The source of Xi Jinping’s inner peace
Vince Dhimos answered a question at Quora. https://www.quora.com/As-the-US-and-China-are-becoming-more-and-more-hostile-to-each-other-it-seems-that-all-countries-have-to-pick-a-side-of-either-the-US-or-China-Which-side-will-or-should-your-country-pick/answer/Vince-Dhimos As the US and China are becoming more and more hostile to each other, it seems that all countries have to pick a side of either the US or China. Which side will or should your country pick? Vince Dhimos certificate from Mandarin Chinese (language) & Chinese Culture, History, National Taiwan Normal University (Graduated 1990) It is inaccurate to say that the US and China are “hostile to each other.” Only the US is hostile. China waxes neither hot nor cold. It is not led by its emotions. China is imbued with the ancient Confucian ideal of harmony and also with a certain ideal of equanimity and calm, as exemplified by a traditional Chinese folk tale titled 塞翁失馬 (Sāi Wēng Shī Mǎ), which tells a story as recited at a web site Sai Weng Shi Ma 塞翁失馬 • Eve Out of the Garden as follows Sai Weng lived in the northern frontier of China. One day one of his horses disappeared. His neighbours came out to console him, “poor Sai Weng, he has lost a horse.” But the old man was not sad, “Hmmmm…..this may not be a bad thing….” Days later his horse returned of its own accord, bringing with it another, even better horse. Once again his neighbours came out, this time to congratulate him on his good fortune. But he was not quick to gloat. “Hmmmm….this is not something worth celebrating. Obtaining a horse may be a stroke of bad luck.” Sai Weng’s son loved the new horse, and he was good at taming the wild horses. But one day, he fell from the horse, breaking his leg. Once again Sai Weng’s neighbors came out to console him after hearing the bad news. But the old man replied, “Hmmmmm…..it is still hard to say if this broken leg is calamity or good fortune.” Sometime later China went to war with the northern barbarians, and all the young men were commanded to go to war. The war went on for years, and many young men were killed, but Sai Weng’s son was not drafted into the war because of his broken leg, and so he remained living a peaceful life. As this Chinese story illustrates, sometimes bad luck turns out to be good, and sometimes good luck turns out to be bad. END STORY This ancient wisdom is something very few Westerners understand, political ideologists least of all. And here is the Chinese wisdom in response to your question: It doesn’t matter which side your country comes down on. The Chinese will always be the Chinese and will always remain unmoved by whatever the winds of fortune may bring their way. 800 million workers will rise at dawn and set their noses to the grindstone every day to solve their problems with common sense and calm, ignoring the fierce US and its satellites as they beat their breasts and knock themselves out trying to defeat them. For they are neither friend nor foe, they are and forever will remain the Chinese China’s is a winning strategy whether you are for it or against it. But if you are for it, you win. If you are against it, you lose.
9 Comments
John E McClain
7/26/2020 04:12:07 pm
I've been to China as a Marine, ports of call and all that, not as an official or anything, but found the attitude of the people I met, very much as the story and statement of Vince describe. I would also like to say, China has moved "a leap forward" in truth, in the last two decades, achieving incredible literacy outcomes, around the Nation, and raising the vast majority out of poverty, and into a middle class, as they see it, culture being the issue that determines what we want, or how we get it so often.
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7/26/2020 04:18:06 pm
Beautifully told truth!
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William Bissell
7/26/2020 06:36:26 pm
China thinks in terms of thousands of years. They have 100 year plans while the US thinks in terms of 5 to 10 years at best. India is the same. Both are ancient and survivors. We are annoying flees that will kill ourselves in few short yrs. .
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John M Stassi
7/27/2020 11:53:51 am
Setting aside the fact that this is yet another stupid Quora question, it seems obvious to me that if Xi Jinping really enjoys "inner peace" then it has little or nothing to do with the moral of that lovely Chinese fable -- and there are so many like it, part of a rich folk literature tradition -- and much more to do with his (and the Chinese Communist Party's) winning strategy, which has been from the very birth of that regime up to the present to establish and maintain absolute control over the Chinese people.
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Vince
7/27/2020 12:28:27 pm
If you take a personal poll of people you meet in China, I think you will find that they are pro-CCP. In other words, you can't be for the Chinese people and against the party.
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Vince
7/27/2020 01:07:41 pm
The reason I stress Mandarin is that when you speak in English to a Chinese, you bring out a different kind of person than when you speak Mandarin. If you speak English, the Chinese is very cautious because he knows how Westerners feel about the CCP, But when you speak Mandarin, he or she expects you to understand the Chinese viewpoint. You bring out the REAL Chinese person. Again, I have NEVER spoken to a Chinese in Mandarin who had a negative attitude toward his government. I useually open up by asking "how is the economy in China these days?" And I say it with a big smile because I know the economy is GOOD there. Here in Panama, almost every Chinese family I know is planning on retiring in China. Another big clue for me is the response I get to my pro-Chinese posts. I get maybe a dozen upvotes on a good day and also very positive comments. When a commenter has a Chinese name, I don't worry that the response will be negative. Now compare this with the response you would get if you traveled abroad and met an American. Would you dare lead off by saying something positive about Trump? No, you would realize America is divided. You need to ask yourself: Why is America divded and China is not? I am not referring to Hong Kong, where US NGOs are running around bad mouthing the PRC, of course. The reason America is divided is that the US government is failing on both sides of the aisle, and since the performance of government is bad on both sides, people cling to hope that the failing is due to the OTHER party, but that is false. It is due to the colossal failing of BOTH parties, which are nearly indistinguishable from each other. Thus division is BUILT IN to the US system, and this will not get better, BTW, thanks to the latest rounds of quantitative easing, the dollar is losing its value, and this is just the beginning. The Fed will be printing more trillions as the pandemic progresses,
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Vince
7/27/2020 01:09:50 pm
Excuse me, when I wrote about my pro-Chinese posts, I was referring to Quora.
John M Stassi
7/28/2020 02:47:42 pm
I do not doubt your testimony, Vince, about the support for the CCP government that you've found among the Chinese people you've spoken with in their language. I can only conclude that the China of today is radically different than the China I knew back in 1988-89.
Vince
7/28/2020 04:27:44 pm
Thanks for that detailed response, John. I like details. I can only infer that in the late 80s you were either at the right place, wrong time or the wrogn place, right time. A Greek philosopher said that life is like a river and we can never enter the same river twice because it is not the same water today as it was yesterday. I used to read the Taiwanese site Epoch Times and read all these really horrible things about Mao and the commie Chinese. I never thought I would ever say a good thing about them. But it was the ever-optimistic Chinese people that gradually changed my mind. Yes, I know the rudeness. People in the stores seemed to deliberately brush you aside to go where they wanted to go. Awful! But that is not the aspect that preoccupies me now. I see the 6-7% economic growth and I see a stagnant US economy and a dollar that is slowly dying with every freshly minted unbacked trillion rolling off the fed's printing press, and I see the US government sticking its ugly face into every corner of the globe. Now the current generation of Americans look to me the way the Chinese did back in the early 90s. Neither side is the same. The river has flowed on. Who knows what it will look like tomorrow?
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