Remember!

Learning his own history is the free man’s first defense against government abuse of power.

Knowing the Bureaucratic Frankenstein

So far, no modern, complex industrial society has figured out how to run a democracy via direct popular participation, and no one has figured out how to establish a system of popular oversight of government with or without internal checks and balances sufficient to preserve government reliability.

Trusting Lackeys

At one point during Julius Caesar’s Gallic campaign, when the Aeduan tribe was allied with Rome, the question of whether or not to break the alliance and join Vercingetorix’s “rebellion”–what today might be called Gaul’s “national liberation movement.” The Aeduan leader had recently been confirmed in his position through the personal intervention of Caesar, who had ruled in accordance with Aeduan laws. The Aeduan leader observed,

It is true that I am under some obligation to Caesar – though the justice of my case was so apparent that he could hardly help deciding in my favor. but the cause of national liberty outweighs any such consideration. Why should we call Caesar in to adjudicate questions involving our rights and the interpretation of our laws? We do not expect him to submit questions of Roman law to our arbitration? (Caesar, The Conquest of Gaul. London: Penguin Classics, pp.173-4.)

With that, the lackey declared his independence and led the Aeduans into revolt.

Slippery Slope: Government Undermining of Civil Liberties

“Clematius, an utterly innocent man, was put to death without being allowed to open his mouth or speak.
After this act of wickedness, which, now that cruelty had been given free rein, aroused fears that it would be repeated in other cases, a number of people were found guilty and condemned through mere misty suspicion. Of these some were put to death; others suffered confiscation of their property and were driven into exile from their homes; left with no resource but complaints and tears they supported life on the charity of others, and when what had been a just constitutional government was transformed into a gloody despotism many rich and noble houses shut their doors. In the past savage emperors had often preserved the appearance of legality by preferring charges against their victims in the courts of law, but now even a counterfeit accusation was felt to be superfluous; as one mischief was heaped upon another whatever the implacable Caesar had resolved was immediately put into effect, as if it had all the force of a deliberate legal decision.“–Ammianus Marcellinus The Later Roman Empire (AD 453-378)(Tr. Walter Hamilton), London: Penguin Classics, 2004).

Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman military officer and historian, chronicled the decline of the superpower of his day.

Turning Points

Whether or not Solzhenitsyn made up the passage below about a Russian commander in 1914, it provokes numerous questions:

• How often do critical moments in political behavior occur?
• How often are they recognized?
• How can one detect them in time and figure out how to respond?

Fulfilling Grandiose Plans

Solzhenitsyn (see previous post) is not the only Russian novelist to have had something to say about human military plans and their outcomes. The man Solzhenitsyn no doubt had very much in mind when writing August 1914 is also worth remembering in this context. In War and Peace, Tolstoy observed, for example:

Solzhenitsyn on Military Defeat

Lessons from history are revealed not by events but by good history, i.e., by interpretation, and a good historical novel can serve that purpose remarkably well. Consider the following marvelous explanation for Tsarist Russia’s debacle in WWI at the hands of the rapidly modernizing and efficiency-oriented Germany:

de Mailla’s Translation of Zhu Xi’s History of China

The only Chinese history between the end of the Han and the Manchu era translated into a modern European language of which I am aware is Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi)’s T’ung chien kang mu (Outline and Digest of the General Mirror), which was translated by de Mailla as the Histoire generale de la China (Paris 1777-85) and reprinted by Ch’eng-wen on Taiwan in 1967.  Zhu Xi condensed Sima Guang’s earlier work, finishing around 1172.

As far as I can tell not only are the original Chinese version and original French version out of print (no surprise) but even the reprint is out of print, and the publisher apparently out of business.

Does anyone know differently or know where one might obtain a reprint of the original Chinese text or de Mailla’s translation?

Zizhi Tongjian in Modern Chinese

The prolific Taiwanese author Bo Yang evidently translated Sima Guang’s 12th century history, Zizhi Tongjian, into modern Chinese, with the volumes evidently being published between 1982 and 1989.  Does anyone know any details about this, e.g., where one might purchase it?

Notes on Sima Guang’s Zizhi Tongjian

Following are a few websites that have useful information on Sima Guang’s Zizhi Tongjian:

Searching Ancient Historical Texts for Lessons

The more attention one pays to how humans are managing the contemporary world, the clearer becomes the message that we need to learn from history.  Unfortunately, many of the lessons of history are buried in ancient texts that are inaccessible to most of us because they are written in someone else’s language.  Even if you read the language, the text may be either long (Sima Guang’s Comprehensive Mirror, of which more later, is ten 900-page volumes) or unavailable outside of a rare research library.  I hope in this blog will stimulate the sharing of information on ancient histories –

* which to read

* excerpts of note

* where to find translations

* where to purchase a rare copy.

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I have a particular interest in Sima Guang’s Zizhi tongjian [Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government] and would like to invite comments on editions and translations that may be available. 

Rafe deCrespigny’s translation of chapters from the Later Han sections, so generously posted on the Net, is a wonderful entre into the world of Sima Qian.  Are there others – translations, glossaries?

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I personally will focus on classical Chinese texts but invite others to broaden the scope.

 Two questions for readers to get things started:

1. Where might I find a copy of a modern Chinese version of Sima Qian’s history?  One was published a few years ago in Taiwan but appears to be out of print.

2. Moving away from the Chinese histories with which I have at least a bit of familiarity, does anyone have any recommendations on pre-modern Persian histories that might teach us something of value for our lives today…and be available in a European language?