what to do, aside from alienating everybody and bombing the oil fields (“Now we have to destroy the oil”), so he said he is vague because “I wouldn’t want them to know what my real thinking is.”

He is in favor of Japan and South Korea developing nuclear weapons. If South Korea develops a nuclear bomb, I predict they will test it at a remote site in Shinjuku, Tokyo. (Among the myriad things Trump doesn’t understand is that Korea and Japan have been at each other’s throats for many centuries.)

I can hardly imagine how the rest of Asia, in particular China would react to Japan developing nuclear weapons. But Trump said, “We have tremendous economic power over China.” Yes, we owe them billions and billions of dollars. Everybody knows that when you’re up to your eyes in debt to somebody, they will tremble and rush to do your bidding.

RYAN: You [MUFFLED] mentioned a few minutes earlier here that you would knock ISIS. You’ve mentioned it many times. You’ve also mentioned the risk of putting American troop[s] in a danger area. If you could substantially reduce the risk of harm to ground troops, would you use a battlefield nuclear weapon to take out ISIS?

TRUMP: I don’t want to use, I don’t want to start the process of nuclear. Remember the one thing that everybody has said, I’m a counterpuncher. Rubio hit me. Bush hit me. When I said low energy, he’s a low-energy individual, he hit me first. I spent, by the way he spent 18 million dollars’ worth of negative ads on me. That’s putting [MUFFLED]…

RYAN: This is about ISIS. You would not use a tactical nuclear weapon against ISIS?[CROSSTALK]

TRUMP: I’ll tell you one thing, this is a very good looking group of people here. Could I just go around so I know who the hell I’m talking to?

The New York Times summed it up: “Mr. Trump explained his thoughts in concrete and easily digestible terms, but they appeared to reflect little consideration for potential consequences. Much the same way he treats political rivals and interviewers, he personalized how he would engage foreign nations, suggesting his approach would depend partly on ‘how friendly they’ve been toward us,’ not just on national interests or alliances.”

And some people would actually trust this rust-bucket with the nuclear codes?

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星期天，陽曆三月二十，值農曆二月十二日，乃花朝節，百花生日。大家一起慶祝花草之美，欣賞自然之工。Sunday, March 20, is the 12^th day of the 3^rd month on the Chinese calendar, the Flowers’ Birthday. Join the world in celebrating the beauty of flowers and nature.

畫：明、項聖謨、卉花十開 Painting by Hsiang (Xiang) Shengmo, 1597 – 1658

九十三年三月十九，總統大選之前一下午，傳出驚駭全臺的新聞：陳總統遇刺！但幸無大礙。而有人注意到一個很奇怪的現象：當連戰得知消息，剎那間微笑了，立即嚴肅起來了。

當然，選舉一過就發現我們都上當了，根本就是演戲拉票。說子彈穿過玻璃、劃過陳總統肚皮、打到呂副總統大腿、又彈回總統西裝口袋裏，好靈活的子彈！很多人應該記得當時盛傳「子彈經過圖」，說子彈的路線，唯一合理的解釋，是呂副總統緊抱著陳總統，大腿還搭在總統肚皮上：現在找不到那張圖，可是很好笑。

四年後，謝長廷落選，宣布要抖出假刺殺的真相。但馬英九軟弱，搞政治需要心狠手辣，他沒追究。而我後來想，連戰那一笑，也許他事先知道要演這齣戲，得知消息，心想，好小子，你真敢！

今年很不可思議的巧合，總統大選前兩天傳出可憐美女道歉影片，美女一下子紅了，「我們要支持她！」，蔡英文更穩定地當選，「我們要支持她！」據說美國刑警的座右銘是：不要相信「巧合」。

March 19, 2004, the afternoon before Taiwan’s Presidential election, there was shocking news: there had been an attempt on President Chen’s life! Somebody told me that he noticed that on television news, when the KMT candidate, Lien Chan, was told about the assassination attempt, a smile flitted across his face, but he quickly became serious. Strange.

What was not strange was that with the sympathy vote, Chen squeaked through for reelection. It quickly became obvious that we had been had. The assassin’s bullet allegedly went through the windshield of Chen’s jeep, creased his stomach, hit VP Lu in the leg, and then landed neatly in the pocket of Chen’s suit. Uh-huh, a very gymnastic bullet.

When he lost the 2008 Presidential election, DPP candidate Hsieh was so sore that he said he was going to spill the beans on the fake assassination attempt. Ma didn’t follow through, because he’s not vengeful enough to be a good politician. But that made me wonder, that smile on Lien’s face? Maybe Lien was in on it, or at least had heard about it, so when he heard the news, he thought, Aha!

Then by an AMAZING coincidence, just before this year’s election, a beautiful young singer nobody had ever heard of made this touching video that catapulted her into fame and coincidentally made sure the DPP’s Tsai won by a good margin. Don’t you just love these coincidences? Tricky Dick Nixon would be green with envy. 

世說新語、棲逸

康僧淵在豫章，去郭數十里立精舍，旁連嶺，帶長川，芳林列於軒庭，清流激於堂宇。乃閒居研講，希心理味。庾公諸人，多往看之，觀其運用吐納，風流轉佳；加處之怡然，亦有以自得；聲名乃興。後不堪，遂出。

Kang Sengyuan (active around 300AD) built a retreat a distance from the city, next to joined ridges, beside a long river, with fragrant woods along the building, and clear waters flowing in front of the hall. He lived leisurely studying the dao. Powerful politicians came to see him, and watched his exercises. He took it all in stride, which added to his fame. Eventually he caved in to pressure and took a position in the government.

This section struck me for several reasons. First, the story tells a great deal about the times. Second, it is beautifully written. Third, the shape of the characters used lends it to writing; the only one I would rather have left out was the 乃, which in the script I chose doesn’t seem to jibe. Also, this is a good example of the succinctness of Chinese literature, a whole story clearly developed, beautifully described, in less than a hundred words.

An archery contest featuring Robin Hood, William Tell, apples, and others.

今天早上日偏食，猜也猜得出來，北部下雨，看不到：請參攷這張日蝕正盛時的照片。

日光顯然黯淡，有一種特殊寧靜：沒有風、鳥不叫，只有烏鴉叫兩聲。

漸漸天稍亮，一隻松鼠爬上楠樹叫了幾聲，鳥逐漸又鳴了。

A partial solar eclipse was predicted for this morning, 

so very predictably it rained. 

But the sky was noticeably dimmer, and aside from a crow that cawed a couple times, the birds were all quiet. 

Then the sky gradually brightened. A squirrel climbed a tree and chattered, and the birds resumed singing.

Here’s a photo of the eclipse at the maximum.

今年第一朵鳶尾花 the first iris of the year

When we think of the European migrant problem, we usually don’t think of minors, just kids, really, traveling by themselves.

LINK

深夜奇光 an uncanny light (English follows)

昨晚天上出現了一坨很詭異的光，全村雞犬不寧、嬰孩哭、少年號、眾生不安、丈人哀、夫人泣。有人說，二二九閏日，祖靈垂惡相，將啟不祥。我看到雷棍跪在地上求祖靈，老淚縱橫，我于心不忍，想著辦法，突然從記憶庫浮現了一個很久很久以前看過的東西。我搖搖雷棍的肩膀，問他，「麻禡，想一想！這坨光，我們以前是有看過的，你不記得嗎？」他頭轉向我了，徐徐說，「由紺，你這樣講，我好像看過，可是我忘了是甚麼，因為實在太久以前。」旁邊的哈鹿斯聽到了，慢慢站起來了，說，「你們這樣講，我想起來了，很久很久以前看過夜晚天上有一樣的光……這是不是我們以前講的『月亮』？」「對！對！就是『月亮』！太久沒看到她了，所以實在忘記是甚麼！」皆大歡喜，轉悲為歡，大家回家睡覺去了。

冬雨真的下了很久，終于停了。這個故事只有一點點加油添醋。

Late last night an uncanny light appeared in the sky. The whole village was in an uproar. Dogs were howling and brave men were trembling. People were saying, It was February 29, Leap Day, the ancestors were warning of disaster to come. I saw Legun on his knees, tears streaming down his face, begging the ancestors to spare us. I had to do something. Suddenly, a long buried memory surfaced: I had seen something like this before! I shook Legun’s shoulder. “Mama! Think back! We’ve seen a light in the sky like this before, don’t you remember?” He looked at me and slowly said, “Yugan, now that you mention it, yes, I have seen a light like this before, but it was so long ago, I had forgotten!” Halus nearby also got to his feet and said, “Yes, now I remember, long, long ago, I saw something similar! Could this be the thing we used to call ‘the moon’?” “Yes, yes, that’s right! It’s the ‘moon’! We haven’t seen it for so long that we totally forgot about it!” Everybody became happy again and went to bed with smiles on their faces.

The winter rain finally let up and we got some clear weather. This story is embroidered only a wee bit. 

大概民國六十一、二年吧，一次從花蓮要到天祥，當時都是搭便車旅遊，又自由、又省錢、又可以跟很多司機聊，多有趣！但是那天早上從臺東出發，過了花蓮，搭的車要往蘇澳走，不是到天祥，所以我在中橫太魯閣入口下車，開始往山裏走。

一片矗立的峭壁一直吸引我，很想爬，可是當年在臺灣，怎麼問也找不到攀岩的人。連「攀岩」這個詞都沒有人知道。一個人不能爬，所以只好望崖興嘆。我往天祥走，到了那裏馵步，索性坐下來好好看崖，研究，如果哪一天找到攀岩的人，怎麼爬？剛好夕陽斜光，可以把石面看得很清楚，我真的是流連忘返。等天黑了我才猛然想到，我還有十幾公里要走。安安靜靜的，走起路來很舒服，一台車也沒有。嗯，一台車也沒有，那我搭甚麼便車？這是問題。

走了一個小時左右，有點餓，有點累，可是雙向都沒有車。有了！我聽到聲音！有卡車來，而且是往天祥方向走！太好了！車慢慢靠近，我開始倒著走，擺出我熟練的搭便車姿勢。可是司機沒有要停的樣子，所以我開始揮手 。等車子快要過的時候，我想到我真的有點累，不想再走一個小時，所以我乾脆不客氣，跑了幾步跳上踏板，問司機，「請問，可以送我到天祥嗎？」司機眼睛瞪很大，嘴巴開了，嗯嗯兩聲，微微點了頭，不講話。我很大方地開了門上了車，謝謝你，我到天祥就下車。

說也很奇怪。一班卡車司機很喜歡開車有人可以聊天，可是那個司機好像很內向，不管我怎麼想辦法跟他聊天，他就是雙眼盯得直直的，專心看前面的路，一副很緊張的樣子，一句也不回我。好吧，不是所有人都愛聊天，可是這個司機有點怪，他給我的感覺是，他不敢看我。好吧，有人天生害羞吧。好吧，不要勉強他了，不想聊就不要聊，我有靜靜地看著黑黑的 山景。

沒有很久，天祥到了。我跟司機先生說，「到了，我到天祥就好了，我下車了，謝謝你！」又一個很奇怪的感覺，司機好像鬆了一口氣，可是還是不看我，嗯嗯兩聲。我開門下車，幾乎來不及落地、來不及說謝謝，司機已經全力踩油門，向前衝，開很快！我很訝異看著他的車全速往洛韶跑。搖頭兩下，就往天主堂投宿去了。

多年後，我跟一個開車的朋友偶然提到這個奇怪的司機，沒想到這位朋友仰天哈哈大笑，笑得不停。等他喘了氣，我問他，「這有甚麼好笑的呢？」他擦眼淚說，「那個司機一定認為有阿飄上了他的車！你想，中橫前不著村、後不著店的黑暗路段，突然看到一個奇怪相貌的像人的形狀的東西招他的車，不是鬼是甚麼？那個年代臺灣的外國人很少，那個司機應該平時沒有近距離見過外國人，怎麼可能在荒郊野外有外國人要上他的車？一定是鬼！他把你當作鬼，所以你當然認為他怪怪的！他以為你才奇怪！也難怪你下車他鬆了一口氣！他一定一路衝到廟裏收驚哈哈哈哈！」笑得不停。

好吧，大概是吧，反正我本來就是洋鬼子。

When I was in college, I hitchhiked all over Taiwan. It was a great way to see things and meet people.

One day I was going from Hualien to Tienhsiang, and got dropped off near the coast where the road enters the mountains, spectacular scenery you have to see to believe.

There is a cliff there that I really wanted to climb, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find another rock climber. People didn’t even know what rock climbing was. Why should you go to all that effort to climb up, fall off, and smash your brains all over a rock face? Well, yeah, but it’s fun, you see.

On the day in question, I walked up to a place where I could really admire the cliff and sat down to study the face. About a pitch, at most a pitch and a half, I guessed. The setting sun put the face in relief so I could see details I hadn’t seen before. Fantastic. More and more interesting.

But when the sun set, I realized I was still over ten kilometers from Tienhsiang, and it was dark. The nice thing was that there were no cars or trucks on the road, so it was serenely quiet. Uh, no cars or trucks on the road. Hmm. One of the prerequisites for hitchhiking is you need cars or trucks. Hmm. Okay, let’s start walking.

An hour later, I still hadn’t seen a single car, and I was getting a bit hungry and tired. Then I heard a sound, a motor, something coming, and in the right direction! From the sound I could tell it was a truck. Great! Truck drivers enjoy company and always stop. So when the truck came close enough, I started walking backward and thumbing.

But the truck didn’t seem to be slowing down, so I started waving. It still wasn’t slowing down, and just as it was passing, I realized I really didn’t want to walk another hour, so I ran and jumped on the running board. I stuck my head in the window and very politely asked the driver to take me to Tienhsiang. It is on the way, after all.

But something strange. The driver’s eyes bulged, his mouth opened, he nodded, but he didn’t say anything. Never mind that, I opened the door and climbed into the front seat.  Now, most truck drivers enjoy having someone to chat with, to break the monotony of driving, but this guy was different. I tried to strike up a conversation, but he wouldn’t say a thing to me. He kept his eyes glued on the road. Okay, some people are shy, they don’t like to talk. But he seemed tense, nervous in a way, and I got the impression that he didn’t even want to look at me. Kind of weird. Well, okay, I just watched the black shadows of the mountains in silence.

When we reached Tienhsiang, I said, “Here we are, this is as far as I go.” He seemed relieved, but he still wouldn’t look at me. I opened the door and jumped out. Almost as soon as I hit the ground, before I had a chance to thank him, he floored it and roared off. I watched in amazement for a while as he sped up the road.

Many years later, I happened to mention this strange encounter to a friend who’s also a driver. To my surprise, he threw back his head and guffawed. When he could control himself, I asked him, What’s so funny? He said, “That driver must have thought you were a ghost! Think of it, out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, miles from any houses or buildings, this shape that looks like a human wants to get into his truck. If that’s not a ghost, what is it? There were very few foreigners in Taiwan at that time, and he had probably never seen a foreigner up close. He never imagined a foreigner would flag down his truck in the middle of the pitch black mountains, so he was probably sure you were a ghost! You thought he was weird, but he thought you were spooky! He probably didn’t stop until he found a temple hahahaha!”

That would explain it, but allow me to assure you, I am flesh and blood, living and breathing. Does that make anyone feel better?

Tom Cotton did his best to sabotage the nuclear deal with Iran. It is a total coincidence, I suppose, that he took US$1,000,000 from Israel (LINK). He went to Israel to swear fealty to his masters, but of course he always has the best interests of the US at heart. Or, to be more specific, the best interests of a certain US citizen named Tom Cotton. 

Oregon is dealing with the takeover of a public land by a group led by one Ammon Bundy. Bundy has benefited from decades of government subsidies on his ventures, including a loan of over US$500,000 which is subsidized by tax money (LINK). Now he says God has called him to go all the way to Oregon to protest and protect the Constitution. In short, he wants to own the land.

Unfortunately, if the land belongs to anybody, I would think the Paiute Indians would have a better claim than he (LINK). The local sheriff has asked him politely to leave and let the locals get on with their lives (LINK). But what is worse, he has irritated the birders, and if you think birders are a soft bunch, you have another thought coming. (LINK) The Bundy gang should really go home and try to do something worthwhile. 

Blaq ta kwara kawas na yungay! 

祝所有眾生猴年平安吉祥！

a happy monkey year to all!

Southern Taiwan was hit by a 6.4 earthquake early this morning. We are in the north, so we didn’t know anything about it until we woke up and saw the news online.

阿彌陀佛，猴年還沒正式登場就猴搞。祝大家猴年平安吉祥！

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Shots are fired, bombs are exploded in Paris, in London, in Madrid, the world takes note, people march, candles are lit. Two thousand some people get slaughtered in Baga, Boko Haram butchers 86 people in Maiduguri, ho hum, those are in Nigeria, who cares, really? It’s not like anybody would change their FaceBook profile photo. Let’s see what the commentators have to say about the Super Bowl.

Je suis Nigeria? Not likely!

Interesting article about which states speak fastest, the least, and so forth.

LINK

Language is funny.

My Puyuma (Pinuyumayan) male friends address me as Ali, the proper way adult males address each other. But in Tayal, ‘ali means bamboo shoot, and at first it was confusing: why are they calling me bamboo shoot?

We were talking with Malivan, Puyuma tribe, about tradition and cultural transmission. He made a particularly good point, so Chao said, “Balay.”

He was a bit taken aback, and asked, “What did you say?”

She explained, “Balay is Tayal for truly, verily, well spoken.”

He smiled and said, “I thought you said Ngalay, Puyuma for spit, or nonsense.”