
Life
William's life. And something of those around.
Friday, 28 February 2025
Book review: Elephants Can Remember

Thursday, 20 February 2025
Book review: the Grand Titration

So we come to the fundamental question, why did modern science not arise in China? The key probably lies in the four factors: geographical, hydrological, social and economic. All explanations in terms of the dominance of Confucian philosophy, for instance, may be ruled out at the start, for they only invite the further question, why was Chinese civilization such that Confucian philosophy did dominate. Economic historians such as Wu Ta-Khun, Chi Chhao-Ting and Wittfogel, tell us that though Chinese and European feudalism were not unlike, when feudalism decayed in China, it gave place to an economic and social system totally different from anything in Europe: not mercantile, still less industrial, capitalism, but a special form which may be called Asiatic bureaucratism, or bureaucratic feudalism. As we have already seen above, the rise of the merchant class to power, with their slogan of democracy, was the indispensable accompaniment and sine qua non of the rise of modern science in the west. But in China the scholar-gentry and their bureaucratic feudal system always effectively prevented the rise to power or seizure of the State by the merchant class, as happened elsewhere.
This is the background, then, which alone enables us to say that there was no modern science in China because there was no democracy. Democracy of a sort there was, in so far as (in many dynasties at any rate) it was possible for a boy of whatever origin to become a great scholar (the village neighbours might club together to provide a tutor for him) and so take a high place in the official bureaucracy. Democratic, too, was the absence of hereditary positions of lordship, and democratic was, and still is, the psychological attitude of the commons within whom the four 'classes' (scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants) interchanged with considerable fluidity among one another. It explains the utter lack of the servility so noticeable in other peoples of the eastern hemisphere. But that particular sort of democracy associated with the rise of the merchants to power, that revolutionary democracy associated with the consciousness of technological change, that Christian, individualistic and representative democracy with all its agitating activity, which characterized the New Model Army, the Army of the Marseillaise, the Minute Men, the Floating Republic, the Dorset Martyrs, the Communards, the Sailors of Invergordon and Kronstadt, and the Motor-Cycle Battalions which took the Winter Palace that China never knew until our own day.
There is probably no other culture in the world where the conception of the civil service has become so deeply rooted. I myself had no idea of it when I first went to China, but you can find it everywhere there, even in the folk-lore. Instead of stories about heroes and heroines becoming kings or princesses, as in Europe, in China it is always a matter of taking a high place in the examina-tions and rising in the bureaucracy, or marrying an important official. This was, of course, the only way in which to acquire wealth. There is a famous saying (current till recently) that in order to accumulate wealth you must enter the civil service and rise to high rank (Ta kuan fa tshai). The accumulation of wealth by the bureaucracy was the basis of the phenomenon often described by Western people in China as 'graft', 'squeeze', and so on, and of which so many complained. The attitude of Westerners, however, has been prejudiced by the fact that in Europe religion and moral uprightness had a historical connection with that quantitative book-keeping and capitalism which had no counter-part in China. At no time in Chinese history were the members of the mandarinate paid a proper salary, as we should think natural in the West. There were constant efforts to do so, decrees were always being issued, but in point of fact it was never done, and the reason is probably because the Chinese never had a full money economy.
There cannot be much doubt (as we can now see) that the failure of the rise of the merchant class to power in the State lies at the basis of the inhibition of the rise of modern science in Chinese society. What the exact connection was between early modern science and the merchants is of course a point not yet fully elucidated. Not all the sciences seem to have the same direct con-nection with mercantile activity. For instance, astronomy had been brought to quite a high level in China. It was an orthodox' science there because the regulation of the calendar was a matter of intense interest to the ruling authority. From ancient times the acceptance of the calendar promulgated by the Emperor had been a symbol of submission to him. On account of a great sensitivity to the 'prognosticatory' aspect of natural phenomena, the Chinese had amassed long series of observations on things which had not been studied at all in the West, for example auroras. Records of sun-spots had been kept by the Chinese, who must have observed them through thin slices of jade or some similar translucent material, long before their very existence was suspected in the West. It was the same with eclipses, which were supposed to have a fortunate or antagonistic effect on dynastic events. Then there were the 'unorthodox' sciences, for example alchemy and chemistry, which were always associated with Tao-ism. Neither astronomy nor chemistry could enter the modern phase, however, in the Chinese environment.
Monday, 17 February 2025
Book review: Murder in Mesopotamia

Refs
Tuesday, 11 February 2025
You! I wanna take you to a towbar!

Book review: Funeral in Berlin

Thursday, 6 February 2025
Book review: Cat Among the Pigeons

The story background - revolution in an unspecified middle eastern kingdom, and some missing jewels - is all a bit hackneyed but at least it isn't rich Americans. The setting of a country girl's school is nice although it does feel like a very small school.
Once the fundamental premise is accepted, British Intelligence does a rather poor job: three teachers are slaughtered, and a four badly wounded possibly fatally at the end, despite their having a man on the scene at all times.
I didn't guess the answer, at least in part because I wasn't trying very hard. But AS's succession of short jobs, and a conveniently sick mother, was arousing even my suspicions.
What was never explained was the implausible coincidence of someone just happening to be in the hotel room next door out in Ramat. I think something is needed there; it would have to be something around AS spying on Bob or the like... meh, I'm not sure. Quite what AS was supposed to be doing out there is never specified. Also, as a supposedly pro international hit woman, I'm a bit suspicious about single-shot-to-kill; wouldn't std.practice be a couple more shots: it is surely hard to be certain, especially in the dark.
The "Miss Blanche was killed when she attempted to blackmail the killer" red herring is a bit dodgy too: Miss B is extorting loadsamoney, and yet a hired killer isn't obviously rich - if you were, why would you stay in the job - but is obviously dangerous.
At the end, AS shoots Chaddy and as she lies possibly mortally wounded - but happily silent - on the floor Poirot goes into a long spiel explaining the situation. Once that important matter is over Chaddy can be attended to. We also learn that Chaddy killed Miss V by hitting her with a sandbag, an astonishing feat for an old woman which no-one remarks on. One thinks of the oh-so-many other novels when characters manage to merely knock out others with a sandbag, and yet here death occurs on the first blow. What's more, there's a convenient golf club nearby, the supposed murder weapon, and yet a complete absence of any pathologist's report into blood, or matted hair, on the golf club; or anything about the indentation in the head. So what this really is, is a badly done red herring.
The abduction of Shaista is a better red herring; I had S tagged as the killer, and still think it would have been better if she had been.
Saturday, 25 January 2025
Christmas 2024
It was the usual pleasant time; I won't analyse it in any detail, just pull out some pix. The full set is here.
The children around the tree. Mother's tree in the front garden.
Christmas day meal was as ever. The bringing of the pudding. Mother in state. The Rulez. My morning half in just under 2 hours, alone this time.
Boxing Day to RNLT for lunch then a walk around the mystical Five Standing Stones of MuW. Photo by M (proof she came). It was all too much for some.
On the Saturday we went home we were going to Parkrun but it was closed-for-mud. So we did our own. Finish order: D, Toby <gap>, me, Lara <gap>, Rob, Miranda. Nina went over the fields with the dogs.
Our faithful cat was waiting at home to greet us.
DE and I walked to Ely and the cathedral on a cold frosty but lovely day that was so cold people were skating. E and I didn't find time for the Backs because she is a busy little thing, but I did scull.
For New Year's Eve to Mfd+J. And in the end, Mfd+J finished the puzzle. Indeed, the Ely walk was after NYD, but I think the puzzle makes a nicer last pic.