Mother Ghost Wants to Get a Human Son-in-law: Ghost Shrines and Human Greed in Taiwan (original) (raw)
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國立政治大學歷史學報, 2008
This article is an attempt to explore how scholarly doctors perceived and treated ”demonic affliction” in Ming-Qing China. In the recent past certain medical historians claimed that the classic Chinese medicine is a ”rationalized” medical system primarily based on naturalistic explanations of illness and methods of treatment. To me, this viewpoint is only partly true. In fact, shamanistic exorcism and religious healings have never been excluded completely from Chinese medicine throughout the ages. The ritual therapies of zhouyou 祝由 and zhoujin 咒禁 have even become a part of the official medical education since the Tang until the late Ming. It is therefore my interest to examine if the scholarly doctors in the later ages employed any ritual therapy of this kind, particularly in the cases of ”demonic affliction”. To begin with, my article introduces a category of illnesses, namely, xiesui (literally trans. ”evil influences”) as recorded in Ming-Qing medical writings. Some doctors inter...
[[alternative]]Studies of the suicide in pre-Qin and Han's societies
[[abstract]] 自殺是種行為上的錯誤嗎？如果是，那要不要處罰？又該如何給予處罰？自殺是種心智上的疾病嗎？如果是，就不該被處罰，而應該給予醫治—包括限制個人行動自由的「醫療」過程；反正，自殺不是罪、就是病，「預防」就成了重要的工作。不管是處罰、醫療或預防都需要先解決一個問題： “Why people kill themselves?” 以上是所有討論自殺議題的書籍文獻的中心議題，更準確地說，我們應該在前句的「自殺議題」前加上「西洋社會的」五個字。但是在中國傳統社會中，「自殺」是個議題嗎？它需要被處罰、醫療或預防？老實說，我們不知道。不過可以確定的事，現今台灣社會有個經由政府公定的民俗假日—端午節，是為了紀念一位「自殺者」。 為了尋求上述疑問的解答，本文作者由古籍記載下手。由所收集的資料的排比分析後，本文發現中國傳統社會看待自殺的「眼光」，實有別於西洋社會。當時人們在面對必須做「存生」或「取死」抉擇的情境下，一切都得自行判斷。本文亦發現中國傳統社會最高的政治與意見領袖—皇帝，他運用自殺作為鞏固權威的手段，在此情況下使得針對「自殺」行為本身的負面論述不可能公開存在。 這是中國傳統社會的特殊狀況嗎？作為一位具有反思能力的現代人，或許不應排除另一個可能，那就是西洋社會對自殺的禁制態度，或許僅是人類社會歷史長流中的一個特例
The Color Purple of Taiwan Politics
Evolutionary Progress in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM), 2020
Tsao, Hung-ping (2020). The Color Purple of Taiwan Politics. In: Evolutionary Progress in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) , Wang, Lawrence K. and Tsao, Hung-ping (editors). Volume 2, Number 10, October 2020; 285 pages. Lenox Institute Press, Newtonville, NY, 12128-0405, USA. No. STEAM-VOL2-NUM10-OCT2020; ISBN 978-0-9890870-3-2; http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/s16r-c655 . ..........ABSTRACT: This collection of one thousand articles sidetracks the democratic progression in Taiwan for the period between 1996 and 2013. Most of the articles were published in The World Journal and each reflected spontaneously the complexity of the political, economical and cultural facades of Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. ...........KEYWORDS: Taiwan, Politics, Thousand articles, World Journal, Political, economical and cultural facades, Hong Kong, China
2013
How did people in the Han (漢) Dynasty project their attachment to and imagination of hometown? What does this “hometown”refer to? These are the two questions which this thesis wants to ask. This thesis especially emphasizes the political context which personal feelings depend on and tries to explore how people in the Han Dynasty removed themselves from the indulgence and restraint of homesickness. How did an individual still keep different ways of emotional expression while sharing the same homesick atmosphere? The exhibition of these differences is called agency in this thesis. Chapter One explores how Liu Bang(劉邦) and Xiang Yu(項羽) felt homesick and their different relations and reactions to“hometown” according to the examples of choosing capital cities. What is involved includes not only emotional aspects but political calculations and rational reasoning. The two’s every decision was to seek for a balance between attachment with hometown and political calculations. In addition, th...
2021
Tsao, Hung-ping 曹恆平 (2021). Dedication to Dr. Liang-Chi Tsao for His Contributions in Taiwan Education and Evolutionary Mathematics and Science. In: "Evolutionary Progress in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM)", Wang, Lawrence K. 王抗曝 and Tsao, Hung-ping 曹恆平 (editors). Volume 3, Number 5, May 2021; 387 pages. Lenox Institute Press, Newtonville, NY, 12128-0405, USA. No. STEAM-VOL3-NUM5-MAY2021; ISBN 978-0-9890870-3-2. ...............ABSTRACT: Dr. Lian-Chi Tsao 曹亮吉 greatly improved the mathematical education in Taiwan of his time. His background and his 52 articles concerning the interesting stories and accomplishments of most influential mathematicians in the past are introduced. In order to commemorate Dr. Lian-Chi Tsao and numerous other scientists, we further include a commemorative poem "The Wind Blows Red Leaves to the Cloud" 風吹紅葉至雲端 of Dr. Lawrence K. Wang, Dr. Mu-Hao Sung Wang, and Dr. Hung-ping Tsao...........KEYWORDS: 曹亮吉, Lian...
Pandemic and New Division of the World
The Beacon: Journal for Studying Ideologies and Mental Dimensions, 2021
COVID-19 pandemic is possibly the most serious challenge to the humanity since the end of World War II. Surprisingly, this threat did not unite countries of different ideological blocks. The ideological division of the world only exaggerated in the COVID-19 times. Not even common programmes of mutual healthcare assistance were elaborated. Instead, Russia, the East (mainly China) and the West deepened their discrepancies in international relations and strengthened their hostile rhetoric against each other (with exception of Russo-Chinese relations). The paper studies possibilities of overcoming ideological barriers that prevent the world now to create effectual administrative, political, social and legal techniques of counteracting such outstanding a threat as the Great Pandemic.