Podcasts about Confucianism

I interview Canadian political scientist Daniel A. Bell (University of Hong Kong) about his latest book Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters and how Chinese political theory broadens a West-centric Anglophone canon. Bell explains major pre-unification traditions—Confucianism (graded love, harmony, ritual, soft power, political meritocracy), Legalism (state-strengthening through uniform, ruthless law and fear), Mohism (populist focus on material welfare and opposition to state-funded ritual/music), and Taoism (skepticism of social engineering and preference for limited state action)—and notes their modern revival after 20th-century anti-traditionalism and the Cultural Revolution. We discuss timeless debates on corruption, family law, culture funding, just war, and idealism vs. realism (including Xunzi vs. Legalists), Bell's argument in The China Model for legitimate variation beyond "one person, one vote," sources of legitimacy in China, Xi's role versus structural pressures, and the need for more people-to-people engagement to reduce demonization and improve US–China understanding.(02:43) West Centric Theory(04:29) Writing The Book(05:59) Schools Of Thought(06:49) Confucians Explained(08:35) Legalists And Power(10:07) Mohists And Populism(10:56) Taoism And Withdrawal(11:56) Ancient Debates Today(15:08) Idealism Versus Realism(18:49) Confucianism Endures(23:02) Traditions In The 1900s(29:29) Lessons For Western Leaders(30:18) Ritual Music And Order(31:40) Just War And Intervention(32:55) Harmony Not Conformity(33:56) Confucian Harmony Not Sameness(35:44) Just War and Tyranny(37:04) Questioning One Person One Vote(39:17) Why Meritocracy Fits China(43:03) Cultural Fit and Export Failures(46:42) Western Thinkers in China(48:03) Censorship and Reform Prospects(49:38) Xi Versus Structural Forces(52:54) Legitimacy Performance and Trust(56:03) Taiwan Prosperity and AI Optimism(58:30) More Participation Not Elections(59:46) Meritocracy Weak Spots and DialogueRead Daniel A. Bell's books

Christianity Made in Japan, by Mark Mullins: https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/christianity-made-in-japan-a-study-of-indigenous-movements/What makes a Christian movement indigenous? Today I look at the first three indigenous movements detailed by Mark Mullins, the Non-Church Movement (Uchimura), The Way (Matsumura), and Christ Heart Church (Kawai). Older movements that mixed Bushido, Confucianism, Self-Cultivation, and a respect for Buddhism with Christianity. Can modern Christians learn anything from these groups about reaching Japanese while staying faithful to the Gospel? Are the principles of venerating pre-Christian traditions incompatible with Christianity? Is it different when Japaense thinkers revere pre-Christian voices compared to when church fathers revered Greek philosophers as pre-Christian voices? Later movements to be discussed in a future episode.

Dr. Minsoo Kang is a historian and writer. Currently, he is an associate professor of European intellectual history in the Department of History at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Find Minsoo and his work online Against Han: https://aeon.co/essays/against-han-or-why-koreans-are-not-defined-by-sadness The Story of Hong Gildong: https://www.amazon.com/Story-Hong-Gildong-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143107690 The Melancholy of Untold History: https://www.amazon.com/Melancholy-Untold-History-Novel/dp/0063337509 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsoo_Kang This is his second time on the podcast. Find the first conversation here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=queE_0_mWeo Discussion Outline 0:00 Introduction 2:35 The Story of Tangun 8:31 The Truth of Tangun 16:00 Important Korean Myths 19:40 The King From Elsewhere 25:08 5,000 Years of Korean Dynasty 32:00 Chinese Influence on Korea 36:19 Confucianism in East Asia 42:05 Asadal 47:30 Wi Man 52:50 Kim Bu Sik 59:16 Korea-China Relations 1:05:20 When Did Koreannes Begin? 1:16:30 Korean Ethnonationalism 1:32:56 North Korea 1:48:05 National Foundation Day and Daejonggyo 1:54:05 The King's Warden Analysis Timeline of Korean History Gojoseon 2333 to 108 BCE Goguryeo 37 BCE to 668 CE Baekje 18 BCE to 660 CE Silla 57 BCE to 935 CE (unified the peninsula in 668) Balhae 668 to 935 CE Goryeo 918 to 1392 CE Joseon 1392 to 1897 CE Korean Empire 1897 to 1910 CE ROK 1948 – present Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell, Sara B Cooper, Anne Brennels, Ell, Johnathan Filbert, Daniela Körppen, Cody Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873 David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at datizzard@swu.ac.kr. ▶ David's Insta: @datizzard ▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed Listen to Korea Deconstructed ▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128 ▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE ▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com

Does Han Feizi's focus on “standards” allow him to provide a more realistic political theory than the Confucian focus on moral cultivation?

What does family life really look like in Contemporary China? What has changed through the generations since the Communist Revolution of 1949? And what persists? Jieyu Liu, Professor of Sociology at SOAS, University of London, joins us to discuss her years of detailed research with people across three generations in rural and urban China. Putting forward her concept of ‘embedded generations', she argues that family transformation has been less linear than assumed - and calls out dominant Eurocentric accounts of modernization and social change.Plus: Jieyu celebrates the work of prominent sociologist and anthropologist Fei Xiaotong, and recommends Shen Fu's memoir ‘Six Records of a Floating Life' for its insights into Chinese society. An important conversation about love, relationships, family and social change - and the influential concept of ‘individualisation'.Guest: Jieyu Liu; Hosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu Truong; Executive Producer: Alice Bloch; Sound Engineer: David Crackles; Music: Joe Gardiner; Artwork: Erin AnikerFind out more about Uncommon SenseEpisode ResourcesBy Jieyu LiuEmbedded Generations: Family Life and Social Change in Contemporary ChinaFrom the Sociological Review FoundationListen to Katherine Twamley on IntimacyObligated to Care: Intergenerational Family Relations in Contemporary China Raising Global Families by Pei-Chia LanGenerationalism: Understanding the difference between what generations are and what generations doFurther resourcesFei Xiaotong - ObituaryFei Xiaotong (1939) Peasant Life in ChinaThe Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love, and Eroticism in Modern SocietiesIndividualisation: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences Shen Fu (1809/1877) Six Records of a Floating Life ** We want to hear from you! Please take two minutes to complete our listener survey here. It helps us, a charity, learn who's listening to Uncommon Sense, and why. Thank you **Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-senseInterested in podcasting with us? Read more here, and contact us at podcasts@thesociologicalreview.org Sign up to the Sociological Review Foundation newsletter

Harmony serves as a core principle in multiple belief systems, emphasizing interconnectedness, balance, and peaceful coexistence with other humans, animals, plants, and the objects we tend to arrogantly misclassify as inert. I can attest to rocks having unique spirits by virtue of the 19 rocks gracing my altar, each emanating stable spirit energy unique to their character. Harmony is a tenet of Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, and the animistic beliefs of the Mvskoke, Lakota, Iriquois, Diné, and many other indigenous peoples. Harmony is a key ingredient to achieving happiness. Indeed, sustained happiness is impossible if the individual's spirit is locked in discord.

This episode we interview Jane Park about her debut novel, INHERITANCE. Jane is a second-generation Korean-Canadian writer. She was born in Edmonton, Alberta, lived in New York City for over a decade, and now lives in Calgary, Alberta. INHERITANCE is her debut novel. Linny was excited to identify the similarities of Jane's life and that of her leading character in INHERITANCE, Anne.In INHERITANCE, Anne Kim is a disaffected lawyer living a successful life in New York City – a far cry from her impoverished childhood in rural Canada where she faced racism and bullying as a second-generation Korean immigrant. When Anne returns to Canada for her father's funeral, she must face the relationships and past she thought she had left behind and reckon with who she is.We talk with Jane, the author of INHERITANCE, about the second-generation immigrant experience, the dark family dysfunction humor that only immigrant kids understand, and the family scripts set forth by Confucianism. We learn about how Holocaust generational trauma literature informed the novel, as well as how Jane worked to prevent her trauma from impacting her own children. Jane also tells us how becoming a mother changed her writing in INHERITANCE and how her interest in God is reflected in the novel.We hear about Jane's family's journey to Canada and her journey to becoming a novelist, despite its incongruity with most immigrant families' desires for children to become doctors or lawyers. Jane tells us about the crucial support she received, financial and artistic, that brought this novel to life. We also learn about her love of fine arts.And, we now have two Korean words to add to our vocabularies: eunjangdo and ajumma. One controversial; one endearing.

This episode we interview Jane Park about her debut novel, INHERITANCE. Jane is a second-generation Korean-Canadian writer. She was born in Edmonton, Alberta, lived in New York City for over a decade, and now lives in Calgary, Alberta. INHERITANCE is her debut novel. Linny was excited to identify the similarities of Jane's life and that of her leading character in INHERITANCE, Anne.In INHERITANCE, Anne Kim is a disaffected lawyer living a successful life in New York City – a far cry from her impoverished childhood in rural Canada where she faced racism and bullying as a second-generation Korean immigrant. When Anne returns to Canada for her father's funeral, she must face the relationships and past she thought she had left behind and reckon with who she is.We talk with Jane, the author of INHERITANCE, about the second-generation immigrant experience, the dark family dysfunction humor that only immigrant kids understand, and the family scripts set forth by Confucianism. We learn about how Holocaust generational trauma literature informed the novel, as well as how Jane worked to prevent her trauma from impacting her own children. Jane also tells us how becoming a mother changed her writing in INHERITANCE and how her interest in God is reflected in the novel.We hear about Jane's family's journey to Canada and her journey to becoming a novelist, despite its incongruity with most immigrant families' desires for children to become doctors or lawyers. Jane tells us about the crucial support she received, financial and artistic, that brought this novel to life. We also learn about her love of fine arts.And, we now have two Korean words to add to our vocabularies: eunjangdo and ajumma. One controversial; one endearing.

This episode is a replay from The Existential Stoic library. Enjoy! The ideal of Bushido, often translated as "The Way of the Warrior," represents a code of moral principles followed by samurai in feudal Japan. What are the core virtues of Bushido? Is the ideal of Bushido still applicable in contemporary times? In this episode, Danny and Randy discuss the ideal of Bushido. Thanks to listener Alex B. for this episode idea.Subscribe to ESP's YouTube Channel! Thanks for listening!  Do you have a question you want answered in a future episode? If so, send your question to: existentialstoic@protonmail.com

Another episode, another new reign--same old problems.  This episode we talk about what happened after Ohoama, aka Temmu Tenno, passed away.  We'll touch on the fact that it wasn't entirely a smooth transition, and there are certainly hints that not everyone was in agreement as to what should happen.  And then there were other problems, such that the heir apparent never actually took the throne.  So what happened? For more information on the main characters in this episode, check out the blogpost at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-147  (Also apologies ahead of time--my voice was not in great shape, and that may come through on the audio) Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is episode 147: Here We Go Again   Iki no Hakatoko looked around the spacious room and recognized many of the faces he saw there.  There were various nobles from around the court present.  All of them were familiar, even if they were not the closest of acquaintances—they ran in similar circles and were connected to each other over various political positions.  Some were connected by marriage, some were just allies, and others were almost rivals—but they were all there for a common cause. The open chamber had been buzzing as all of those elites of Yamato talked about why they might have gathered.  Of course, the big news was the death of the sovereign.  Ohoama had passed away, and the court was formally in mourning. And yet the government seemed stable.    The Queen was at the helm, guiding t he government, and her son was beside her as the Crown Prince.  So what was everyone doing here, gathering for what they could only assume were… other options? Finally, the buzzing started to die down as the doors to the chamber were closed and guards posted.  And then, the host for the discussion arrived, as Royal Prince Ohotsu stepped out and greeted all of his soon-to-be co-conspirators….     This episode, at long last, we are about to dive into a new reign.  And if you haven't picked up by now, this, the end of the 7th century, was a turbulent time.  Although the court had been instituting reforms to be more like the courts on the continent—and it wasn't like Ohoama died without any heir whatsoever—things were still unstable.  I know, shocker, right? So what happened? Let's go over the history some, and the main players, and then we can see what happened and the aftermath. Before that, however, let's talk about what we might expect to have happened, if everything had worked like clockwork. While Ohoama passed away in 686, it wasn't as if he hadn't made any plans.  His wife and Queen, Uno no Sarara, was deeply entrenched in governmental affairs, and their son, Prince Kusakabe, had been named Crown Prince in 681.  This meant that both were in positions of significant power within the current government.  All things being equal, and assuming a Confucian model, one would expect that upon Ohoama's passing, Kusakabe would step up and take the reins of the government, ascending to the throne as the new ruler.  Uno would oversee the transition and take her place as the Queen Mother, remaining in the palace and helping to shepherd the new rule, while one of Kusakabe's wives—probably Abe-hime, who, like her half-sister Uno, was also a daughter of Naka no Oe—would become his queen. And yet that is not what happened.  Prince Kusakabe does not show up in our list of sovereigns, and we are told he never ascended the throne.  Instead, his mother, Uno no Sarara, came to power.  So what exactly happened?  Why would she not have handed over power to her only son and set him up on the throne?  To understand all of that, I think there are several things we need to discuss, first of them being just how tenuous and fragile transitions like this were. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you might be nodding in agreement with this statement: for more than a century, at this point, whatever high-minded ideals the rulers of Yamato may have espoused, their path to the throne had been covered in blood.  Let's roll back to the events of 587.  We talked about this in Episode 91, when the Soga and Mononobe families had each lined up behind different aspirants to the royal throne.  The Mononobe were a powerful family, known to be warriors for the throne, and the head of the Mononobe, the Ohomuraji, Moriya, was one of the most influential people at court.  However, in recent years, the Soga family had been on the rise.  Soga no Iname had married his daughters to members of the royal family, and he and his son, Umako, were known as the Ohoomi.  The Mononobe were not having it with these uppity newcomers, but the Soga seem to have built their power, anyway, likely using their connections to the continent to do so.  In a series of succession disputes, the Soga came out on top, defeating the Mononobe and eventually killing Moriya.  It was a bloody fight, but eventually the Soga's royal relatives won out. This brought Hasebe Wakasasagi, aka Sushun Tennou, to the throne.  For a time, Wakasasagi and Soga no Umako ruled the land, but eventually Wakasasagi grew suspicious of Umako—perhaps jealous of his power.  He considered taking him out, but Umako caught wind and had the sovereign assassinated, instead.  Umako then put his own niece, Kashikiya Hime, on the throne, where most know her as Suiko Tennou. Kashikiya was no stranger to the court, having served as the wife of her own half-brother, Nunakura, aka Bidatsu Tennou.  Kashikya is thought to have been a compromise candidate, chosen specifically to avert any further power struggles.  Certainly, Umako did not want a repeat performance of what had just happened with Wakasasagi.  And though she reigned, power was apparently shared between Soga no Umako, Kashikiya Hime, and Kashikiya Hime's nephew—Umako's grandnephew—Crown Prince Umayado, aka the legendary Shotoku Taishi.   By all rights, it seemed like things should have gone smoothly.  Umako, the eldest, would pass away to be succeeded by his niece, and it would make sense that after Kashikiya Hime's passing, Umayado would assume the throne.  Instead, Umayado would be the first to pass, creating uncertainty as to the future of the throne.  Then Umako would follow several years later.  Finally, Suiko would pass away soon thereafter. So, in about six years the three most powerful people in court all passed away.  Soga no Umako's son, Soga no Emishi, was still coming out from under his father's shadow.  Furthermore, it was not clear who should sit the throne—should it be Prince Yamashiro no Oe, the son of the Crown Prince, Umayado?  After all, his father would have likely inherited the throne and then it would have no doubt been passed to him.  And yet, there was another contender: Prince Tamura.  Ultimately Soga no Emishi backed Prince Tamura, a man with ties to Nunakura through both his father and mother, and yet who was not truly a royal prince in that his own parents had never held the throne.  Then again, neither had Umayado.  Eventually, Prince Yamashiro no Oe would back down from his claim to avoid bloodshed—and yet blood would be shed anyway.  When Prince Tamura died,  in an apparent bid to keep Soga power and quash any resistance before it started up, Soga no Emishi had Tamura's wife, Takara hime, aka Kougyoku Tennou, installed—but Prince Yamashiro no Ohoe was still alive, and his heirs were still out there.  Soga no Emishi appeared to be content, but his son and heir, Soga no Iruka, was not. And when his father was ill and Iruka had a free hand, he ordered the destruction of Prince Yamashiro no Oe, presumably to avoid a future challenge to the throne and thus to the Soga family's hold on power. This move shocked many, and rather than preventing conflict, it seems to have stirred up ill feelings against the Soga for their heavy hand in the politics of the period.  This would lead Prince Naka no Ohoe and several co-conspirators to rise up, killing Soga no Iruka in court, and then attacking his father, Soga no Emishi, in their home.  See episode 106 for more on that, known as the Isshi Incident.  Naka no Ohoe and his supporters would take their place in the court, but Naka no Ohoe would not ascend to the throne, himself – at least not yet.  Instead, he took the position of Crown Prince, and his uncle, Prince Karu,aka Kotoku Tennou,  took the throne.  However, that still left a loose end.  Prince Furubito no Oe, who had appeared to be the favorite for the throne under the Soga, was still alive.  Furubito no Oe was the son of Tamura and a Soga consort—Hotei no Iratsume, the daughter of Soga no Umako.  Although the Chronicles do not mention it, he seems to have been well placed to be Crown Prince in place of Naka no Oe, especially in a Soga dominated court.  Without that backing, however, his claim may not have been quite so strong.  He had gone into exile in Yoshino, but opponents of Naka no Oe's faction and their bloody coup began to use him as a rallying point.  It is unclear if Prince Furubito himself had any ambitions, but the fact remained that he was a threat, nonetheless, and Prince Naka no Oe had him taken out. By controlling things from behind the throne, Prince Naka no Oe seems to have been able to keep things fairly stable.  When his uncle Karu  passed away, the throne went back to his mother, who is known as Saimei Tennou in her second reign, but Naka no Oe was still in a place of considerable power, and the continuity likely helped keep things on track.  Then Takara Hime passed away in the midst of a national crisis—the mobilization to support Baekje against the Silla-Tang alliance.  That military effort turned out to be less than successful, but by that point, there does not seem to have been much question over who was in charge – it was finally Naka no Oe's turn to take the throne, and he did, as Tenji Tennou. And so it wasn't until Naka no Oe's own death that we again see major violence.  Naka no Oe's brother, Ohoama, is said to have been the Crown Prince, but then Naka no Oe's son, Ohotomo, came of age.  He was made the Dajo Daijin and supported by the most powerful nobles in court.   It is clear that there were divergent factions within the court itself, though, with some supporting Ohotomo and others supporting Ohoama.  In the midst of this, Ohoama chose to bow out, at least while his brother Naka no Oe was still on the throne.  However, Ohotomo and his supporters could not leave Ohoama out there as a loose end.  They knew that he still had a claim and supporters, and they started to make plans to move against him after Naka no Oe's death.  They were too slow, however—Ohoama caught word and moved against the court, instead.  In a bloody struggle that upended the politics of the court one more time, Ohoama came to the throne.  That struggle, the Jinshin no Ran, was covered in detail in episodes 129 to 132. So if we look back we can see that for all of the thoughts of inheritance and legitimacy, most of those who had ascended the throne had done so by eliminating their rivals—either before or just after they assumed the royal mantle.  As such, this is something that Ohoama was, himself, quite concerned about, and he took several steps to try to avoid a repeat of this scenario. First, and perhaps somewhat confusingly, he ensured that those in positions of authority in the government were largely tied by blood to the royal family.  The royal and non-royal princes were all nominally related in one way, shape, or form.  If nothing else this meant that the nobility— those elites without direct blood ties to the throne—were not, themselves, gaining the kind of power and authority that had previously been given out to families like the Ohotomo, the Mononobe, and the Soga.  We don't even hear that much about the relatives of Nakatomi no Kamatari, who had achieved such heights under Naka no Oe that he had become the Naidaijin, the great minister of the interior. One might think that this system still had issues, however.  After all, each princely line had their own tie to a previous sovereign, and we've certainly seen times where a sovereign came in out of left field, with a nominal, but hardly convincing, connection to the throne.  This is particularly true in a time when succession was still not necessarily a strictly patrilineal custom; where it was not unusual for a senior family member to take up the mantle of leadership, rather than just the first-born son of the current ruler. And that seems to be why Ohoama also held the Yoshino conference with his immediate family members in 679.  This included his Queen Consort, Uno; the Royal Prince Kusakabe, the Royal Prince Ohotsu, the Royal Prince Takechi, the Royal Prince Kawashima, the Royal Prince Osakabe, and the Royal Prince Shiki.  These were sons of both Ohoama and Naka no Oe, but they were all considered to be loyal insiders of the royal family.  Ohoama had them swear to work together and to protect one another.  And yet, as we shall see, that promise does not seem to have survived Ohoama himself. So let's talk about some of these characters, now that we are here at another question of succession.  We'll start with the Queen herself, Uno no Sarara. Uno was born in 645, the daughter of Naka no Oe and a consort, Wochi no Iratsume, daughter of Soga no Yamada no Ishikawa no Maro.  Ishikawa no Maro had been a powerful ally of Naka no Oe, assisting with the overthrow of his own uncle and cousin, Soga no Emishi and Soga no Iruka.  In turn, he seems to have become the head of the Soga family.  Despite the rhetoric that the Soga family was destroyed, it was more that the power of Emishi and Iruka was broken.  Ishikawa no Maro had parlayed his assistance into another means to access power at the court, and married his own daughter to Naka no Oe.  That worked until it didn't—enemies in court slandered Ishikawa no Maro and Naka no Oe had him killed in 649. Wochi no Iratsume would have three children with Naka no Oe.  The eldest was Princess Ota, followed by Princess Uno, and finally Prince Takeru.  There is a theory that she died in 651, giving birth to Prince Takeru.  Prince Takeru himself would only survive a short while passing away in 658.  He was only seven years old. Both Princess Ohota and Princess Uno were married off to their uncle, Prince Ohoama.  Princess Ohota was the elder of the two, and bore Princess Ohoku and Prince Ohotsu, whom we'll discuss in a bit.  However, Princess Ohota passed away in 667, during the reign of Naka no Oe, and so did not play as big a role in the politics of the day as her younger sister. Uno, on the other hand, appears to have been Ohoama's ride-or-die.  They were married when she was only thirteen years old, and she followed him when he and Naka no Oe went to Kyushu to oversee the war on the peninsula.  It was there that she gave birth to her first and only son in 662.  She left the court behind to follow Ohoama to Yoshino, along with their son, Prince Kusakabe.  She then followed Ohoama on his lightning blitz through the mountains over to the east.  It is said that while he went on to the front, she maintained a place in the relative safety of the land of Mie.  From there she likely organized the rearguard and would have been involved with the back-end logistics.  She is also said to have made particular entreaties to the deities of Ise shrine, and may have had a hand in raising the Shrine to greater prominence during the reign of Ohoama and later. A key note is the fact that, when Ohoama became ill, and could not effectively manage the affairs of state, Uno stepped in and made sure that things continued to operate.  And so, when Ohoama finally passed away, his projects were not simply left hanging—his queen and consort, Uno no Sarara, was there to see that everything remained on track. As queen, Uno's son, Prince Kusakabe, was the favorite to succeed his father.  In fact, in 681, he was named Crown Prince at the age of 19.  Kusakabe had even married his own aunt, Princess Abe—his mother's half-sister.  Princess Abe was another daughter of Naka no Oe and a Soga related consort; in this case it was Wochi no Iratsume's younger sister, Mehi no Iratsume—sometimes called Sakurai no Iratsume.  I should note that Princess Abe was only about 20 years old in 681, only a year older than the Crown Prince, so it isn't like there was a huge age gap between them, even if he was technically marrying his own aunt.  Still, they had already had a child between them the year before, in 680—this was Princess Hidaka or Niimi.  Two years later, in 683, they had another child, Prince Karu, and later we know that they had a third child, Princess Kibi.  This is all a pretty good start for a future sovereign, and Kusakabe seems to have been on track to succeed his father. By all rights, it seems that Kusakabe should have stepped up in 686 to take the throne, but that was not to be.  Instead, his mother, Queen Uno no Sarara, would retain her place at the head of the government.  It is possible that this was meant to be merely temporary —there were still many things to be taken care of.  With Ohoama's death there were numerous rituals having to do with his interment, and the Crown Prince, Kusakabe, appears to have been integral to those events.  Whereas we may have previously seen powerful nobles step up, with the increased influence of Confucianism, it makes sense that a son would be responsible for ensuring that things were taken care of.   There was also the issue of a new palace that would need to be built, and the court would need to prepare for the various enthronement ceremonies.  After all, Naka no Oe himself wasn't formally enthroned for three years into his supposed reign. And just like his grandfather, as Crown Prince, Kusakabe maintained a powerful portfolio at the court that would still allow him to have a heavy hand on the rudder of the ship of state.  In fact, had things gone differently, then the Chroniclers may have simply counted these early years as part of Kusakabe's reign, as they had done with Naka no Oe. And all that would have been great—except that, despite all those nice family agreements at Yoshino, there were others who seem to have had designs on the throne. The first claim that likely could have been made was by Prince Takechi.  Prince Takechi—written as Takaichi, like the district of the same name—was technically the eldest son of Ohoama.  He had been called to Ohoama's side during the Jinshin no Ran, and given nominal control over the troops waiting to cross the pass from Ohowari into Afumi.  This was likely more of a sinecure, however; Prince Takechi was still quite young, and while the position would no doubt teach him much about organization and leadership, I certainly hope that there were more experienced individuals assisting him. However, for all of that, Prince Takechi had a major strike against him In the form of his parentage.  Although he was Ohoama's eldest son, his mother was not a royal princess.  Instead she was Amago no Iratsume, the daughter of the powerful head of the Munakata family, Munakata no Tokusen. Munakata was a powerful area on the northwest coast of Tsukushi—modern Kyushu.  It is famous for the three Munakata shrines.  The outer, or Hetsu, shrine is on the land, but the middle shrine is on the island of Ohoshima, 11 kilometers from the Hetsu shrine.  Then the Oki, or deep sea, shrine is on the aptly named Okinoshima, another 49 kilometers past that, out in the middle of the Genkai Sea, the body of water between Kyushu, Tsushima, and the Korean peninsula.  Even today, Okinoshima is considered a sacred place, and has never been developed: even today, only those closely associated with the shrine are allowed to set foot there.  Because of that we can see something remarkable, as Okinoshima was held as sacred for hundreds of years, during which time, offerings were regularly made to the kami there, presumably for safe passage across the waters.  These offerings have accumulated over the centuries and serve as a fascinating glimpse back into the history of the shrine and of the relations between the archipelago and the peninsula. The land of Munakata—and by extension the rulers, or Kimi—appear to have had not inconsiderable influence over the trade back and forth across the ocean to the continent.  This is further corroborated by the wealth left at Okinoshima and elsewhere, as well as by large kofun nearby, thought to be those of the ruling family of the area.  This would have no doubt been a powerful and prestigious family to be allied with, especially in Ohoama's role as a Prince.  However, despite all of that, they were not, ultimately, a royal family.   That would seem to have made Prince Takechi ineligible to take the throne—at least without some serious backing and perhaps a little re-working of his parentage. And this brings us to the third eldest son of Ohoama:  Prince Ohotsu.  Unlike Prince Takechi, Prince Ohotsu was the son of a royal princess—Princess Ohota.  In fact, not only was she a royal princess, but she was the sister to Queen Uno.  And Prince Ohotsu was born only a year later than Prince Kusakabe.  Furthermore, during the Jinshin no Ran, Prince Ohotsu was called to Ohoama's side, along with his half-brother, Prince Takechi, and he is specifically mentioned in that role, despite the fact that he was still too young to have played much of a role.  Like Prince Kusakabe, Prince Ohotsu was in his early twenties. So if we put Kusakabe and Ohotsu side-by-side, we can see that they have a lot of similar qualifications. Both were the sons of Ohoama by daughters of Naka no Oe, giving them double-royal lineages.  Their mothers were even full sisters, so they were both great-grandsons of Soga no Ishikawa no Maro, for whatever that means.  Kusakabe was older by a day, but Ohotsu's mother was the eldest of the two sisters.  But for the fact that his mother had passed away, she could possibly have been declared Queen, and Ohotsu might have ended up as Crown Prince, instead of Kusakabe.  Even if something had simply befallen Kusakabe, Ohotsu likely would have been able to step in, especially since Kusakabe had no full-blooded siblings, himself. The reign of Ohoama is replete with examples of Kusakabe, Ohotsu, and Takechi often acting together or being given honors together.  While it is always clear to rank them in that order, it is also clear that all three seemed to hold a place of high esteem.   What we don't seem to see is any ill will between them—but then again, the Chronicles rarely give much attention to anyone who is not the sovereign except to mention them in passing.  As such, we get only a simple sentence in the record, dated barely two weeks after Ohoama's passing, that Prince Ohotsu conspired against the Crown Prince, which is to say, Prince Kusakabe. As is so frustratingly often the case we aren't told how he was conspiring.  Clearly, it refers to succession and we can see that it wouldn't take much for Ohotsu to gather support and place himself on the throne—had that occurred, we likely would see some differences in the Chronicles as well.  However, as it stood, the conspiracy came to naught.  We are told that about one more week later, after the temporary interment of Ohoama's body and the many, many days spent eulogizing him and those around him—seriously, the Chronicles go into way too much detail, which is great for giving us a lot of details on people in the court and their court ranks, but otherwise is mostly paragraphs of names of individuals who were likely important enough for the Chroniclers to ensure that they got at least a mention. It was after that was finished that we are told that Prince Ohotsu's conspiracy was discovered.  He had the support of some thirty nobles, including a priest from Silla and the famous Iki no Muraji no Hakatoko—the one who had written the detailed account of the embassy that had been held under arrest by the Tang court, which we talked about back in Episode 123.  The point is these were people with some amount of clout and who moved in important circles, and for thirty of them to be in Ohotsu's camp might not seem like much, but that doesn't begin to illuminate all of the people that they would have brought with them to the party.  Furthermore, once they went public, who knows how many others might have joined them.  Fortunately for Kusakabe—and unfortunately for Ohotsu—the would-be conspiracy was quashed and quashed hard.  We are told that it was discovered on the second day of the tenth month of 686—less than 30 days after Ohoama's death—and the Queen herself, Uno no Sarara, stepped in and had Ohotsu executed at his own mansion in Wosada.  She then issued a royal decree, stating to everyone that Ohotsu had committed treason, and that the punishment for treason was death.  She also stated that those who had assisted him were also guilty, and should likewise receive the same sentence, except that she was going to be merciful.  And so she ended up pardoning Prince Ohotsu's co-conspirators.  The only exceptions were Toki no Michidzukuri, who was banished to Idzu, and the Silla priest, who was exiled to a temple in Hida.  While we aren't told what roles they played, those two apparently were considered more complicit than the others. A few days later, Prince Ohotsu's sister, Princess Oku, was recalled from her position as the shrine princess of Ise.  It is unclear if this is related, but it seems relevant given the proximity of the two events. There is one other thing I should likely mention, and that seems to come from the Kaifuso.  The Kaifuso is a collection of continental style poetry from the 8th century, similar to the Man'yoshu, but with a different focus.  In both works they often given some description of the authors of the poems, which provide us more information on the people of the time.  For instance, the Kaifuso speaks favorably of Prince Ohotomo, Ohoama's rival in the Jinshin no Ran, and seems more than a little sympathetic towards him and his cause, compared to the way he is treated in the Nihon Shoki's main narrative.  In regards to our current point in the narrative and the treason of Prince Ohotsu the Kaifuso tells us that Prince Ohotsu was ratted out to the Queen by none other than his best friend, Prince Kawashima.  Prince Kawashima was another one of the princes who had been called to Yoshino and who had pledged to work together.  He was not Ohotsu's brother or even half-brother, however, as Kawashima was the son of Naka no Oe.  He was actually a good deal older than Ohoama's actual sons, but apparently trusted by Ohoama at the same time.  The Kaifuso also seems to tell us that Kawashima was rewarded for his efforts by the court. The only problem is that the Nihon Shoki, our primary source, tells us none of this.  Not only is Prince Kawashima not mentioned in regards to the plot, neither is he mentioned as having received any kind of reward or gift by the court.  That doesn't mean the Kaifuso is wrong, but it does raise the question. Similarly, it is just as easy to suggest that the Nihon Shoki itself may be covering up what actually happened.  After all, we only have one side of the story.  What if there wasn't a conspiracy?  Or what if the conspiracy were of the Queen's making, instead.  Prince Ohotsu was clearly popular, and had a reasonable claim to the throne.  That was a threat to her own son's eventual ascension.  It is possible that the Queen, Uno no Sarara, saw a threat and decided to do away with it, herself, keeping her own son's hands relatively clean in the process. Whatever the truth, we likely will never know, and so this is all we have to go on.  Whether it was an actual conspiracy or just the paranoid  concerns of a queen and mother, it is clear that it was not yet enough to have an heir named—there was always the possibility for these things to go sideways and for someone else to jump in with a claim of their own. For all of that, while it seems that Prince Kusakabe was intended to ascend to the throne, for one reason or another, that was delayed.  For some three years, as we've mentioned, Kusakabe and his mother ruled as Queen and Crown Prince, perhaps just because they were handling Ohoama's burial and the creation of a new palace from which Kusakabe himself could then reign.  Unfortunately, it seems that time accomplished what Prince Ohotsu and his conspirators could not, and in 689, Prince Kusakabe passed away.  Shortly thereafter, the Queen, Uno no Sarara, ascended to the throne herself.  This appears to have been because Kusakabe's own son and heir, Royal Prince Karu, was only about 6 years old, having been born in 683, and his daughter was only 9.  So rather than giving up the throne to some other woman's child, Uno no Sarara took the throne for herself.  She is remembered, today, as Jitou Tennou. Jitou Tennou continued to work the initiatives that had been pushed forward during the reign of her husband.  These were projects that she herself was quite familiar with, and in fact, many of the projects are sometimes thought to have been hers, with attribution given to her husband just to give it a greater air of legitimacy.  Ultimately, however, she would oversee some quite formidable changes, even if many of them started in the previous reign or not. And so begins the last reign of the Nihon Shoki, covering the years 686 to 697.  The Nihon Shoki itself wouldn't be complete and presented to the court for another 23 years or so, and yet this is where they chose to leave off.  Perhaps that is because of when it was started, or they just didn't have all the records ready for anything beyond.  They clearly had to end somewhere, after all.  And given that both Ohoama and Uno had such a hand in many of the changes, perhaps it just made sense to end here.  Much of what would come would set the tone for centuries to come. There is one more thing that I want to address in all of this.  We've talked about the lineages of the various individuals, who trace their lineages back to either powerful noble families, like the Soga, or to specific sovereigns.  There is a tendancy by some to talk about Ohoama having started what some would call the Temmu Dynasty.  The idea being that Ohoama's offspring would continue to reign for a time, displacing the offspring of his brother, Naka no Oe.  Then, at a later date, Naka no Oe's line would reassert itself. This seems to be pretty clear cut from a strictly patrilineal viewpoint of royal succession, but I think it ignores a lot about the cultural aspects of the time.  For one thing, descent was about both the father AND the mother, and too often people discount the mother's influence, when, in fact, the mother most likely had more influence in the raising of children than did a royal father.  After all, we don't exactly get a lot of anecdotes about sovereigns spending quality time with their children—and I don't think calling them to help you on campaign counts.  To be fair we get hardly any anecdotes about children.  But we also see that sovereigns were having multiple children with multiple consorts.  Naka no Oe is said to have had about 14 children—possibly more.  I count 17 children for Ohoama.  And we see the ages spread out across the sovereigns' lifetimes, with some children being born at a point that they had not even attained the age of majority by the time their father passed away.  Put another way, look at how Prince Kusakabe was able to marry his own aunt, who was only a year older than he was.  Clearly there was a bit of an age difference between siblings.  I don't imagine that they were being raised by their father, necessarily, but probably by their mothers and the servants at the palace, generally. I would also point out that Ohoama included both his own children as well as children of his brother in the Yoshino conference, further indicating that he did not have any specific intention to entirely shut out the his brother's line. And then there is Uno no Sarara.  She was Ohoama's spouse, but also the daughter of Naka no Oe.  Are we to think that she stopped being her father's daughter because she married someone? That doesn't mean that labels might not be helpful in some ways, but I just don't want to over emphasize the familial or dynastic connections.  Brothers regularly turned on each other, and blood ties were no guarantee of cordial relations.  In fact, only maternal siblings—those with the same mother—were actually considered true siblings in most cases.  That's how they justified so much of what we would consider incest in the royal family in the first place. So while I do think that Ohoama and Uno tweaked the system set up by Naka no Oe and made their own impression on Yamato and, by extension, Japanese culture, I just don't want to read too much into the lineages.  The stories of politics and royal succession are often much more involved and complex. And hopefully, we'll get to see how complex as we continue on down this path.  For now, I think I'm going to leave it here, and so, until next time, if you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

There's a little red Japanese fire truck rolling around all over San Francisco. But instead of putting out fires, Kiri the Japanese Fire Truck is spreading joy and inspiring smiles. In this episode, meet and get to know Todd Lappin, the human being who brought Kiri from Japan to the US—Bernal Heights specifically. We start with Todd's life story in Part 1. He has lived in the 94110 ZIP code for 34 years. But he's originally from New Jersey. "Even after 34 years, New Jersey is like a stain that doesn't wash out," he says. He grew up in what he calls the "Ohio part" of the state. I call it "the pretty part," meaning not New York City-adjacent. Todd is a self-described Gen Xer—growing up mostly in the Eighties, latch-key kid, etc. Most of the growing up happened in Hackettstown, NJ, one of the places where M&M's are made. It's not far from the eastern end of I-80, also. NYC was an hour away and Todd spent plenty of time there as a kid. In addition to being born in New York and raised in New Jersey, Todd spent one year in Oakland as a kid when his navy dad got stationed in Alameda. He's long held a fascination with cars, specifically what are known as "working vehicles." Think of them as cars people use for jobs. He appreciates the aesthetic honesty of such automobiles. Though it was and still is small, Hackettstown served as a hub for surrounding farmland and even smaller nearby towns. When Todd was in high school, one of those surrounding towns' volunteer fire department sold a Cadillac ambulance for $600. He didn't buy it, and regrets that to this day. It's his "Rosebud," so to speak. When he was young, he also started getting deep into Asian culture. For Todd, this fascination stemmed from diving more into the US war in Vietnam. He learned about Confucianism. He ended up going to Brown University for college and getting even deeper into Asian history and culture—focusing first on Chinese, then moving onto Japanese. Todd did a semester abroad in Japan, in fact. He didn't love the school part of his time there, but ended up traveling around the country on his own. Those travels eventually led him into China. After this, he pivoted from studying modern Japan to digging into ancient China, with a specific focus on Daoism. He ended up with a degree in Chinese intellectual history. Going back to Todd's Bay Area connections, besides that one year in Oakland when he was little, he'd visited with his parents when he was a teenager. When he graduated from Brown, he was dating a woman from here. But it was a high school spring break visit that really cemented it for him—this is where he wanted to be eventually. For young Todd in the Eighties, San Francisco felt urban in a way that reminded him of his time in NYC. After that, it was the beauty, the thoughtfulness, as he puts it, that hooked him. Six years or so after that spring break visit, Todd put down roots in SF. The two of us digress to talk in some depth about differences between SF and NYC. One way that Todd characterizes it is: The East Coast anoints. The West Coast creates. I can see what he means. Todd still loves Providence, RI, where Brown is. But a year after graduating and staying there, that SF "hook" pulled him here. When he landed in early-Nineties Mission (1991), it felt like Providence, so there was a familiarity to his new hometown. Zine culture was still big at the time, and Todd did a little writing, much of it journalistic. One of those gigs was to edit a book by one of his mentors—Orville Schell, who was once the dean of the UC Berkeley journalism school. Like Todd, Schell studied Chinese history and culture. So, that was 34 years ago. Todd doesn't think the 94110 has changed, or, as he puts it, hasn't changed enough. The City has grown, but the Mission and Bernal for him are mostly the same. He eventually got a job at and worked for Wired for a while. Years later, he launched Bernalwood, a blog about his neighborhood. This is where Todd's and my worlds first intersected. Todd sees blogs as a natural progression from zines—both have low barriers to entry and so foster a more-independent spirit than established or corporate news orgs. I agree, having been part of the blogging world myself. At this point, we turn to the topic of this episode—Kiri, the tiny Japanese fire truck. Todd shares that story with us all here. Going back to his pivot from studying Japanese to studying Chinese culture, Todd says at that point, he felt he was done with Japan. But in 2004, a friend who was going through a divorce mentioned wanting to visit Japan and Todd accompanied him. This trip brought it all back for him. He had enough of the language stored in his brain to be able to function and had a terrific time. With that flame reignited, Todd has visited Japan "nonstop" since then. On one of those trips, he met someone who'd become something of a "car creator," meaning he was making content around cars and publishing it on YouTube. Todd had been driving Jeeps and SUVs back in the US, automobiles that he'd outfitted to look like company trucks. This is where Telstar Logistics—a fictitious company he created—comes in. But that new friend who made videos about cars introduced him to a Nissan Skyline R32 while he was in Japan. Todd was so taken by the car that he bought and imported one back to California. Through that importation process, he learned that any car that was 25 years or older could be brought to the US from another country. There were some other California-specific hoops he had to jump through, metaphorically, but he had learned what it took. Check back Thursday for Part 2 to hear how Todd locked sights on the automobile that became known as Kiri. We recorded this episode at Pinhole Coffee in Bernal Heights in February 2026. Photography by Nate Oliveira

Sunday school class on Religions of the World (Part 4): Confucianism, taught by Elder Pat Devine. March 29, 2026.

CW: Suicide This episode we are talking about Law and Order--where Ritsuryo system gets its name.  We are going to look at some of the underlying theory of how the government was set up and then some of the new laws people were expected to follow and examples of punishment--as well as pardons and general amnesties. For the blogpost, check out:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-145 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 145:  Law and Order in the Reign of Temmu     The sound of struggle could be heard, as a man, hands bound behind him, was roughly brought into the courtyard by several sturdy men.  They thrust him roughly to the bare ground in front of the pavilion.  The man's clothes were disheveled, his hair was unkempt, and his right eye was swollen shut.  He was a stark contrast from the four officials standing over him, and even more from those who stood in the pavilion, above, prepared to dole out judgment.  A clerk was handling the paperwork at a nearby desk, but the court official already knew this case.  He had read the reports, heard the testimony of the witnesses and, to top it all off, he had read the confession.  It seems it had taken some coercion, but in the end, the criminal before him had admitted to his wrongdoing. And thus the official was able to pronounce the sentence with some sense of moral clarity.  After all, if this man was innocent, why would he confess?  On the other hand, if he were truly innocent, how would he even have come to their attention?  Even if he was not guilty of this crime, if he had been such an upstanding citizen, why would his neighbors have accused him in the first place?  One way or another, justice was being done.     We remain—for at least the next couple of episodes—firmly in the reign of Ohoama, aka Temmu Tennou.  There is a lot more in this reign, and we are reaching a period where we won't be able to cover nearly as much as previously, so we'll have to summarize some things, but there is still a lot here to discuss.  Last episode we looked at what was happening outside of the court.  This episode we turn our attention back to the center, and specifically, what law and order meant in Ohoama's time. This period is called the Ritsuryo period, and as the name indicates, it is characterized by the set of laws and accompanying penal codes, the ritsu and the ryo.  Most of these codes are no longer extant, only known to us by other sources which contain only fragments of the originals.  But it was this adoption of a continental style of law that seems to most characterize this period.  So this episode, we are going to look at the project Ohoama kicked off to establish  one such law code —possibly even the first actual—for Yamato, as well as some of the examples of how law and order were enforced. In Episode 143 we talked about Ohoama's  historiographical project, which kicked off in the third month of 681 and culminated in the very chronicles we have been poring over.  However, a month before that, we see the start of a different and likely more immediate project, as the sovereign ordered work to begin on a new legal code.  This task was decreed from the Daigokuden to all of the Princes and Ministers -- who were then cautioned to divide it up and take it in shifts, since after all, they still needed to administer the government.  And so this division of labor began. The code would take years to compile, so, like so many of the ambitious projects of this reign, it was not quite ready by the time of Ohoama's death in 686.  In fact, it wouldn't be promulgated until 689, and even then that was only the "Ryou" part of the "Ritsuryou"—that is to say it contained the laws, the "ryou", but no the penal code, or "ritsu".  Still, we are told that the total body of laws was some 22 volumes and is known today as the Asuka Kiyomihara Code.  It is unfortunately no longer extant—we only have evidence of the laws based on those edicts and references we see in the Nihon Shoki, but it is thought by some to be the first such deliberate attempt to create a law code for Yamato.  We do have an earlier reference to Naka no Ohoye putting together a collection of laws during his reign, known as the Afumi Code, but there is some question as to whether that was actually a deliberate code or just a compilation of edicts that had been made up to that point.  These various codes are where the "Ritsuryo" period gets its name, and the Asuka Kiyomihara Code would eventually be supplanted in 701 by the Taihou code—which is one of the reasons why copies of previous codes haven't been kept around.  After all, why would you need the old law code when you now have the new and improved version? This also means that often, when we don't have other evidence, we look to later codes and histories to understand what might be happening when we get hints or fragments of legal matters.  The Chronicles often make note of various laws or customs, but they can be sparse on details.  After all, the main audience, in the 8th century, would be living the current law codes and likely understood the references in ways we may have to work out through other sources. As for the Kiyomihara Code, there are further notes in the Chronicles that seem to be referencing this project.  Besides the obvious—the new laws that were promulgated through various edicts—we see a few entries sprinkled throughout that appear to be related to this project.  First, I would note that in the 10th month of the same year that they started the project, 681, there was issued an edict that all those of the rank of Daisen on down should offer up their admonitions to the government.   Bentley notes that Article 65 of the Statutes on Official Documents provides a kind of feedback mechanism via this admonitions, where anyone who saw a problem with the government could submit it to the Council of the State.  If they had a fear of reprisals they could submit anonymously. This entry for the 10th month of 681 could just refer to a similar request that all those who had a problem should report it so it could be fixed, but in light of several other things, I would also suggest that it was at least in line with the ongoing efforts to figure out what needed to be figured out vis a vis the laws of the land.  Later, in the 8th month of 682 we see a similar type of request, where everyone from the Princes to the Ministers were instructed to bring forward matters suitable for framing new regulations.   So it looks like that first year or so there were, in a sense, a lot of "listening sessions" and other efforts going on to give deliberate thought to how the government should operate.  A few days later in 682 the Chronicles tell us that the court were working on drawing up the new laws, and as they did so they noticed a great rainbow.  Bentley suggests that this was an auspicious sign—even Heaven was smiling on the operation. So we know that there was lawmaking going on.  But what did these laws actually look like? This episode we are going to look at both criminal law – crimes and punishments, and gow they could be mitigated as well as those laws that were less about criminal activities and more about how the state itself was to be run. As I just stated, a lot of the laws and edicts are not necessarily about criminal activities.  Many of them are about the government and how it works—or at least how it is supposed to work.  Some of this helps to reveal a bit about the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of this project.  That said, I'm not always sure that Ohoama and his officials were necessarily adherents to those philosophies or if they saw them more as justifications fro their actions.  And, in the end, does it matter?  Even if they weren't strict Confucianists, it is hard to argue that Confucian theory didn't loom large in their project, given its impact on the systems they were cribbing from.  Furthermore, if we need to extrapolate things that go unsaid, we could do worse than using Confucianism and similar continental philosophies as our guide, given what we see in the record.  A particularly intriguing record for understanding how that government was supposed to work is a declaration that civil and military officials of the central and provincial governments should, every year, consider their subordinates and determine what promotions, if any, they should receive.  They were to send in their recommendations within the first ten days to the judges, or "houkan".  The judges would compare the reports and make their recommendations up to the Daibenkan—the executive department of the Dajokan, the Council of State.  In addition, officers who refused orders to go on various missions for the court were ineligible for promotion, unless their refusal was specifically for genuine illness or bereavement following the loss of a parent. This feels like an important note on how the whole bureaucratic appointment and promotion system worked.  It actually follows early ideas of the meritocratic bureaucracy that was at the heart of how the government was supposed to work.  It isn't quite the same as magistrates roaming the land and seeking out talented individuals, but it still demonstrates a promotion system that is at least nominally about the merit of the individual and not solely based on personal patronage—though I'm sure the sovereign, the sumera no mikoto, or tennou, could still issue promotions whenever he so wished. And as cool as I find all that to be, I think the piece that I find particularly fun is the fact that they had to specify that only a "genuine" illness was a valid excuse.  That suggests to me that there were people who would feign illness to get out of work.  In other words, faking a sick day is nothing new and you could totally have a ritsuryo version of "Ferris Buehler's Day Off". This meritocratic idea seems to be tempered a bit a few years later, in 682.  We see an edict that not only describes the language and character of the court ritual, but also talking about verifying the lineage and character of anyone who applies for office.  Anyone whose lineage was found to be less than sufficient would be declared ineligible, regardless of whatever else they had done. And this is the tension of trying to overlay a theoretical system, based on the idea of merit, on a hereditary aristocracy.  In a meritocracy, one wouldn't blink twice at a person from a "lesser" ranked family making their way up and above those of "superior" families.  Then again, you probably wouldn't have families ranked in a hierarchy, anyway.  I feel like we've touched on this in a past episode, somewhere, but it isn't the last time we'll be talking about this.  After initially adopting the system as it theoretically should be, the cultural pressures of the elite nobles would start to shape the government into something that was not quite so threatening to the power of those elite families.  After all, those families held a lot of power—economic, political, and otherwise—and, as elites throughout history have done, they would do whatever they could to hold onto that power. This is actually something we see on the continent.  Whatever sense of justice or equality may have lay at the heart of the theory behind good governance, it was always going to be impacted by those with resources and the familial connections that bind people together.  For instance, it was the wealthy who would have the money and leisure time to be able to hire tutors, acquire books, and spend time studying and learning—something that is hard to do if you have to help your family work in the fields.  And the court would always be a place of politics, which was fueled by wealth and connections.  No doubt, if you asked someone of the time, they would say that the "correct" thing to do would be to work your way up from the bottom, starting from a low ranked position and climbing up based on their good deeds.  That's all well and good, but then we see preference given to the highest nobles, with their own progeny getting a jump on things by being automatically placed higher in rank.  With only a finite number of positions in the government, this meant  that climbing through the ranks would be almost impossible at some point, as there just weren't enough positions for those qualified to take them. This is an all-too-common problem, regardless of the actual system of government.  The powerful and wealthy have always had a leg up—though sometimes more than others. That isn't to say that those less fortunate were always ignored.  For instance, early in his reign, Ohoama made a decree to divide the common people—those who were not members of the royal family, so not princes or princesses—into three different classes, Upper, Middle, and Lower, all based on their wealth or financial status.  Only the two lower groups were eligible for loans of seed rice, should they need it.  That isn't so different than a lot of modern, means-tested government assistance programs, when you think about it.  The idea of breaking up groups into an "Upper", "Middle", and "Lower" category is found elsewhere—Bentley notes Article 16 of the Statutes of Arable Land dividing up families who planted mulberry.  "Ryou no Shuuge", a 9th century commentary on the Yoro law-code, notes that, at least by that time, the three categories were based on the number of people in a given household, not just the total wealth, it would seem.     Other decrees help us understand the make-up of the court, such as decree in the 8th month of 679, with the sovereign requesting that various houses send women to work in the court.  Bentley notes that this is very similar wording to Article 18 of the statutes of the Rear Palace, where the sovereign's consorts lived.  He also mentions a note in Ryou no Shuuge stating it was specifically women from noble families in the capital city and nearby who were employed for low-level tasks in the palace.     Continuing with the ordering of the government, in the third month of 681, Ohoama went to the well of the New Palace—the Nihi no Miya—and he ordered the military drums and other instruments to be played.  In the continental style, music was an important part of the military, with certain instruments and tunes that would be played for a variety of purposes.  It is unclear that the archipelago had such a detailed history of military music, and so it seems that this is in emulation of the continental practice. Then, in the 5th month, Ohoama had to crack down on another practice that was apparently taking off with the various public functionaries.  As we noted, earlier, public functionaries were reliant on their superiors, the judges, and then the Council of State for their promotion.  However, some appear to have found another way to garner favor, and that was through female palace officials—those working in the private quarters.  Those palace officials would have access to the sovereign and his families—his queen and various consorts.  And of course, if Ohoama heard good things about a person, then perhaps he would put them forward for promotion.  At the very least, if that person's name came forward, it might be well thought of.  And so public functionaries had taken to paying their respects to the women working in the palace.  Sometimes they would go to their doors and make their case directly.  Other times they would offer presents to them and their families.  This was clearly not how the system was intended to work.  As such, Ohoama told everyone to knock it off—should he hear about anyone trying this in the future, then the offenders would be punished according to their circumstances. Of course, I would note that this only would be a problem if the individuals were caught.  If the rest of Japanese history—heck, world history—is anything to go on, then humans are going to human and the court was no doubt deeply steeped in political maneuvering of all kinds.  I imagine that this practice never fully stopped, but it probably stopped being quite as blatant—for now. Continuing with the development of how the government operated, we get the entry for the 28th day of the 3rd lunar month of 682.  It starts with various sumptuary laws, with Princes down to public functionaries no longer wearing specialized caps of office—effectively getting rid of the idea of "cap-rank".  They also would no longer wear the aprons, sashes, or leggings that were part of the previous outfit.  Likewise the Uneme and female palace officials would no longer wear the elbow-straps or shoulder-scarves.  This appears to have moved the court closer to what the continent was wearing at the time, with belted garments based on clothing not too dissimilar from what was found across the Silk Road, to be honest.  They also discontinued all sustenance-fiefs for Princes and Ministers.  Those had to be returned to the State.  Presumably their salaries would then come from any stipends associated with their rank, instead.  This doesn't seem all that connected with the other edict, focused on clothing and rank, except that is part of the further centralization of power and authority—all taxes were to go to the central government and then get parceled out, and everyone—or at least those in the court—were to conform to a standard uniform.  That said, for all that it may have been the intent, as we shall see, the court would never fully get rid of the idea of privately held tax land—it would just take different forms over time. Later, we get more sumptuary laws, some about what the people of the court would wear, but others that were more general.  Sumptuary laws are laws specifically focused on controlling things such as expenditures or personal behavior—including what one wore and how they expressed themselves--and they are generally made to help order society in some way.  There were a lot of cultures where purple, for instance, was reserved for royalty—often because of how expensive it was and difficult to make.  Wearing an expensive purple fabric could be seen as an expression of wealth—and thus power—and that could feel like a challenge to those in power themselves.  It probably also meant that there was enough dye for the royal robes and it was not nearly so scarce. In other instances, we see sumptuary laws to call out people of certain groups.  Some laws are to distinguish an in-group, and others to call out a group to be set apart from society.  Other such laws were made to distinguish between social constructs such as caste or gender.  Even today we have a concept of "cross-dressing" as we have determined that certain clothing or styles are seen as either more masculine or feminine, and there are those who call out such things as somehow perverting society.  And yet, the clothing is simply pieces of fabric, and what may have been considered masculine or feminine in one time or place may not bee seen as such in another. In this case, the sumptuary laws in question focused on hairstyles.  Ohoama decreed that all persons, male or female, must tie up their hair—they couldn't leave it hanging down. This was to be done no later than the last day of the year—the 30th day of the 12th lunar month, though it could be required even before that.  We are also told that women were expected to ride horses in the saddle similar to the way men did. This appears to mean they would sit astride a saddle, with their legs on either side, and not in something akin to side saddle.  This also likely meant that women riding horses would want trousers, similar to what men wore, at least for that part of it.  Trying to wear a long skirt with your legs on either side of a horse does not strike me as the most comfortable position to put yourself in, not that people haven't figured it out over the centuries in various ways.  Indeed, in some Tang statuary, women are often depicted riding horseback with trousers.   In the 9th month of 682 we get a fun entry.  Well, I find it amusing.  We are told that the practice of ceremonial crawling and kneeling was to be abolished and that they would adopt the ceremonial custom of standing, as had been practiced in the Naniwa court.  And a part of me thinks of some old courtier who was having trouble with all of the kneeling who was suddenly very happy with this new ordinance.  On the other hand, it is fascinating to think of the other implications. First, we are being told that there was a custom of standing at the Naniwa court, while in Asuka there was a tradition of ceremonial crawling and kneeling.  Bentley's translation makes it apparent that this was specifically as you entered through the gates: that you would bow and then crawl through the entranceway. I'm assuming that the standing custom was based on continental tradition, since that seemed to be what the Naniwa palace was built to emulate, and that in returning to Asuka they were partaking in a more local ritual—though I'm not entirely certain as I just don't have enough information to know at this point.  Aston does claim that it was custom in the Tang court, though I'm not sure of his source for that. In 683 we get more information on how the court functioned.  We are told that there was a decree that all persons of rank in the Home Provinces were expected to present themselves at Court at some point in the first month of each quarter.  You were only excused if you were sick, at which point an official would need to send a report up to the judicial authorities.  So every noble in the Home Provinces had to travel to the court once every four months.  And if they couldn't, they need to be able to produce the equivalent of a doctor's note, saysing so. We aren't told why this was implemented.  I suspect that there had to be some compromise between nobles being at and working at the court and going back to their hometown to also keep an eye on things there.  It is possible that there were plenty of people who just weren't coming to the court unless they had to—living off their stipend, but not necessarily doing the work.  So this may have been a "return to office" type order to make sure that people were there, in the "office" of the court at least once every four months. This brings to mind the Edo period practice of alternate attendance, or Sankin-koutai, where daimyo would have to attend on the Shogun for a time and then could return home.  Of course, that was also done as a means to drain their coffers, and I don't believe this was meant in quite so punishing a manner. Having a permanent city, where the nobles had houses in the city, would likely fix these issues, allowing the court to be more regularly staffed.  Sure enough, that same decree included the decree that there would be a Capital City at Naniwa as well as other places, while the work at Nihiki, on what would become the Fujiwara capital, was already underway. Speaking of the capital, that work would require labor and people to oversee it.  In 10th month of 684, we see a note that gives us a glimpse into the management of corvee labor, as Prince Hatsuse and Kose no Asomi no Umakahi, as well as officials down to facilities managers, 20 people in all, were set up as corvee labor managers for the royal region.      Next, let's talk criminal matters.  What kinds of things were people being accused of or what laws were being set up to constraing the activities of individuals.   We'll start by looking at how justices was handled, generally speaking.  Some of it seems almost obvious, like in 675, when we are told that the sovereign ordered that nobody—whether a minister, a functionary, or a citizen—should commit an offense lest they be punished accordingly.  'But what was happening previously to make such a proclamation necessary? On the one hand, I suspect that this was a warning to the elites of the archipelago more than anything else, especially those who might not have been in direct fealty to the Yamato sovereign previously.  Those elites farther out in the provinces were probably used to a looser hand, and fewer consequences for their actions.  Back in Taika years, in the late 640s, just as everything was kicking off, the court had had to bring the hammer down on the governors and various kuni no miyatsuko, local elites who had been doing things their own way.  I suspect this was just a similar attempt to bring people into line and a reminder of who actually wore the hakama in this administration.  It also seems to be a straightforward statement that the law applied to every person—or at least every person outside of the sovereign, himself. That was likely a novel idea for many people, where those in positions of power were likely able to get away with murder, quite literally, because who was going to stop them?  We've seen how many of the more powerful families controlled what were essentially private armies. At the same time, 675 is before these new formal law codes and punishments were in place.  Presumably there was tradition in place and some understanding that the sovereign could declare laws and punishment, but I also wonder if this isn't part of the reason that they felt that centralized, authoritative, written law codes were required in the first place.  After all, communicating laws and punishments verbally across the archipelago, even with the potential for written edicts, likely relied a lot on local administrators to interpret the edicts and figure out what was going on. This seems to align with an edict from the 10th month of 679, which decried that there were many people guilty of crimes and violence hanging around the capital.  This was blamed on the Princes and Ministers, since the edict claimed that these high officials heard about it but didn't do anything, instead treating it like a nuisance that was too much trouble—or perhaps too personally expensive—to do anything about.  Alternatively, those same princes and ministers would see people that they knew were guilty, but they didn't want to go through the trouble of actually reporting them, and so the offenders could get away with it.  The proposed solution was to exhort those in higher stations to punish the offenses of those beneath them, while those of lower stations were expected to remonstrate with their superiors when those superiors were rude or violent.  In other words, if everyone just held everyone else accountable, then things would work out. This seems like a great sentiment, but I have to imagine that there was something more beyond the high-minded ideals. Again,  I suspect that it was probably as much Ohoama putting people on notice.  Still, this seems aspirational rather than definitive.      A clear example of the kind of thing that was being prohibited is likelye the decree about fishermen and hunters, who were forbidden from making pitfalls or using spear traps or similar devices.  Also, from the beginning of the 4th month until the 13th day of the 9th month, no one was to set fish-weirs, or himasakiri—an unknown device, but probably another type of fish trap.  Ohoama also prohibited the eating of cattle, horses, dogs, monkeys, or chickens.  Other animals, including boar, deer, fish, etc., were all fair game, as it were. The prohibition on traps is likely because they were a hazard to anyone walking through the area.  In the Tang dynasty they did something similar, but they did make exceptions for hunters in the deep mountains, who were supposed to put up signs warning any travelers.  As for the weirs and himasakiri, whatever that might be, I have less context, but likely it did have some reasoning—possibly similar to our modern concepts of having certain seasons for various types of fishing.  Fish weirs do create obstructions, and between the 4th and 9th lunar months Japan does see the summer monsoon rains—could that be the reason?  Tsuyu, or rainy season, is often around July to mid-June, today.  Or perhaps there is another motivation for that particular prohibition. As for the eating of various animals—of the animals listed, all but the monkeys are domesticated animals who generally weren't considered as food animals.  Cattle were used for working the fields, horses were ridden, and dogs were used for hunting.  I wonder if monkeys were just too close to people. The chicken prohibition may seem odd to us, today.  The word for chicken, "niwatori", literally means garden bird, though the Nihon Shoki uses something more like "barn door bird".  We know that cock-fighting was a thing in later periods, and that chickens were associated with Amaterasu, possibly for their legendary habit of crowing as the sun comes up.  We can also note the lack of some animals, like cats, from the list.  Perhaps cats were never in danger of being seen as a food source, or perhaps cats just weren't as prevalent at the time—we know cats were around from at least the Nara period, but there isn't much evidence before that.  There are examples of bones thought to be from a cat from the Yayoi period found on Iki island, but it is hard to say from that if they were fully established across the archipelago. Still,  I do find it curious they are not on the list.Continuing on, we later see where see the court issued an edict that prohibited the cutting of grass or firewood on Mt. Minabuchi and Mt. Hosokawa.  Furthermore they prevented any indiscriminate burning or cutting on all of the mountains in the Home Provinces.  This feels somewhat religious—after all, the mountains were often considered the domain of the kami.  Perhaps there were some religious restrictions.  On the other hand, some of it sounds like they were trying to just ensure that with a growing population they didn't denude the mountains around the capital. This whole incident brings to mind problems that occurred in and around Chang'an, the western Tang capital.  The palace itself—not to mention all of the houses and temples—took so much wood that it was a drain on the nearby forests.  And that is without taking into account the simple harvesting of wood for cooking fires, tools, etc.  In fact, the logging industry of that time devastated the local environment, meaning that they had to travel farther and farther to find suitable wood for the monumental buildings they wished to create.  It is also thought to have contributed to various natural disasters in and around the capital.  Perhaps Yamato was worried that unrestricted logging in the Home Provinces could likewise cause problems?  Or was that simply an added benefit gained from the idea that mountains were sacred spaces?   Later in the 10th month of 679, there was an edict determining sumptuary rules for monks clothing, as well as what kind of retinue could accompany them when they went out.  We talked about this back in Episode 142.  That same month, there was an edict that, while monks and nuns might normally be expected to stay at a temple—such as in the quarters identified in the ruins of Kawaradera—that it became a problem when older monks became bed-ridden.  After all, if they couldn't leave their bed, then one can only imagine how it must have been.  Not to get overly graphic, but they couldn't exactly make it out to the latrine at that point, either.  So it was determined that if an elderly monk were to reach the stage that they were bed-ridden, and unlikely to recover, then the temple would seek out relatives or laypersons to help build a hut or two in vacant spaces on the temple grounds.  There, the sick and bed-ridden monks could be cared for in a more sanitary manner. Now the way this is written, on the one hand it seems they were worried about ritual purification as much as anything, but I imagine that this was also practical.  After all, as you get all of those monks living together, one can only imagine that disease and illness could easily spread in those close quarters.  So separating those who were quite sick only makes sense, like an early form of quarantine. A lot of these prohibitions seem to be fairly practical.  Don't put traps where people could accidentally fall into them.  Don't chop down the nearby forest—we may need that later.  And even: don't leave a sick or elderly monk in a crowded dormitory situation.But what about the penal codes? If you lived in the latter part of Temmu's reign and you did violate one of the rules mentioned above, or one of the many others at play, what would happen to you, and how did that vary based on your place in society? Unfortunately, most of what we get on this is kind of bare bones.  We often see the punishment, but not t he crime.  We are just told that someone was found guilty, or condemned.  Take, for example, the Buddhist Priest, Fukuyou, of Asukadera, who was condemned and thrown into prison.  We aren't told what he did to deserve confinement, but it wouldn't last long.  Apparently Fukuyou cut his own throat, ending his life, rather than face other consequences or live with the shame of whatever crime he had committed. By the way, the term "prison" here is interesting.  We certainly see people being imprisoned in some way, shape, or form—locked up and unable to freely travel.  That isn't exactly the same, however, as a prison complex or system.  There may have been buildings used a jail—a temporary holding facility while the actual punishment was determined.  And we also see the equivalent of house arrest.  Later, there would be formal "prisons" set up for the detention of individuals, who were often then forced to labor as part of their punishment.  However, they had many other forms of punishment, many of which required much fewer staff.  After all, a prison requires that you have guards constantly watching the prisoners to make sure nothing gets out of hand.  Instead, you could just exile them to an island or even just another province, with a lot less manpower. A less drastic punishment was handed out back in the 4th month of 675, when we are told that Tahema no Kimi no Hiromaro and Kunu no Omi no Maro were both forbidden from attending the court—for what purpose we aren't immediately told.  However, six days later, Kunu no Maro was held accountable for offering resistance to a royal messenger—maybe the one who communicated that he was banished from the court.  As a punishment, he was stripped of all of his offices and dignities.  Both Tahema no Hiromaro and Kunu no Maro appear to have been pardoned at a later date, though we aren't sure when.  It could have been one of the various general amnesties—and we'll talk about that in a moment.  Hiromaro passed away in 685, but he was provided a posthumous promotion in rank and is noted for his efforts supporting Ohoama during the Jinshin no Ran.  Meanwhile, Kunu no Maro—also known as Abe no Kunu no Maro is seen delivering a eulogy in 686.  Perhaps somewhat ironically, he did so on behalf of the Office of Punishments—later the Keimu-shou, or Ministry of Punishment.  These actions certainly seem to be at odds with them being punished, let alone banished from the court. We also see an example where  Prince Womi, who was of the 3rd princely ranks—even higher than Prince Kurikuma, whom we discussed last episode—was guilty of some kind of offense and banished to Inaba.  One of his children was also banished to Izushima and the other to Chikashima.  Aston suggests that this means Ohoshima and Chikashima may be in Hizen.  Again, very little to go on as to what was happening, though it seems that all three were punished together and sent away from each other, perhaps so that they could not plot or scheme together.  Later amnesties would probably have resulted in pardons for them.   Speaking of pardons—the punishments that we are speaking about all appear to be permanent, other than imprisonment, which may have been more of a temporary situation.  It wasn't like being sent away for so many years.  However, on the other side of the coin was the option for a pardon or amnesty.  While I imagine that the sovereign could always provide a pardon directly, we more regularly see general amnesties declared, sometimes with very specific guidelines. One of the most illuminating such instances, and possibly where Kunu no Maro and Tahema no Hiromaro were pardoned, came in the 7th month of 676.  That month the court issued a general amnesty, likely to increase the merit accrued to the State through an act of mercy and forgiveness, given the drought and famine that had been reported earlier that summer.  Perhaps paradoxically, this act of leniency gives us an interesting view into the types of punishments that were made, as well as how severe each was considered.    The amnesty mitigated all sentences of death, enforced servitude, or the three classes of banishment, and they would all be mitigated by one degree.  So anyone sentenced to death would instead just become enslaved.  Those who were sentenced to enslavement would be banished to a distant province.  Those banished to a distant province would only be banished to a province at a medium distance.  Banishment to a medium province would be downgraded to a nearer province.  And Banishment to a nearer province would be downgraded to banishment—or removal—to a place in the same province.  For anyone who committed a crime for which they would be removed to a place in the same province—or for any lesser crime—would be completely pardoned, whether or not the crime was actually known.  So you couldn't be held responsible, retroactively. This gives us a kind of hierarchy to use as far as the kinds of punishment that might be handed out.  Of course, there are also a few others, which I generally assume were considered lesser.  For instance: banishment from the court, or being stripped of government rank, that sort of thing. There was a caveat that this amnesty would not apply to those who had already left for their place of banishment—nor, obviously, to those who had already been executed.  So if you had already settled in to your new life, this amnesty didn't exactly matter.  This could be where Tahema no Hiromaro and Kunu no Maro were pardoned and thus allowed to find their way back into the court's good graces.  On the other hand, others probably wish that this amnesty happened a bit later—one month later, to be exact.  We are told that Prince Yagaki, the current viceroy of the Dazaifu, was accused of some offense and banished to Tosa, in Shikoku.  As usual, the record does not feel the need to tell us what the offense was or try to justify it anyway.   This is all well and good, but what exactly did the justice system look like?  How were criminals accused, and how would they investigate and prove your guilt?  In the 11th month of 682, we see a rather detailed description of how trials and punishment were to be carried out.  For any offense against the law, whether it was in the palace or the court, it would be immediately examined, and nobody was allowed to conceal information about it.  If the offense was grave enough, then the next step would depend on the rank of the individual.  For individuals of high birth, their guilt would be reported to the court, presumably for whatever punishment they deemed appropriate from there.  For others, they would be arrested.  If they resisted arrest, then the palace guards would be sent after them.  A typical punishment was flogging, which was not to go beyond 100 blows.  Finally, if the individual were clearly guilty, but yet continued to profess their innocence, then that would be considered perjury and added to their sentence. It should be noted that in East Asia at this time, there was no concept of innocent until proven guilty.  If you were accused of a crime, then it was up to you to prove that you were innocent.  It was not uncommon for an arrest to occur, and then for the authorities to then torture a confession out of the individual.  Since they already had assumed the individual's guilt, this was just meant to get them to admit it.  Even into modern times, Japan has had a high conviction rate, but there are accusations that this is simply because of the presence of coerced confessions.  A coerced confession helps to demonstrate that the system is correct, and working as designed, whilst protestations of innocence call into question the validity of the system. There is another type of guilt and punishment—and leniency, for that matter—mentioned in the 6th month of 677: We are told that the Yamato no Aya no Atahe were considered guilty of the "seven misdemeanors", which seems like it is more an indictment of their moral failings rather than any kind of direct criminal behavior.  Furthermore, they were accused of pushing back against the rightful sovereigns from the time of Kashikiya Hime down to the time of the Afumi court.  This would seem to indicate that they had been supporting the Soga and the Afumi court, but if so, I wouldn't say that the Chronicles help to clarify it in any way.  Perhaps they just were willful and not showing the right amount of loyalty to the throne.  Whatever they did, Ohoama was none too pleased, but he also didn't want to completely destroy the uji.  Instead, as a compromise, he offered them clemency for any past actions, pardoning them, but also claiming that if they stepped out of line again, then their offense would be unpardonable.  This whole entry is a vibe.  It is less of a punishment and more of a sword of Damocles being set up above them. Several years later, in 682, we see the Yamato no Aya being granted the title of Muraji.  In consequence of the appointment, the entire household—all the men and women alike, presented themselves to the court.  They rejoiced and praised Ohoama, thanking him for raising them in status.  This doesn't feel like a normal entry—it isn't like every family was coming into court and giving thanks every time that a promotion was handed out.  This feels like classic "kissing the ring" to get back into good graces with someone who was, effectively, an autocratic ruler.  While there was a bureaucracy, based on everything we've seen Ohoama had bent it largely to his will by appointing family members and other members of the elite princely class—those with at least nominal familial connections—to positions of power and authority.   And with that, I think we will bring this episode to a close.  Next episode we'll finish out this reign with a few projects and various other miscellaneous events. Until then if you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  

Our inbox at Global Roaming is chockers with requests to take a closer look at China's history. So this episode, we're sharing a Sydney Writer's Festival panel recorded at the State Library of NSW with Frank Dikötter, pre-eminent China historian. Hear Hamish Macdonald and Geraldine Doogue speak to Dikötter about rummaging through smuggled archives to challenge CCP narratives of China's modern history, and what it tells us about Xi Jinping's power today.Guest: Frank Dikötter, author of Red Dawn Over ChinaFurther listening: The underground historians of China trying to preserve truth - Saturday ExtraGet in touch:We'd love to hear from you! Email us at global.roaming@abc.net.auFind all the episodes of Global Roaming now via the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts. 

An interview on humor and amoral ethics in a Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi - and its relation to Confucianism and Legalism. 

This episode is titled: The mystery of Korean CuisineOnce, long ago in the misty mountains of the Korean Peninsula, Buddhist monks carried their simple bowls into quiet temples carved from stone and cedar. It was the fourth century when Buddhism first took root during the Three Kingdoms era, bringing with it a gentle vow: to live without causing harm. The monks listened to that vow carefully, and from it grew a way of cooking that would endure for more than seventeen centuries. They called their food sachal eumsik—temple cuisine—and in every step of preparing, serving, and eating it, they practiced the art of mindfulness, turning the act of nourishment into a quiet form of meditation.In those early days, the monks followed the ancient precept against intentional killing. Meat and fish slowly vanished from their tables, replaced by whatever the mountains offered freely. By the time of the Goryeo Dynasty, records whisper of vegetarian dumplings stuffed with wild greens and kimchi made from foraged leaves. Through the Joseon era, even as Confucianism rose and temples faced hardship, the monks held fast to their craft. They learned to coax deep flavor from fermented soybean pastes—doenjang rich and earthy, ganjang salty and bright—while carefully avoiding anything that might disturb the stillness of the mind.The heart of this Cuisine rests on a few sacred rules. No meat, no fish, no eggs—mostly no animal products at all, though a few gentle allowances for honey might slip in among the more lenient. Above all, the monks shun the five pungent vegetables: garlic, onions, chives, green onions, and leeks. These, they believe, stir the senses too fiercely, awaken restless desires, and cloud the clarity needed for true contemplation. Instead, reverence guides every choice. In the fourth century, during the Three Kingdoms era, Buddhism first took root. ;;;namulgochujang, gochujang; Ingredients must come from the season and the surrounding hills—wild greens gathered at dawn, roots, supplements, mushrooms that grow in the shade of ancient pines. Nothing is wasted; peels become stocks, stems flavor broths, and every part of the plant is honored. Balance becomes the quiet art of the meal. Flavors seek harmony—earthy, salty, sweet, bitter, and the deep umami that fermentation brings. Textures play together: something crisp, something chewy, something soft. Colors follow the traditional five directions: red from chili, gochujang, hujag, ag adapted without forbidden element;, green from fresh nam; yellow from sesame; white from rice or tofu; black from seaweed or fermented soy. Spring brings bright, astringent notes; summer offers cooling, slippery dishes; autumn leans toward gentle sweetness; winter warms with sour comfort. The monks cook gently—steaming to preserve life force, simmering to draw out essence, lightly sautéing so the ingredients retain their vitality.From this philosophy spring dishes that feel both humble and profound. A bowl of doenjang-jjigae arrives steaming, its broth made from kelp and shiitake, carrying radish, tofu, and greens in quiet abundance. Hobak mandu—zucchini dumplings—might be steamed until tender or pan-fried to a golden edge, their filling a whisper of seasoned vegetables. Namul banchan appear as small jewels on the table: fernbrake glossy with sesame, balloon flower root crisp and nutty, aster leaves bright with perilla. Rice steamed in lotus leaves carries the faint perfume of the flower. On hot days, kongguksu arrives cold and refreshing, its nutty soybean broth poured over chewy noodles. Pine nut porridge warms winter mornings, and stuffed shiitake caps hold gentle potato fillings. Portions remain modest, inviting the eater to savor each bite with full attention, to feel gratitude for the chain of life that brought the food to the bowl.Read the full contentMore Podcasts Chef Walters Cooking School

Confucius - How To Be A Gentleman (Confucianism). In this podcast, we will be talking about how to be a gentleman from the teachings of Confucius. Junzi is a Chinese philosophical term often translated as "gentleman" or "superior person”. Confucius employed this term in his works to describe the ideal man. Confucius taught a philosophy rich in benevolence and good behavior, employing an ideal archetype in which moral qualities could be symbolized. Confucius states that there are five virtues that make up a true gentleman. According to him, an individual who can practice all five of them can be considered a superior man, a portrayer of true manhood or put simply... a gentleman. So here are 5 virtues of a true gentleman - 1. The Virtue of Ren2. The Virtue of Li3. The Virtue of Xin 4. The Virtue of Zhi 5. The Virtue of Yi Hope you enjoyed this video and find these insights helpful.Confucianism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. It is described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or simply a way of life. It was founded by  China's most iconic historical figures, Confucius. 

Confucius - How To Be Happy (Confucianism)In this podcast, we will be talking about how to be happy from the wisdom of Confucius. Confucius was a Chinese philosopher, political figure and a teacher, and who stressed upon the importance of loyalty, morality and kindness for a meaningful and happy life. According to Confucius, happiness doesn't mean to get everything one desires in life, but rather it means as well as the satisfaction you get from fulfilling your desires, happiness is also knowing that the methods you used in achieving those things were moral. For over 2500 years, Confucius has been a source of inspiration for people around the world seeking happiness and meaning in their lives and in this video we bring you how to be happy from the wisdom of Confucius.So here are 6 ways to be happy from the wisdom of Confucius.01. Invest in intimate relationships02. Think of the consequences03.  Keep it simple04. Go slow if need be05. Learn by your experience06. MeditateI hope you enjoyed listening to this podcast and hope that these insights will help you in finding your happiness. Confucianism is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. It is described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or simply a way of life. It was founded by  China's most iconic historical figures, Confucius. 

Jonathan Clements returns to talk about his book on the First Emperor of China and the man who was sent to kill him: facts and fictions in Zhang Yimou's movie Hero (2002), the evil mirror-universe version of Confucianism, an impossibly well-endowed “eunuch”, the construction of the Terracotta Army, the politics of archaeology, and how to spent a slave labour dividend. And what to do when you had the Mandate of Heaven a minute ago but can't remember where you put it.

“Life is the fuel of art and art is basically what grows out of it.” - Regina Linke The Boy, the Ox, and Questions That Shape Life In this thoughtful and quietly luminous conversation, Jim Wills sits down with Taiwanese American author and illustrator Regina Linke to explore the unlikely journey that led her from nonprofit technology work to creating a philosophical children's book series rooted in ancient wisdom. What began as a personal art practice in Taiwan soon blossomed into The Oxherd Boy; a contemplative illustrated world inspired by Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and sparked by the profound curiosity of her young son. At the heart of the conversation lies a deeper question; how do we help children navigate fear, compassion, responsibility, and belonging without handing them easy answers? Through the gentle adventures of a boy, an ox, and eventually a rabbit, Linke's stories invite young readers to wrestle with life's biggest ideas in the spirit of ancient philosophy; patience, humility, and the quiet power of small actions. Part creative origin story and part meditation on culture, parenting, and artistic devotion, this episode is a reminder that sometimes the most profound wisdom arrives in the simplest form: a child's question, a brushstroke, and the courage to follow curiosity wherever it leads. images: ©regina linke regina linke website oxherd boy instagram Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Spotify | Email | RSS MORE ART UNKNOWN PODCASTS

10 Life Lessons From Confucius (Confucianism). In this podcast, we will be talking about 10 life lessons that we can learn from Confucius. Confucius was one of the greatest Eastern philosophers of all time, whose teachings deeply influenced East Asian life and thought. His philosophical movement, Confucianism, emphasizes morality, honesty, the importance of social relationships and the belief that man is fundamentally good and capable of changing, evolving and improving. So here are 10 lessons we can all learn from Confucius - 01. Learn to see beauty in everything02. Moral values starts at home03. Never do anything half-heartedly04. Never give up 05. Everyone has wisdom to share06. Ignore gossips07. Think of the consequences08. Practice the art of silence09. Practice Filial Piety10. Embrace getting olderHope you enjoyed this podcast and find these insights helpful.Confucianism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. It is described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or simply a way of life. It was founded by  China's most iconic historical figures, Confucius. 

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews Cynthia Garcia about her career journey. She credits mentors and sponsors for paving the way for her success. Justin and Cynthia discuss the demands of the Chief Risk Officer role and how Cynthia works with stakeholders who have competing priorities. Cynthia shares her perspective on construction risk and safety. She is seeing more diversity in the rising generation of risk professionals, with amazing opportunities for all.   Cynthia shares how her Confucianist upbringing still makes it a struggle for her to receive recognition. Despite that, she posted on LinkedIn about receiving the 2025 Bill McIntyre Leadership Award at the International Risk Management Institute (IRMI) Construction Risk Conference. That post led Justin to reach out to her. Cynthia speaks of her involvement with the Spencer Educational Foundation, including being a Risk Manager on Campus. Justin and Cynthia talk about the March 6th Webinar, "Hard Hats & High Stakes: Women Leaders Shaping Construction Risk Management", that she joins as a featured panelist. Listen for tips on careers in risk management for construction.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is Cynthia Garcia, the award-winning Chief Risk Officer for Bernards. We will talk all about her career in construction risk and get some "inspirado." But first… [:44] RIMS Virtual Workshops. On March 10th and 11th, we have a two-day course led by John Button for the RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep. [:55] On March 17th and 18th, RIMS will align with AFERM for a two-day RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep Course. [1:02] On March 4th and 5th, we have a virtual workshop, "Facilitating Risk-Based Decision Making", with Joe Milan. On April 15th, we have a virtual workshop covering "Emerging Risks", led by Joseph Mayo. [1:20] Register today and strengthen your risk knowledge. RIMS members always enjoy deep discounts on the virtual workshops. [1:27] Webinars. On March 6th, RIMS presents "Hard Hats & High Stakes: Women Leaders Shaping Construction Risk Management". We'll be joined by a Chief Risk Officer, an underwriter, and a broker. [1:42] They will explore their career paths, risk and safety philosophies, and lend some insight as to why this is the time for the next generation of leaders to rise. [1:53] On March 12th, Global Risk Consultants returns with "Don't Waste the Soft Market: Where to Reinvest Insurance Savings Before the Window Closes". Register for these and other webinars by visiting RIMS.org/webinars and the links in this episode's show notes. [2:14] On with the Show! Our guest today is Cynthia Garcia. She is the Chief Risk Officer for Bernards. [2:22] Cynthia made a big impact on the risk landscape in 2025 when she received the Bill McIntyre Leadership Award from the International Risk Management Institute during its Construction Risk Conference. [2:35] I wanted to learn all about her career and what it's like to be the risk officer for a major construction company. [2:42] Earlier, I mentioned the March 6th RIMS Webinar, "Hard Hats and High Stakes," and Cynthia will, in fact, be the Chief Risk Officer mentioned there. [2:51] If you like what you hear in this episode and want to learn more about career development, construction risk, and why rising risk professionals should seize the opportunities in the construction sector, you can register for that Webinar. [3:04] Cynthia is a fascinating individual, and I am so pleased to present this interview! Let's get to it! [3:09] Interview! Cynthia Garcia, welcome to RIMScast! [3:27] Justin and Cynthia are going to be collaborating on a RIMS Webinar on March 6th, "Hard Hats and High Stakes." It's all about how women have and can continue to thrive in construction risk management. Cynthia is the ideal Chief Risk Officer to have on that panel. [3:46] Justin thanks Cynthia in advance for being on that panel and being a guest on RIMScast. [4:07] Cynthia is the CRO for Bernards, based in California. [4:33] Like many in her generation, Cynthia stumbled into risk management. She started as an administrative assistant for Morley Builders, an amazing employee-owned general contractor in Santa Monica, California. [4:52] She was fortunate to have several sponsors and mentors within the organization. They helped her see that she belonged at the table. They saw something in her that she hadn't seen in herself, which is the beauty of a mentor. [5:16] In spaces she was not in, they advocated for her and said, Why don't we give this to Cynthia? That's the beauty of a sponsor. Cynthia says she was blessed to be in the right place at the right time. She was able to lean in. [5:32] Cynthia says that the thing that attracts her about risk management and what she does is finding the hard yes. Risk management doesn't say, "No." [5:50] Risk management, when practicing its craft, is fully integrated with operations and understanding what the business needs. It is strategically aligned and helps make sure the organization is making those thoughtful business decisions that allow taking risks. [6:11] Then, risk management takes it to the next step to ask how this adds to our shareholder equity, how this aligns with who we want to be as a company and as people. Risk management threads the needle between entrepreneurship and "cowboyism." [6:28] Risk management leads with "Help me understand, and help us get to the hard yes. We can do it, but here are some of the things we need to do to make sure that it's successful."  [6:50] Cynthia always likes to start by making sure she is coming in with a lot of curiosity. She asks for help to understand what she's not seeing to try to connect the dots. If Cynthia doesn't understand the needs of her business partners, she's not creating value. [7:11] Cynthia joined Bernards as Chief Risk Officer four years ago next month (March). Bernards created the position for her. She says she's blessed to work with talented people. She credits an amazing group of rockstar individuals. She says a rising tide lifts all boats. [8:00] Cynthia says her team carries the weight and does it beautifully. She says the genius of true leadership is understanding we're paving the way for our replacement. Leaders who are afraid of talent need to pause and rethink what that means. [8:26] Cynthia's Risk and Safety team has 13 staff members. [8:45] Cynthia has a VP of Risk and Safety who is definitely a genius at making the wheels turn. He is Cynthia's only direct report. He does an amazing job setting the tone and the pace. [9:03] Cynthia says, We focus on listening to the voices of our internal and external customers. As an employee-owned company, we try to understand what our business partners need, whether it's accounting, finance, human resources, operations, or estimating. [9:22] Cynthia focuses on what our business partners need from risk management to help achieve mission success. [9:27] Cynthia says, from day to day, it's everything from safety to claims, to insurance issues, to coverage questions, but a fair part of the job is when business teams proactively reach out with questions about issues that have come up. [9:50] Cynthia says the beauty of being in a smaller organization is that Risk Management is not siloed. It's not just insurance and claims but also litigation management and contracts. Risk partners closely with the CHRO on policies and employment practices. [10:13] Risk partners closely with Finance and Accounting on a variety of issues. Cynthia feels it is fortunate that Risk is viewed and valued as an internal resource to its business partners and part of the critical strategy to achieve the company's goals. [10:41] Bernards has a little fewer than 400 employee-owners. Cynthia credits Finance and Accounting for paying vendors on time and treating trade partners fairly. She credits Marketing for helping the brand, highlighting company accomplishments, and creating community buzz. [11:30] Cynthia credits the very customer-centric Tech team, who have helped her a lot, and the Virtual Construction Design team, who help with clash detection and getting ahead of constructability issues early on. [11:59] She notes the estimating team getting ahead of what's out there and making sure we have the right projects to go after. It takes a village. [12:14] Cynthia says we like to think all of us employee-owners have a vested interest in mission success. We're all in construction. [12:27] Quick Break! RISKWORLD 2026 will be held from May 3rd through the 6th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. RISKWORLD attracts more than 10,000 risk professionals across the globe. It's time to Connect, Cultivate, and Collaborate with them. [12:45] Booth sales are open now. General registration and speaker registration are also open right now. Marketplace and hospitality badges will be available starting on March 3rd. Links are in this episode's show notes, and be sure to check out RIMS.org for more information. [13:04] Save the dates March 18th and 19th, 2026, for the RIMS Legislative Summit, which will be held in Washington, D.C.! Join us in Washington, D.C. for two days of Congressional meetings, networking, and advocating on behalf of the risk management community. [13:20] Visit RIMS.org/advocacy for more information and to register. Also, check out the prior episode of RIMScast, Episode 378, featuring RIMS General Counsel and Vice President of External Affairs, Mark Prysock, as we discuss the top priorities for RIMS in 2026 and beyond. [13:41] Let's Return to Our Interview with Bernards' Chief Risk Officer, Cynthia Garcia! [13:58] When Cynthia joined Bernards, there were about 10 people on the Risk and Safety team. Then they went into remodel mode, with a different strategic vision. Continuous improvement is a Bernards core value. It's a 52-year-old company with processes and talent in place. [14:27] Cynthia says we've been looking at the areas where we can have the greatest impact, picking off the low-hanging fruit first, and then building out processes that allow us to scale without reinventing ourselves every few years. [14:57] Cynthia says safety is our priority. Bernards added safety to its core values this year. Cynthia says it was a grass-roots movement. It percolated up through Operations and said, This is who we need to be. [15:24] Cynthia says a risk management team's job is to safeguard all the resources of the organization. That includes people and things, clients, and trade partners. The Risk and Safety team has a holistic view. They can't be good by themselves. They can't be safe by themselves. [15:42] For Cynthia, safety takes on a larger meaning than physical well-being, including creating spaces where people are allowed to be vulnerable. [15:57] Cynthia talks about leading with empathy, with top priority not only for physical safety but also for a psychologically safe environment, where you can show up, be seen, heard, and thrive. [16:41] Cynthia says she works on building connections through conflict. For what could be tough conversations, it helps if you are willing to check your ego at the door and come in curious. Cynthia often states her intention up front. [17:01] Cynthia might say, "My intention isn't to challenge you, it's to have you help me understand your perspective and help me see what I'm missing." Cynthia says she asks a billion questions because there is so much she doesn't know. She always tries to get with the "why." [17:32] Cynthia says, When I try to understand what it is that my counterpart needs to happen, then we can figure out the path forward together. As employee-owners, our goals are aligned. We're looking in the same direction. [17:52] Cynthia says, We may fuss with the GPS a little bit, but we know the destination is set and we have a commitment to one another. Once we are willing to shut up, listen, and ask the questions to learn, then we can figure out how to be of service. [18:16] Cynthia says her job isn't to convince, it's first to understand. [18:22] A Quick Break! The Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus application period will open on April 1st, 2026, and it will close on June 30th. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September. [18:51] The Course Development Grant application deadline for Interval Number 2 will be on June 15th, 2026. Award notifications will be sent out in late July. [19:06] General Grant applications will open on May 1st, 2026, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th. [19:18] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information. [19:27] Let's Conclude Our Interview with Bernards' Chief Risk Officer, Cynthia Garcia. [19:41] As Cynthia mentioned earlier, Bernards is employee-owned. Cynthia thinks that Bernards being 100% employee-owned makes all its employee-owners better businesspeople. The heart of risk management is making those good choices. [20:27] Looking across the table and knowing she is betting with her fellow owner's retirement, makes Cynthia think about that a little bit differently. She thinks the employee ownership structure lends itself to amazing risk management. [20:49] Cynthia says you have to be disciplined. You're not spending somebody else's money on this. We're working together, and when we all make good choices, we are ultimately rewarding ourselves and impacting future generational owners, too. That's quite meaningful. [21:09] Cynthia says it's the best of both worlds. You have the umbrella of a big company paying the bills, but you're rewarded for smart entrepreneurism. [21:27] Cynthia has a long-term view when making decisions. It's not about what's in it for her. It's how does this support who we want to be today, and who we want to try to be tomorrow? It makes us look further into the horizon. [22:24] May 4th through May 8th, 2026, is Safety Week, here in the U.S. That coincides with RISKWORLD 2026. Cynthia will be at RISKWORLD. [22:41] Cynthia says for Safety Week, Bernards has planned activities on each job site to highlight the good things that men and women are doing to build the communities in which they work and live, and doing them in such a way that they go home to families and loved ones. [23:01] Justin notes that settlements from construction site accident injuries can be astronomical. Part of Cynthia's job is to minimize accidents from the outset, which connects to Bernards' core value safety-first mindset. [23:34] Cynthia says client response has been amazing. Recently, one of the project executives at Bernards was invited to the school district and won an award acknowledging their efforts on safety. That felt good because it wasn't Bernards saying it, but the clients saying we see it. [23:58] Bernards has trademarked "A Better Experience." It's a phrase they are proud of. They're building not only to create a better experience for their employee-owners, but also for project success for owners who value safety. [24:15] Bernards is a large school builder, working on many programs up and down the state. Bernards is cognizant of the impact they are having on the future generation of leaders and citizens. They're very grateful to have that acknowledgement from their clients. It's special. [25:29] Cynthia says she is absolutely seeing more opportunities for women in risk management and in construction. Construction tends to be inclusive. It's an industry filled with optimists. Its people bring that can-do attitude. They are very generous and gracious with their support. [26:13] Cynthia says she has been in the risk profession for about 30 years. The demographics have changed, and she sees diversity in the new young talent permeating the industry. [27:10] Cynthia thinks the work that the Spencer Educational Foundation does in partnership with RIMS is tremendous. She says it is amazing that colleges and universities are offering the Risk Management and Insurance degree and concentration. Cynthia never heard of that before. [27:35] Cynthia says that people her age moved into risk management from adjacent areas. She is pleased that now people come into risk management intentionally. She talks about risk managers trying to figure out how to help businesses thrive and grow to the next level. [28:47] Cynthia is one of Spencer's Risk Managers on Campus. She explains how the grants to colleges work. Spencer works tirelessly to make sure the next generation of leaders know what an amazing career this is and the opportunities it offers. Cynthia is grateful to be part of it. [30:15] Justin mentions that other Risk Manager On Campus risk professionals have been guests on RIMScast, and they have inspiring stories to tell. They love reaching the young people who are going to be the future of the profession. [30:35] Megan Miller, Spencer CEO, was a recent RIMScast guest. Check out SpencerEd.org for grants and opportunities. If you know somebody interested, send them the link to explore. If they connect with people like Cynthia through the RMOC grant, their experience will be richer. [31:28] Cynthia came to Justin's attention through a LinkedIn post about her being honored as the 2025 Bill McIntyre Leadership Award recipient at the International Risk Management Institute (IRMI) Construction Risk Conference. [32:08] Cynthia says you're always a little bit surprised but so pleased when you get acknowledged by your peers. As IRMI is pre-eminent in the construction risk management space, it was more special to Cynthia, as she knew of the great work they did. [32:33] Cynthia remembers starting in risk management and going to them as a resource. She knows the people who make IRMI thrive. They're people Cynthia looks up to. She is very grateful that it was her turn to be acknowledged. She feels there are way more qualified folks out there! [33:41] Cynthia says she is an immigrant. English is her second language. She is Korean and grew up in a Confucianist household. In terms of philosophy, you should be seen, not heard. The collective win is celebrated. [34:06] Cynthia has had to work to get over the heebie-jeebies about self-promotion or what could be viewed as arrogance. She's working on it and doing better at accepting compliments. It's an opportunity to show others who are coming up behind her that diversity exists. [34:45] Cynthia says it's hard for us to visualize ourselves in a role without models who came before us. What are the opportunities that exist? Can I also think about this? Cynthia said the marketing team is genius. Justin said that was what caught his eye on LinkedIn. [35:19] Cynthia says she is very fortunate to be supported by so much talent and such a community that helps uplift you. [35:27] Justin comments that the "seen and not heard" thing is not just Confucianism, but also old-world Brooklynism. His old relatives said, "Children should be seen and not heard." [35:52] Cynthia says we all have shared experiences within our collective. People tend to focus on the differences. It is important to celebrate our differences, but there's so much more in common, regardless of the geography and the generation in which we were raised. [36:10] There is so much in shared value. Cynthia says she is constantly inspired by those stories of people who saw a different future or leaned into a hand up. That motivates her to try to be better and drives her. [36:35] Justin says posting is a networking opportunity too. If that post had not gone up, Justin would not have met Cynthia. It's a way to broaden your network and meet more people. Justin says it's OK to do a humblebrag. Justin is known as the shameless self-promoter. [37:11] Justin says it is very special when you are acknowledged outside your company. [37:20] Cynthia's post triggered a series of events, one of which is, in recognition of Women's History Month, RIMS will present the webinar on March 6th, "Hard Hats & High Stakes: Women Leaders Shaping Construction Risk Management", with Cynthia as a featured panelist. [37:38] Cynthia will provide the CRO perspective. Also on the panel are Danette Beck from Astrus and Jessica Risullo from WTW. Cynthia shares how she knows these amazing, trailblazing women. Cynthia is grateful to be on a panel with them. They're rockstars! [38:47] Justin says it's going to be excellent! The link is in this episode's show notes, or visit RIMS.org/webinars. Megan Miller, the CEO of the Spencer Educational Foundation, will kick things off with a special introduction. [39:15] It's going to be a wonderful way to observe and celebrate Women's History Month, ahead of RISKWORLD and Construction Safety Awareness Week. [39:30] Justin thanks Cynthia for joining us on RIMScast, sharing with listeners her construction risk perspective and career path. There's a lot to take away. Justin thanks Cynthia for her perspective and her time. [39:45] Cynthia says she appreciates Justin and the work RIMS is doing to put a spotlight on our amazing industry and the opportunities that exist. She says she is grateful for the opportunities Justin and RIMS are creating and thoughtfully curating. [40:04] Special thanks again to Cynthia Garcia for joining us here on RIMScast. You can hear more from her directly on March 6th during the RIMS Webinar "Hard Hats & High Stakes: Women Leaders Shaping Construction Risk Management". [40:17] RIMS members, keep in mind that RIMS Webinars are complimentary for you. That is one of the many benefits of a RIMS membership. Visit RIMS.org/webinars and the link in this episode's show notes to register. That's going to be a fantastic session! [40:34] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [41:03] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [41:21] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [41:38] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [41:55] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [42:09] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [42:21] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continuous support!   Links: RIMS Legislative Summit — March 18‒19, 2026 on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. | Register now! RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RISKWORLD 2026 Registration — Open for exhibitors, members, and non-members! Reserve your booth at RISKWORLD 2026! Construction Safety Week RIMS-CRO Certificate Program In Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | April‒June 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam RIMS Compensation Survey 2025 — Download Today RIMS Risk Management magazine | Contribute RIMS Now RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Story, featuring John Button RIMScast Canada — Debut Episode Now Live Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 Education Content Submission — Deadline March 18, 2026! Hard Hats & High Stakes: Women Leaders Shaping Construction Risk Management | March 6 | Presented by RIMS — Featuring Today's Guest, Cynthia Garcia! Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam PrepMarch 10‒11 | April 21‒22 | June 9‒10 RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM | March 17‒18 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops RIMS Virtual Workshop — "Facilitating Risk-Based Decision Making" | March 4‒5 | Register Now "Risk Appetite Management" | March 25‒26 "Claims Management" | April 7‒8 "Emerging Risks" | April 15 | Register Now! 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In this episode of the Crazy Wisdom podcast, host Stewart Alsop sits down with Kelvin Lwin for their second conversation exploring the fascinating intersection of AI and Buddhist cosmology. Lwin brings his unique perspective as both a technologist with deep Silicon Valley experience and a serious meditation practitioner who's spent decades studying Buddhist philosophy. Together, they examine how AI development fits into ancient spiritual prophecies, discuss the dangerous allure of LLMs as potentially "asura weapons" that can mislead users, and explore verification methods for enlightenment claims in our modern digital age. The conversation ranges from technical discussions about the need for better AI compilers and world models to profound questions about humanity's role in what Lwin sees as an inevitable technological crucible that will determine our collective spiritual evolution. For more information about Kelvin's work on attention training and AI, visit his website at alin.ai. You can also join Kelvin for live meditation sessions twice daily on Clubhouse at clubhouse.com/house/neowise.Timestamps00:00 Exploring AI and Spirituality05:56 The Quest for Enlightenment Verification11:58 AI's Impact on Spirituality and Reality17:51 The 500-Year Prophecy of Buddhism23:36 The Future of AI and Business Innovation32:15 Exploring Language and Communication34:54 Programming Languages and Human Interaction36:23 AI and the Crucible of Change39:20 World Models and Physical AI41:27 The Role of Ontologies in AI44:25 The Asura and Deva: A Battle for Supremacy48:15 The Future of Humanity and AI51:08 Persuasion and the Power of LLMs55:29 Navigating the New Age of TechnologyKey Insights1. The Rarity of Polymath AI-Spirituality Perspectives: Kelvin argues that very few people are approaching AI through spiritual frameworks because it requires being a polymath with deep knowledge across multiple domains. Most people specialize in one field, and combining AI expertise with Buddhist cosmology requires significant time, resources, and academic background that few possess.2. Traditional Enlightenment Verification vs. Modern Claims: There are established methods for verifying enlightenment claims in Buddhist traditions, including adherence to the five precepts and overcoming hell rebirth through karmic resolution. Many modern Western practitioners claiming enlightenment fail these traditional tests, often changing the criteria when they can't meet the original requirements.3. The 500-Year Buddhist Prophecy and Current Timing: We are approximately 60 years into a prophesied 500-year period where enlightenment becomes possible again. This "startup phase of Buddhism revival" coincides with technological developments like the internet and AI, which are seen as integral to this spiritual renaissance rather than obstacles to it.4. LLMs as UI Solution, Not Reasoning Engine: While LLMs have solved the user interface problem of capturing human intent, they fundamentally cannot reason or make decisions due to their token-based architecture. The technology works well enough to create illusion of capability, leading people down an asymptotic path away from true solutions.5. The Need for New Programming Paradigms: Current AI development caters too much to human cognitive limitations through familiar programming structures. True advancement requires moving beyond human-readable code toward agent-generated languages that prioritize efficiency over human comprehension, similar to how compilers already translate high-level code.6. AI as Asura Weapon in Spiritual Warfare: From Buddhist cosmological perspective, AI represents an asura (demon-realm) tool that appears helpful but is fundamentally wasteful and disruptive to human consciousness. Humanity exists as the battleground between divine and demonic forces, with AI serving as a weapon that both sides employ in this cosmic conflict.7. 2029 as Critical Convergence Point: Multiple technological and spiritual trends point toward 2029 as when various systems will reach breaking points, forcing humanity to either transcend current limitations or be consumed by them. This timing aligns with both technological development curves and spiritual prophecies about transformation periods.

We're going to play our favorite game, GUESS THAT EASTERN RELIGION BASED ON THE QUOTE PROVIDED!!! In order to do this, I need to provide a very basic intro for Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism.

fWotD Episode 3171: Political philosophy Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 9 January 2026, is Political philosophy.Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. The field investigates different forms of government, ranging from democracy to authoritarianism, and the values guiding political action, like justice, equality, and liberty. As a normative field, political philosophy focuses on desirable norms and values, in contrast to political science, which emphasizes empirical description.Political ideologies are systems of ideas and principles that outline how society should work. Anarchism rejects the coercive power of centralized governments. It proposes a stateless society to promote liberty and equality. Conservatism seeks to preserve traditional institutions and practices. It is skeptical of the human ability to radically reform society, arguing that drastic changes can destroy the wisdom of past generations. Liberals advocate for individual rights and liberties, the rule of law, private property, and tolerance. They believe that governments should protect these values to enable individuals to pursue personal goals without external interference. Socialism emphasizes collective ownership and equal distribution of basic goods. It seeks to overcome sources of inequality, including private ownership of the means of production, class systems, and hereditary privileges. Other strands of political philosophy include environmentalism, realism, idealism, consequentialism, perfectionism, nationalism, individualism, and communitarianism.Political philosophers rely on various methods to justify and criticize knowledge claims. Particularists use a bottom-up approach and systematize individual judgments, whereas foundationalists employ a top-down approach and construct comprehensive systems from a small number of basic principles. One foundationalist approach uses theories about human nature as the basis for political ideologies. Universalists assert that basic moral and political principles apply equally to every culture, a view rejected by cultural relativists.Political philosophy has its roots in antiquity, such as the theories of Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greek philosophy, with discussions on the nature of justice and ideal states. Confucianism, Taoism, and legalism emerged in ancient Chinese philosophy, while Hindu and Buddhist political thought developed in ancient India, each offering distinct views on the foundations of the social order and statecraft. Political philosophy in the medieval period was characterized by the interplay between ancient Greek thought and religion in both the Christian and Islamic worlds. The modern period marked a shift towards secularism as diverse schools of thought developed, such as social contract theory, liberalism, conservatism, utilitarianism, Marxism, and anarchism.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:15 UTC on Friday, 9 January 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Political philosophy on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Joanna.

The Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) stands as the bloodiest civil war in human history, claiming an estimated 20–30 million lives and reshaping 19th-century China. It was ignited by Hong Xiuquan, a failed civil service exam candidate from Guangdong, who experienced profound visions in 1837. Interpreting these as divine messages, Hong believed he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, tasked with establishing a "Heavenly Kingdom" on Earth. Influenced by fragmented Christian teachings from Protestant missionaries, he converted and began preaching a unique blend of Christianity, Confucianism, and anti-Manchu sentiments. The rebellion's roots lay in widespread discontent against the Qing Dynasty, fueled by economic hardships, opium addiction from the Opium Wars, corruption, overpopulation, and ethnic tensions between Han Chinese and Manchu rulers. Hong's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attracted millions of followers, including peasants, women, and ethnic minorities, promising land reform, gender equality, and the abolition of foot-binding and opium. Starting in Guangxi, the Taiping forces rapidly expanded, capturing Nanjing in 1853 as their capital. They implemented radical reforms but faced brutal opposition from Qing armies, aided by foreign powers like Britain and France, who intervened to protect trade interests despite initial neutrality. The conflict featured massive battles, sieges, and atrocities on both sides. The rebellion weakened the Qing Dynasty, paving the way for its eventual fall in 1911. Hong's death in 1864 and the recapture of Nanjing marked the end, but the Taiping legacy endures in discussions of millenarian movements, religious fervor, and social upheaval.

Understanding Taoism with Jason Gregory Jason Gregory is a student of the world's spiritual traditions. He is the author of The Science and Practice of Humility. Jason Gregory is an author, philosopher, and teacher whose work draws from Eastern philosophy, comparative religion, psychology, cognitive science, metaphysics, and ancient cultures, bridging timeless wisdom with contemporary understanding. Jason Gregory explores the essence of Taoism, emphasizing its critique of social conditioning and its guidance toward naturalness, spontaneity, and effortless being. He explains how Taoist ideas intersect with Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and wider metaphysical traditions, revealing a shared vision of an undivided reality beneath cultural structures. Gregory also discusses practices such as wu wei, aimless wandering, and inner alchemy as pathways for aligning with the Dao in modern life. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on **** 00, 2025) Check out New Thinking Allowed’s AI chatbot. You can create a free account at awakin.ai/open/jeffreymishlove. When you enter the space, you will see that our chatbot is one of several you can interact with. While it is still a work in progress, it has been trained on 1,600 NTA transcripts. It can provide intelligent answers about the contents of our interviews. It’s almost like having a conversation with Jeffrey Mishlove. For a short video on How to Get the Most From New Thinking Allowed, go to For a complete, updated list with links to all of our videos, see https://newthinkingallowed.com/Listings.htm. Check out the New Thinking Allowed Foundation website at http://www.newthinkingallowed.org. There you will find our incredible, searchable database as well as opportunities to shop and to support our video productions – plus, this is where people can subscribe to our FREE, weekly Newsletter and can download a FREE .pdf copy of our quarterly magazine. To order high-quality, printed copies of our quarterly magazine: https://nta-magazine.magcloud.com/ If you would like to join our team of volunteers, helping to promote the New Thinking Allowed YouTube channel on social media, editing and translating videos, creating short video trailers based on our interviews, helping to upgrade our website, or contributing in other ways (we may not even have thought of), please send an email to friends@newthinkingallowed.com. To join the NTA Psi Experience Community on Facebook, see https://www.facebook.com/groups/1953031791426543/ To download and listen to audio versions of the New Thinking Allowed videos, please visit our new podcast at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/new-thinking-allowed-audio-podcast/id1435178031. You can help support our video productions while enjoying a good book. To order a copy of New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: Is There Life After Death? click on https://amzn.to/3LzLA7Y (As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.) To order the second book in the New Thinking Allowed Dialogues series, Russell Targ: Ninety Years of ESP, Remote Viewing, and Timeless Awareness, go to https://amzn.to/4aw2iyr To order a copy of New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: UFOs and UAP – Are We Really Alone?, go to https://amzn.to/3Y0VOVh To order a copy of Charles T. Tart: Seventy Years of Exploring Consciousness and Parapsychology, go to https://amzn.to/41jIX1o To order a copy of Charles T. Tart: Seventy Years of Exploring Consciousness and Parapsychology, go to https://amzn.to/4oOUJLn Download and read Jeffrey Mishlove’s Grand Prize essay in the Bigelow Institute competition, Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death, go to https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/docs/1st.pdf To order a copy of The Science and Practice of Humility: The Path to Ultimate, by Jason Gregory, goto https://amzn.to/4400PQj

In this second episode of our series on Korean Cults, we trace the tangled roots of Korea's modern messianic movements—shaped by Jeong Deuk-eun (“The Great Holy Mother”) and Kim Baek-moon—gave birth to a new religion that blended Confucianism, Taoism, and Christian language into a syncretic gospel of bloodline purification and “True Bloodline Lineage. We then follow how this ideology influenced later leaders like Jung Myung-seok (JMS) and Park Tae-seon of the Olive Tree Movement, revealing the disturbing legacy of Korean messiahship and political infiltration that continues today through groups like the Moonies, Shincheonji, and WMSCOG. We're joined by Pastor Yang, Adjunct Professor of New Testament at the Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary in Seoul, who holds a Doctor of Theology in New Testament and served as a Visiting Scholar at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (2023–2024). Also joining us is Chris, a former member of Shincheonji and returning Cultish guest, who shares his firsthand experience and ongoing efforts to raise awareness about the growing global influence of Korean cults. Together, we expose how the False Christs of Korea: The Unification Church and the Olive Tree Legacy which redefined the Gospel, replaced biblical revelation with self-proclaimed messiahs, and continue to shape Korea's—and the world's—spiritual landscape today.Partner With Us & Be Part of the Mission to Change Lives: HERESHOP OUR MERCH: HEREPlease consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel: CultishTV.comCultish is a 100% crowdfunded ministry. -- Email Chris & Pastor Yang: biblev@daum.net Chris@examiningthecults.org Chris's Website: HEREChris's YouTube: HEREPastor Yang's YouTube: HERE

In this episode we unpack the ancient Chinese classic, "The Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu from circa 400 BCEThis book explores...*The art of not over-doing*The cyclical nature of all things *Acting in accordance with the nature of realityHost: Zach Stehura  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠UnpackingIdeas.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Guest: Amon Greene amonra16.ag@gmail.comIntro Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Polyenso⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Free PDF of the book: Red Pine TranslationResources MentionedTao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts (book)Trying Not to Try by Edward Slingerland (book)Taoism: An Essential Guide by Eva Wong (book)Timestamps0:00 Introduction4:51 Amon's background 10:10 Historical Context of the Tao Te Ching11:50 Confucianism vs. Taoism15:38 Wu Wei22:25 Going with the flow27:26 De37:22 Wu Wei Government39:56 Wu Wei vs. Flow42:33 Restraint of taking action46:29 “The Tao that can be spoken is not the Eternal Tao”51:10 Mistaking the word for the thing 55:37 Yin and Yang1:03:15 The cyclical nature of everything1:10:55 Wrapping up1:15:09 Outro

This lesson presents a presuppositional critique of 'imminent moralism'—a category of religions like Confucianism and Buddhism that prioritize moral codes for this life without appealing to transcendent authority. It argues that such systems fail the PIA (Preconditions of Intelligibility, Inconsistency, and Arbitrariness) test: they lack a transcendent foundation to justify moral absolutes, are inconsistent in their own teachings (e.g., rejecting souls while affirming karma), and are arbitrary in their claims to authority, as no human figure can objectively validate their moral codes. The lesson further shows that these religions cannot account for the uniformity of nature, the reliability of logic, or the possibility of moral transformation, and their historical consequences—such as rigid social hierarchies or suppression of scientific progress—reveal their practical failure. In contrast, Christianity alone provides a coherent worldview grounded in a personal, transcendent God who offers both objective moral law and the transformative grace of regeneration and justification, making it the only system capable of meeting the preconditions of intelligibility and offering true redemption.

In this short (2-8), Master Steenrod unpacks Taoism's elusive stance on morality. What happens when a tradition without heaven or hell meets the moral hierarchies of Confucianism and the rituals of Buddhism?Discover how early Taoism resisted becoming a system of control, how politics turned ritual into power, and why “the noodle got spicy” when belief met bureaucracy.It's a journey through ancient temples, statecraft, and the human need to define right and wrong—told with humor, insight, and unmistakable Taoist calm. Intro music: “Finding Movement” by Kevin MacLeod — licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Source: incompetech.com

Taoism isn't evangelical — it's adaptable. In this short, Master Steenrod explains how the tradition has endured for thousands of years by “spicing the noodle”: blending with Buddhism, Confucianism, and even modern science without losing its flavor. Discover why Taoism calls itself a human method, not a divine truth — and how that flexibility keeps it alive in every age.

This week, we're finishing our time with Kawai Koume by looking at how life in Wakayama had changed by the mid-1870s. Feudalism is no more, Confucianism is a historical relic, and the samurai class are in the midst of being consigned to the dustbin of history; so what is Koume thinking and doing as she's watching the world she grew up with vanish in the final years of her life? Show notes here.  

Jun Bum Sun joins me to talk about Korea's unique energy, pungryo, its history, and the healing power of music. We cover Choi Chi Won, Tangun, the Hwarang, Shamanism, Choe Je-u, Tongdo Sogi, AI, K-pop, North Korea, Taoism, and the world ahead. This episode was recorded in Bum Sun's book shop in Haebangchon. Find the video online and you can see the wonderful setting we recorded in as well as his dog 왕손 walking around.    Find Him Online Jun Bum Sun: https://www.instagram.com/junbumsun/ The Yangbans: https://www.instagram.com/yangbansmusic/   Discussion Outline  0:00 History as Therapy 9:33 The Taeguk 17:35 Where Do We Come From? 26:30 The Power of Music 40:20 Confucianism 48:40 Tangun as a Shaman 55:30 Wind and Flow (Pungryo) 59:40 The Donghak 1:13:10 Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism 1:20:25 North Korea 1:38:40 The Samguk Yusa   David A. Tizzard has a PhD in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He writes a weekly column in the Korea Times, is a social-cultural commentator, and a musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He can be reached at datizzard@swu.ac.kr.   Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/vIbpLfWJoZM?si=srRVQ1vRkLvCV076   Subscribe to the channel: @DavidTizzard/videos  Thanks to Patreon members: Bhavya, Roxanne Murrell, Sara B Cooper Join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=62047873 Music by Jocelyn Clark   Connect with us:  ▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr ▶ David's Insta: @datizzard ▶ KD Insta: @koreadeconstructed   Listen to Korea Deconstructed ▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128 ▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE ▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com 

We are very excited to welcome Prof. Lisa Dombrowski to our podcast! She is a Professor of Film Studies and East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. She's the author of the books: The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I'll Kill You! (2008), the editor of Kazan Revisited (2011), and co-editor of ReFocus: The Later Works and Legacy of Robert Altman (2022). (Ben worked on that last one!) We took Lisa's fantastic film classes and she's a big reason this podcast exists, and why we talk about movies the way we do. (You can read more about the podcast's origin story on Patreon!) Together, we preview a newly restored film showing at the upcoming New York Film Festival and M+ Restored programmes, T'ang Shushuen's The Arch, which Lisa teaches in her classes. Lisa shares with us the film's unconventional transnational production context, and we have an in-depth discussion about the film's groundbreaking use of film form to portray female subjectivity. Eli highlights the film's use of deep staging, Wilson compares the film with Ann Hui's A Simple Life (2011), and Ben explains what he means by an “oyako-don” pantheon.Links:Read more about and get tickets for the M+ Restored programmeScreening in NYC for NYFF at Film at Lincoln CenterObey your ancestors at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com Timestamps:00:01:36 Introducing Prof. Lisa Dombrowski00:06:48 M+ Restored00:09:39 Context on director Tang Shu-shuen and The Arch00:11:16 Lisa's relationship with The Arch00:17:16 General reactions00:23:30 Adaptation and subjectivity00:26:06 Subtitles00:28:06 Female gaze and melodramatic situation00:30:28 The opening setup00:33:28 Cinematography context00:40:28 Love triangle and deep staging00:43:34 Plum scene00:52:37 Source material00:55:28 Cultural context and societal norms01:00:04 River scene and Mid-Autumn Festival01:03:39 A Simple Life (2011) sidebar, subjective realism01:07:25 Confucianism and social conditioning01:10:29 Loom scene01:13:04 Editing for meaning01:16:32 The arch, the ending, the takeaway01:24:57 Fractured images and liminal spaces01:30:15 Lisa Lu and casting01:31:32 The film's reception01:33:56 Tang's approach01:39:03 Cultural identity, transnational cinema, aesthetic expectations01:43:32 Tang's career post The Arch01:46:05 Outro

In this thought-provoking episode of Fishing Without Bait, Jim Ellermeyer and co-host Mike Sorg engage in a profound exploration of the core values shared by the world's major faiths—from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Sikhism, Confucianism, to Taoism. Amid global conflict and division, the hosts reflect on the universal threads of compassion, humility, charity, integrity, and justice that connect these traditions. They challenge listeners to look beyond dogma and doctrine and focus on our shared humanity—especially in times of violence and suffering.

******Support the channel******Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenterPayPal: paypal.me/thedissenterPayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuyPayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9lPayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpzPayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9mPayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao ******Follow me on******Website: https://www.thedissenter.net/The Dissenter Goodreads list: https://shorturl.at/7BMoBFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/Twitter: https://x.com/TheDissenterYT This show is sponsored by Enlites, Learning & Development done differently. Check the website here: http://enlites.com/ Dr. Ian James Kidd is an Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham. Most of his current research concerns epistemology, virtues and vices, misanthropy (on which he is writing a book) and pessimism, and south and east Asian philosophies, especially Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism.In this episode, we talk about philosophical misanthropy. We first discuss what it is, the failing of humanity, and whether most people are decent. We then talk about the relationship between vices, corruption, and misanthropy; and religious and secular misanthropy. We discuss the different types of misanthropes: the activist, the enemy, the fugitive, and the quietist. Finally, we discuss if there could be a fifth type, who would simply embrace the evils of humanity, and how we can deal with humanity's malevolence without losing hope.--A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: PER HELGE LARSEN, JERRY MULLER, BERNARDO SEIXAS, ADAM KESSEL, MATTHEW WHITINGBIRD, ARNAUD WOLFF, TIM HOLLOSY, HENRIK AHLENIUS, ROBERT WINDHAGER, RUI INACIO, ZOOP, MARCO NEVES, COLIN HOLBROOK, PHIL KAVANAGH, SAMUEL ANDREEFF, FRANCIS FORDE, TIAGO NUNES, FERGAL CUSSEN, HAL HERZOG, NUNO MACHADO, JONATHAN LEIBRANT, JOÃO LINHARES, STANTON T, SAMUEL CORREA, ERIK HAINES, MARK SMITH, JOÃO EIRA, TOM HUMMEL, SARDUS FRANCE, DAVID SLOAN WILSON, YACILA DEZA-ARAUJO, ROMAIN ROCH, DIEGO LONDOÑO CORREA, YANICK PUNTER, CHARLOTTE BLEASE, NICOLE BARBARO, ADAM HUNT, PAWEL OSTASZEWSKI, NELLEKE BAK, GUY MADISON, GARY G HELLMANN, SAIMA AFZAL, ADRIAN JAEGGI, PAULO TOLENTINO, JOÃO BARBOSA, JULIAN PRICE, HEDIN BRØNNER, DOUGLAS FRY, FRANCA BORTOLOTTI, GABRIEL PONS CORTÈS, URSULA LITZCKE, SCOTT, ZACHARY FISH, TIM DUFFY, SUNNY SMITH, JON WISMAN, WILLIAM BUCKNER, PAUL-GEORGE ARNAUD, LUKE GLOWACKI, GEORGIOS THEOPHANOUS, CHRIS WILLIAMSON, PETER WOLOSZYN, DAVID WILLIAMS, DIOGO COSTA, ALEX CHAU, CORALIE CHEVALLIER, BANGALORE ATHEISTS, LARRY D. LEE JR., OLD HERRINGBONE, MICHAEL BAILEY, DAN SPERBER, ROBERT GRESSIS, JEFF MCMAHAN, JAKE ZUEHL, BARNABAS RADICS, MARK CAMPBELL, TOMAS DAUBNER, LUKE NISSEN, KIMBERLY JOHNSON, JESSICA NOWICKI, LINDA BRANDIN, VALENTIN STEINMANN, ALEXANDER HUBBARD, BR, JONAS HERTNER, URSULA GOODENOUGH, DAVID PINSOF, SEAN NELSON, MIKE LAVIGNE, JOS KNECHT, LUCY, MANVIR SINGH, PETRA WEIMANN, CAROLA FEEST, MAURO JÚNIOR, 航 豊川, TONY BARRETT, NIKOLAI VISHNEVSKY, STEVEN GANGESTAD, TED FARRIS, HUGO B., JAMES, JORDAN MANSFIELD, AND CHARLOTTE ALLEN!A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, JIM FRANK, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, TOM VANEGDOM, BERNARD HUGUENEY, CURTIS DIXON, BENEDIKT MUELLER, THOMAS TRUMBLE, KATHRINE AND PATRICK TOBIN, JONCARLO MONTENEGRO, NICK GOLDEN, CHRISTINE GLASS, IGOR NIKIFOROVSKI, AND PER KRAULIS!AND TO MY EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS, MATTHEW LAVENDER, SERGIU CODREANU, ROSEY, AND GREGORY HASTINGS!

In this episode, Stewart Alsop speaks with Edouard Machery, Distinguished Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science, about the deep cultural roots of question-asking and curiosity. From ancient Sumerian tablets to the philosophical legacies of Socrates and Descartes, the conversation spans how different civilizations have valued inquiry, the cross-cultural psychology of AI, and what makes humans unique in our drive to ask “why.” For more, explore Edouard's work at www.edouardmachery.com.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversationTimestamps00:00 – 05:00 Origins of question-asking, Sumerian writing, norms in early civilizations, authority and written text05:00 – 10:00 Values in AI across cultures, RLHF, tech culture in the Bay Area vs. broader American values10:00 – 15:00 Cross-cultural AI study: Taiwan vs. USA, privacy and collectivism, urban vs. rural mindset divergence15:00 – 20:00 History of curiosity in the West, from vice to virtue post-15th century, link to awe and skepticism20:00 – 25:00 Magic, alchemy, and experimentation in early science, merging maker and scholarly traditions25:00 – 30:00 Rise of public dissections, philosophy as meta-curiosity, Socratic questioning as foundational30:00 – 35:00 Socrates, Plato, Aristotle—transmission of philosophical curiosity, human uniqueness in questioning35:00 – 40:00 Language, assertion, imagination, play in animals vs. humans, symbolic worlds40:00 – 45:00 Early moderns: Montaigne, Descartes, rejection of Aristotle, rise of foundational science45:00 – 50:00 Confucianism and curiosity, tradition and authority, contrast with India and Buddhist thought50:00 – 55:00 Epistemic virtues project, training curiosity, philosophical education across cultures, spiritual curiosityKey InsightsCuriosity hasn't always been a virtue. In Western history, especially through Christian thought until the 15th century, curiosity was viewed as a vice—something dangerous and prideful—until global exploration and scientific inquiry reframed it as essential to human understanding.Question-asking is culturally embedded. Different societies place varying emphasis on questioning. While Confucian cultures promote curiosity within hierarchical structures, Christian traditions historically linked it with sin—except when directed toward divine matters.Urbanization affects curiosity more than nationality. Machery found that whether someone lives in a city or countryside often shapes their mindset more than their cultural background. Cosmopolitan environments expose individuals to diverse values, prompting greater openness and inquiry.AI ethics reveals cultural alignment. In studying attitudes toward AI in the U.S. and Taiwan, expected contrasts in privacy and collectivism were smaller than anticipated. The urban, global culture in both countries seems to produce surprisingly similar ethical concerns.The scientific method emerged from curiosity. The fusion of the maker tradition (doing) and the scholarly tradition (knowing) in the 13th–14th centuries helped birth experimentation, public dissection, and eventually modern science—all grounded in a spirit of curiosity.Philosophy begins with meta-curiosity. From Socratic questioning to Plato's dialogues and Aristotle's treatises, philosophy has always been about asking questions about questions—making “meta-curiosity” the core of the discipline.Only humans ask why. Machery notes that while animals can make requests, they don't seem to ask questions. Humans alone communicate assertions and engage in symbolic, imaginative, question-driven thought, setting us apart cognitively and culturally.

On today's episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Dr. Joe Boot examine Confucianism and how it compares to the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

At the start of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, King Lear promises to divide his kingdom based on his daughters' professions of love, but portions it out before hearing all of their answers. For Nan Da, this opening scene sparks a reckoning between King Lear, one of the cruelest and most confounding stories in literature, and the tragedy of Maoist and post-Maoist China. Da, who emigrated from China to the United States as a child in the 1990s, brings Shakespeare's tragedy to life on its own terms, addressing the concerns it reflects over the transition from Elizabeth I to James I with a fearsome sense of what would soon come to pass. At the same time, she uses the play as a lens to revisit the world of Maoist China--what it did to people, and what it did to storytelling. Blending literary analysis and personal history, Da begins in her childhood during Deng Xiaoping's Opening and Reform, then moves back and forth between Lear and China. In The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear (Princeton University Press, 2025), the unfinished business of Maoism and other elements of Chinese thought and culture--from Confucianism to the spectacles of Peking Opera--help elucidate the choices Shakespeare made in constructing Lear and the unbearable confusions he left behind. Nan Z. Da is associate professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. Caleb Zakarin is the Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

At the start of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, King Lear promises to divide his kingdom based on his daughters' professions of love, but portions it out before hearing all of their answers. For Nan Da, this opening scene sparks a reckoning between King Lear, one of the cruelest and most confounding stories in literature, and the tragedy of Maoist and post-Maoist China. Da, who emigrated from China to the United States as a child in the 1990s, brings Shakespeare's tragedy to life on its own terms, addressing the concerns it reflects over the transition from Elizabeth I to James I with a fearsome sense of what would soon come to pass. At the same time, she uses the play as a lens to revisit the world of Maoist China--what it did to people, and what it did to storytelling. Blending literary analysis and personal history, Da begins in her childhood during Deng Xiaoping's Opening and Reform, then moves back and forth between Lear and China. In The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear (Princeton University Press, 2025), the unfinished business of Maoism and other elements of Chinese thought and culture--from Confucianism to the spectacles of Peking Opera--help elucidate the choices Shakespeare made in constructing Lear and the unbearable confusions he left behind. Nan Z. Da is associate professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. Caleb Zakarin is the Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

At the start of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, King Lear promises to divide his kingdom based on his daughters' professions of love, but portions it out before hearing all of their answers. For Nan Da, this opening scene sparks a reckoning between King Lear, one of the cruelest and most confounding stories in literature, and the tragedy of Maoist and post-Maoist China. Da, who emigrated from China to the United States as a child in the 1990s, brings Shakespeare's tragedy to life on its own terms, addressing the concerns it reflects over the transition from Elizabeth I to James I with a fearsome sense of what would soon come to pass. At the same time, she uses the play as a lens to revisit the world of Maoist China--what it did to people, and what it did to storytelling. Blending literary analysis and personal history, Da begins in her childhood during Deng Xiaoping's Opening and Reform, then moves back and forth between Lear and China. In The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear (Princeton University Press, 2025), the unfinished business of Maoism and other elements of Chinese thought and culture--from Confucianism to the spectacles of Peking Opera--help elucidate the choices Shakespeare made in constructing Lear and the unbearable confusions he left behind. Nan Z. Da is associate professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. Caleb Zakarin is the Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

What does “Daoism” refer to in a range of contexts, and how have excavated texts changed our understanding of the tensions between Daoism and Confucianism?

My guest for Episode #529 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Scott Gauvin, CEO of Macresco and co-creator of the Respect for People Roadmap. Episode page with video, transcript, and more With 30 years of experience leading operational transformations across sectors including biotech, pharma, agriculture, and manufacturing, Scott brings both a systems mindset and a people-first philosophy to his work. His journey into Lean began with frustration over leadership that blamed people rather than fixing systems—sparking a personal quest to better integrate continuous improvement with what he calls the “practice” of respect for people. In this episode, Scott shares the evolution of his thinking and how it culminated in the Respect for People Roadmap, a structured learning experience designed to operationalize cultural change through nine actionable behaviors. We explore the difference between “respecting people” as an individual action and “respect for people” as a system-level design principle. Scott also challenges the common notion that respect must be earned, arguing instead that every human being is inherently worthy of it—an idea rooted in his research on Confucian influences within Toyota's founding culture. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone struggling to move beyond Lean tools and truly build a culture of continuous improvement grounded in human dignity. We also touch on how these ideas align with the Shingo Model, why so many transformations fail to stick, and how organizations can design systems that scale respect—without waiting for permission from the top. Check the links below to learn more and access Scott's free “test drive” version of the Roadmap. Questions, Notes, and Highlights: What's your origin story with Lean and operational excellence? What drew you to explore the “respect for people” pillar more deeply? How do you distinguish between “respect for people” and “respecting people”? Why do so many interpretations of “respect” default to hierarchy or politeness? How should leaders approach differences in how individuals define respect? Is it a mistake to assume respect must be earned rather than given? What are your thoughts on the phrase “better to be respected than liked”? How do challenge, kaizen, and respect interrelate in Toyota thinking? What did your research uncover about Confucianism's influence on Lean? How does the concept of “respect for people” show up in system design? What inspired the creation of the Respect for People Roadmap? What are the three key behavioral principles embedded in the Roadmap? What makes this program scalable and sustainable across organizations? Why was it important that the nine behaviors require no leader permission? How do you respond to the idea that “respect for people” should be translated as “respect for humanity”? Are you looking to pilot the Roadmap in healthcare settings? What would transformation look like if it were truly resilient—not dependent on a single leader This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network. 

Salvaging Buddhism to Save Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea (1392-1910) (Cambria Press, 2023) is a fascinating book that sits at the intersection of Buddhist studies and premodern Korean literary history. Gregory N. Evon's book unfolds in two parts: the first charts the history of the place, position, and status of Buddhism in Chosŏn Korea, charting how Buddhism went from being outright attacked to grudgingly tolerated. The second part looks at how this background and court intrigue led the Chosŏn official Kim Manjung 金萬重 (1637–1692) — someone typically thought of as a stalwart Neo-Confucian — to find value in Buddhism, so much so that he wove into his novel Lady Sa's Journey to the South (Sassi namjŏng-gi 謝氏南征記) the idea that Buddhism might even hold the key to save Confucianism. Salvaging Buddhism to Save Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea should be of interest to those interested in the history of Buddhism, Chosŏn Korea, and premodern literature. It should particularly appeal to readers who might be more familiar with Kim Manjung's more well-known work, A Nine Cloud Dream (Kuunmong 九雲夢). For such readers in particular, this book offers a new and more complex way to think about this author — and the place of Buddhism in early modern Korea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Salvaging Buddhism to Save Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea (1392-1910) (Cambria Press, 2023) is a fascinating book that sits at the intersection of Buddhist studies and premodern Korean literary history. Gregory N. Evon's book unfolds in two parts: the first charts the history of the place, position, and status of Buddhism in Chosŏn Korea, charting how Buddhism went from being outright attacked to grudgingly tolerated. The second part looks at how this background and court intrigue led the Chosŏn official Kim Manjung 金萬重 (1637–1692) — someone typically thought of as a stalwart Neo-Confucian — to find value in Buddhism, so much so that he wove into his novel Lady Sa's Journey to the South (Sassi namjŏng-gi 謝氏南征記) the idea that Buddhism might even hold the key to save Confucianism. Salvaging Buddhism to Save Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea should be of interest to those interested in the history of Buddhism, Chosŏn Korea, and premodern literature. It should particularly appeal to readers who might be more familiar with Kim Manjung's more well-known work, A Nine Cloud Dream (Kuunmong 九雲夢). For such readers in particular, this book offers a new and more complex way to think about this author — and the place of Buddhism in early modern Korea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Regina Linke was born and raised in Texas, and she always enjoyed the creative arts, but she didn't learn traditional Chinese painting until after moving with her young family to Taiwan in her mid-thirties. Holding management degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell University, she worked in marketing technology and information systems for the travel and tourism industry. Now, however, she creates and illustrates stories that celebrate East Asian folklore and philosophy in an accessible way. Her most notable creations are the characters from The Oxherd Boy, a single-panel, webcomic that started on Instagram. A young boy, his family ox, and a rabbit living in his garden convey the three core schools of Classical Chinese thought: Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The best-selling collection of these inspirational pieces called THE OXHERD BOY: Parables of Love, Compassion, and Community released in 2024, and was followed in 2025 by its first original story for children called Big Enough. A second picture book, Little Helper expanding on this world is slated for release in Summer 2026. Here's a link for behind the scenes of her painting: https://oxherdboy.org/pages/digital-painting And here's a link if you'd like to purchase "Big Enough": https://oxherdboy.org/pages/big-enough  

Dr. Adam Francisco, author, “One God, Many Gods” One God, Many Gods The post Christianity and Other World Religions: Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto and Sikhism – Dr. Adam Francisco, 6/2/25 (1532, Encore) first appeared on Issues, Etc..

An interview on the contrasting views of Mohists and Confucians on ethical duties and warfare.

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