Better Late Than Never

Humanism is the cornerstone for western civilizations. It originates from Homeric epic, The Iliad (on Trojan War probably around 1200 BC).

In the conclusion of The Iliad, Hector of Troy, the son of King Priam, met his enemy Achilles, the Greeks’ greatest warrior, and died for his native land. Aged Priam went up to Achilles as a father, not a king, to request Hector’s body. Homer (Probably 800BC – 750 BC) described elaborately on the power of humanity:

Priam had set Achilles thinking of his own father and brought him to the verge of tears. Taking the old man’s hand, he gently put him from him; and overcome by their memories they both broke down. Priam, crouching at Achilles’ feet, wept bitterly for man-slaying Hector, and Achilles wept for his father, and then again for Patroclus [Achilles’s best friend who was killed by Hector]. The house was filled with the sounds of their lamentation. But presently, when he had enough of tears and recovered his composure, the excellent Achilles leapt from his chair, and compassion for the old man’s grey head and grey beard, took him by the arm and raised him. Then he spoke to him from his heart: “You are indeed a man of sorrows and have suffered much. How could you dare to come by yourself to the Achaean ships into the presence of a man who has killed so many of your gallant sons? You have a heart of iron. But pray be seated now, here on this chair, and let us leave our sorrows, bitter though they are, locked up in our own hearts, for weeping is cold comfort and does little good. We men are wretched things, and the gods, who have no cares themselves, have woven sorrow into the very pattern of our lives.”

Achilles returned Hector’s body to Priam and offered a grace armistice time for Trojans to honor Hector with a public funeral rite.

Now, in China, a group of grey headed women called The Tiananmen Mothers cried as loud as Priam did for the permission of honoring publicly each child of their own who died on the June Fourth Massacre in 1989. But the Chinese Communist refuses to alleviate those heart wrenching mothers like Achilles did to Priam. The Tiananmen Mothers have not gotten what they want for decades, yet Priam got what he wanted within a day. Why does the Chinese Communist deny those grief stricken mothers to honor their own children like Priam honored his son Hector? One guess is the so-called proven political correctness propaganda which the Chinese Communist is trying to sell to the world, though it never says on what grounds its political correctness been “proven”. It must not be based on humanity for I am not satisfied for the humanistic reasons of this “proven” political correctness in the Enlightenment, Renaissance, ancient Greek philosophy, and Homeric. Or, maybe I should wait for new discoveries on Neanderthal studies – were the Neanderthals more humane? The Chinese Communist talks on and off about Humanism, which generally is based on the Confucianism – a feudal liege homage that the subject shows the lord his loyalty first and the lord would grant the subject his benevolence. It is not humanity, and the humanism is about humanistic freedom which Pico della Mirandola (1463 – 1494) addressed in his Oration on the Dignity of Man, known as the humanist manifesto. It is hegemony, and the Chinese Communist rhetorically promises that it will never be a hegemon; it is supremacy, and the Chinese Communist unfortunately turns itself into a supremacist after it rules; it is slavery, and the Chinese Communist indeed is a master of the political slaves it suppresses.

Will the Chinese Communist deeply repent its conducts and respect the human dignity eventually? Probably not; the Chinese Communist has lack of enthusiasm to study humanism like Leonardo Bruni (1374 – 1444) did. When Chrysoloras (1355 – 1415) brought Greek to Florence, Bruni was studying Civil Law, but he gave himself to Chrysoloras for “[t]here are doctors of civil law everywhere; and the chance of learning will not fail thee. But if this one and only doctor of Greek letters disappears, no one can be found to teach thee.” The Chinese Communist has great love for how to snatch a title, such as who is the chief economic reformist. It argues that Deng Xiaoping (1904 – 1997) was, not Zhao Ziyang (1919 – 2005) as some western scholars assert. What is the big deal for that, for we know the idea for the so-called “Monroe Doctrine” (James Monroe, 1758 – 1831, President, 1817 – 1825) was from John Quincy Adams (1767 – 1848, President, 1825 – 1829)? It is a “make much ado about nothing” for many.

In Praise of Loneliness

When the world was amazed at the movie Monsters, Inc. style quarantine for the swine flu in China, I was caught by a piece of news that most Chinese media didn’t mention: Prisoner of the State, the personal memoir of Zhao Ziyang (1919 – 2005), was out this week. It was reported that his memoir revealed his “first-person account and intimate details” on the incident of the June Fourth Massacre in 1989 and his loneliness that “The entrance to my home is a cold, desolate place” in his own words.

I praise Zhao’s loneliness for he was not intimidated by Deng Xiaoping (1904 – 1997) and Deng’s associates, “since this race of men is incredibly arrogant and touchy. For they might rise up en masse and march in ranks against me with six hundred conclusions and force me to recant. And if I should refuse, they would immediately shout ‘heretic.’ For this is the thunderbolt they always keep ready at a moment’s notice to terrify anyone to whom they are not very favorably inclined.” (Desiderius Erasmus, 1466 – 1526).

I praise Zhao’s loneliness for he echoed the dictum of Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650), “I think, therefore I am.” Henry Drummond (a character in Inherit the Wind, a movie in 1960 or play in 1955) defended a thinking man on trial, saying that he understood this kind of loneliness that “it’s the loneliest feeling in the world. It’s like walking down an empty street, listening to your own footsteps. But all you have to do is to knock on any door [such as Deng’s door] and say ‘If you let me in, I’ll live the way you want me to live and I’ll think the way you want me to think’, and all the blinds will go up and all the doors will open, and you will never be lonely, ever again.” This kind of “never be lonely” is the status quo of the Chinese elites.

I praise Zhao’s loneliness for he told himself that “no matter what, I refused to become the General Secretary who mobilized the military to crack down on students”. In my view, Zhao had some similar halos like Socrates’ (469 BC – 399 BC). Realized that the execution was pending on Leon, Socrates quietly went home alone on his way to fetch Leon by the order of the Thirty. When Socrates was a senator of Antiochis, he was, at one time, “the only one of the Prytanes who was opposed to the illegality, and I gave my vote against you; and when the orators threatened to impeach and arrest me, and have me taken away, and you called and shouted, I made up my mind that I would run the risk, having law and justice with me, rather than take part in your injustice because I feared imprisonment and death.”

I praise Zhao’s loneliness for he showed the world he was not a political party supremacist, even though he was in this supremacist organization. Similarly, Hugo Black (1886 – 1971) was a member of a race supremacist organization for a while, but he was one of most notable justices for human rights.

I praise Zhao’s loneliness for he scintillates in a dark age, especially when a "Yoda" clandestinely came to China from America to give Deng, not Zhao, his hand after the June Fourth Massacre. The consequences of the June Fourth Massacre were different from the American Boston Massacre in 1770. The Boston Massacre aroused Americans for the American Revolution, noting that the American Revolution was mainly on political, not economic and social revolution, while the June Fourth Massacre left many of the Chinese living without souls. The Boston Massacre had five civilian deaths, while the June Fourth Massacre cost hundreds, if not thousands. When the Boston Massacre’s soldiers were put on trials, John Adams (1735 – 1826; President 1797 – 1801; signed the American Declaration of Independence) defended the soldiers successfully, under a desperate petition by the soldiers. The June Fourth Massacre’s soldiers didn’t go on any trials; instead, many civilians went to prison, like Zhao, as “Prisoner of the State”.

The June Fourth Massacre made its own monument, which is “an insult to the world”. Zhao made his own monument, which is “a teardrop in my heart” for many. Will the Chinese elites make their own monument to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” like the West elites did so?