The year of the horse- prosperity, freedom, health, wisdom, long life
For those of us in the Perth Taipei Seoul Shanghai Singapore Hong Kong time zone, the new year is very close.
On Friday 31 January, we enter the year of the horse.
People born in the year of the horse are quick-witted, popular, talented, and sometimes have a weakness for members of the opposite sex. They are impatient and hot-blooded but not about their daily work. Though they like entertainment and large crowds, they are very independent and rarely listen to advice.
There are several themes in Chinese culture, here is a quick view of just one: Confucianism.
The central five precepts are:
1. Respect for elders. The culture expects and may even require individuals and families to take care of their elderly and their children. To claim you signed no contract with your children cuts no ice.
2. Self discipline. Open markets and lax government may make it easy for self destructive behavior such as recreational drug use. The culture will not rescue you from your mistakes, it is up to you. Think before you act.
3. Diligence. You provide a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. You trade value for value.
4. Personal integrity. Your behavior is consistent, you are the same whether supervised or not.
5. Social responsibility. Those rights and freedoms you claim, you must allow to others.
On Friday 31 January, we enter the year of the horse.
People born in the year of the horse are quick-witted, popular, talented, and sometimes have a weakness for members of the opposite sex. They are impatient and hot-blooded but not about their daily work. Though they like entertainment and large crowds, they are very independent and rarely listen to advice.
There are several themes in Chinese culture, here is a quick view of just one: Confucianism.
The central five precepts are:
1. Respect for elders. The culture expects and may even require individuals and families to take care of their elderly and their children. To claim you signed no contract with your children cuts no ice.
2. Self discipline. Open markets and lax government may make it easy for self destructive behavior such as recreational drug use. The culture will not rescue you from your mistakes, it is up to you. Think before you act.
3. Diligence. You provide a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. You trade value for value.
4. Personal integrity. Your behavior is consistent, you are the same whether supervised or not.
5. Social responsibility. Those rights and freedoms you claim, you must allow to others.
Chinese culture has several strands one being mysticism from which come the year of the horse horoscope descriptions.
Another strand is the severe pragmatism of Confucius.
Originally, I had the idea of just posting a fun greeting. Then I thought why not put in a short description of the ethos behind the several economies in my time zone those being Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, S.Korea, Japan which are so different from 'the west' yet so successful well certainly when compared with their near neighbors. This success may be from the Confucian work ethic (compare Weber's Protestant work ethic), so I started from the five precepts which are taught in Singapore schools. We may agree that the first one is the key - respect for elders (the older I get the more obvious it seems), it leads to respect for authority and government generally and is suited to authoritarian regimes and so is high risk even with efficient and well motivated leadership. (But democracy is also high risk as voters give themselves more of everything). The odd thing is, that when doing the comments I found it easy to interpret each heading in open market and Objectivist terms with, I think, minor if not gross distortions. (!)
Ah well, maybe one sees what one wants to see.
(beats that evil old Christianity we're busy bashing to hell in other topics...)
Are you *really* trying to suggest that Chinese culture is Objectivist?
Well, have at it. Folly is its own reward.