黃仁宇「萬曆十五年」

"1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline" is a very interesting book. It describes the mindset of Eastern Asian people, which, unfortunately, from what I've observed, didn't change significantly after more than 400 years. From my recent re-reading I got a lot of enlightenment and therefore recommended it to Gianluca.

The way that the emperor called for a strike is a creative approach against the entire bureaucracy system. Of course, it also contributed to the declination of the dynasty.

"1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline" on Amazon

最近正在重閱黃仁宇的著作「萬曆十五年」。我記得第一章「萬曆皇帝」是高一歷史課的指定閱讀資料。或許是出身於非師範體系，唐遠華老師的課程跟傳統歷史課不太一樣。可惜我是讀吳姊姊講歷史故事和錢穆長大的，當年完全看不懂黃仁宇想表達什麼.....

不過近年來經過了反洗腦排毒程序之後，這次重閱我發現我終於看懂了，而且受到很多啟發。很遺憾的是我覺得台灣社會很多思維跟 1587年沒差太多，可以說整個社會還沒完成現代化。我覺得讀這本書可以系統性地了解很多台灣的社會現象與輿論風向。我推薦Gianluca看這本書來了解東亞社會的思維。Gianluca說：

你說你高中老師很特別，會帶學生看特別的課外讀物？這讓我想到某款線上遊戲....
我：幸好我讀高中時已經解嚴了，小蔣也掛了....

是說我覺得萬曆皇帝罷工以示對文官集團的抗議滿有創意的。

Miracles

When the Israeli speaker was introducing "WIMP Miracle" in his seminar talk, Michael Peskin raised his hand,

"Israelis are insane with miracles."

People on Bills

Gianluca checked the people in the Italian Republic bills: Giuseppe Verdi, Marco Polo, Maria Montessori; Galileo Galilei, Guglielmo Marconi; Cristoforo Colombo, Vincenzo Bellini; Dante Alighieri, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Alessandro Volta; Tiziano Vecellio; Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, Lorenzo Bernini; Alessandro Manzoni, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio; Raffaello Sanzio.

Me: The people in the Republic of China (also known as Taiwan now) bills are Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek....

Gianluca: There is in fact a bill called "Machiavelli", but he's not portrait on it. You know at least by name almost all of them! (probably not Montessori, Bellini, Bernini and Caravaggio).

Gianluca: But from what you said I am winning that challenge, since I know all the characters in Taiwanese bills. All the two of them.

春聯紙

今天跑去Cupertino的世界生活館買春聯紙。目標是沒印瓦當的春聯紙，因為以往的經驗有瓦當的紙很難搞。

沒想到世界生活館只有有瓦當的春聯紙，而且瓦當的樣式俗不可耐。我在台灣的筆墨莊前前後後至少也逛了十年，不管在台北新竹從來沒看過這麼俗到爆炸的瓦當，比我看過最醜的春聯紙還醜上幾個數量級....紙質也不好，除了小學時第一次寫春聯用的爛紙，我用過的春聯紙紙質也好很多.....

崩潰了五分鐘，又猶豫了五分鐘要不要將就一下......不過後來決定就算字練起來了這麼醜的春聯紙我也不好意思掛出來，下次還是直接在台灣買吧。

離去前跟老闆聊了一下。老闆說沒瓦當的春聯紙已經賣完了，而當地的中文學校老師有時候比較喜歡有瓦當的紙，所以他們才會進貨。我嘗試說服老闆有瓦當的春聯紙其實比較難寫，因為一點點小瑕疵馬上看得出來。

回家跟Gianluca又靠妖了十分鐘才從驚嚇中回復....