播之而奮百代，聖賢之事也。然則聖賢之異愚也，職此而已。使仲尼之志之明可得而奪，則庸夫矣；授之於庸夫，則仲尼矣。若乃明之遠邇，志之恆久，庸非天爵之有級哉？故聖人曰 「敏以求之」，明之謂也；「為之不厭」，志之謂也。道德與五常，存乎人者也； #唐 #古文 #柳宗元《天爵論》

Die Dt. #StiftungDenkmalschutz verschenkt als Teil eines Spendenaufrufs Musik-CDs. Das ist sehr nett, aber wie spiele das in 2021 ab? Gehen die bei der DSD von einer bestimmten Altersgruppe aus? Und warum nicht Kassetten?

克明而有恆，受於天者也。嗚呼！後之學者，盡力於斯所及焉。或曰：「子所謂天付之者，若開府庫焉，量而與之耶？」曰：否。其各合乎氣者也。莊周言天曰自然，吾取之。 #唐 #古文 #柳宗元《天爵論》

《#古文觀止 子革對靈王》《八索》、《九丘》。」對曰：「臣嘗問焉。昔穆王欲肆其心，周行天下，將皆必有車轍馬跡焉。祭公謀父作〈祈招〉之詩以止王心，王是以獲沒於祗宮。臣問其詩而不知也。若問遠焉，其焉能知之？」王曰：「子能乎？」對曰：「能。其詩曰：『祈招之愔愔，式昭德音。思我王度，⋯⋯

#BOTD: Hu Zongxian 胡宗憲 (1512–1565), #Chinese Ming 明 military official, fighter of Japanese pirates #倭寇, and direct ancestor of former Secretary General of the Communist Party and President of China, Hu Jintao 胡錦濤. #WheresHu #籌海圖編 #EarlyModernChina

《#古文觀止 子革對靈王》式如玉，式如金。形民之力，而無醉飽之心。』」王揖而入。饋不食，寢不寐。數日，不能自克，以及於難。仲尼曰：「古也有志：『克己復禮，仁也。』信善哉！楚靈王若能如是，豈其辱於乾谿？」

Dunhuang duosuo 敦煌掇瑣 [Garnered Fragments from Dunhuang] (1925) by Liu Fu 劉復, courtesy name 字 (Liu) Bannong 劉半農 (1891-1934) Imre Galambos International Dunhuang Programme Neil Schmid 史瀚文

《#古文觀止 治安策》則又反；盧綰最弱，最後反；長沙迺在二萬五千戶耳，功少而最完，勢疏而最忠，非獨性異人也，亦形勢然也。曩令樊、酈、絳、灌據數十城而王，今雖以殘亡可也；令信、越之倫，列為徹侯而居，雖至今存可也。然則天下之大計可知已。欲諸王之皆忠附，則莫若令如長沙王；欲臣子之勿菹醢

True fact: No one likes crunchy peanut butter. It's the packaged by-product of the manufacturing process of creamy peanut butter, just like pluck.

《#古文觀止 治安策》則莫若令如樊、酈等；欲天下之治安，莫若眾建諸侯而少其力。力少則易使以義，國小則亡邪心。令海內之勢，如身之使臂，臂之使指，莫不制從。諸侯之君，不敢有異心，輻湊並進而歸命天子。雖在細民，且知其安，故天下咸知陛下之明。割地定制，令齊、趙、楚各為若干國，使悼惠王、幽王

《#古文觀止 五代史宦者傳論》自古宦者亂人之國，其源深於女禍。女色而已；宦者之害非一端也。蓋其用事也近而習，其為心也專而忍。能以小善中人之意，小信固人之心，使人主必信而親之。待其已信，然後懼以禍福而把持之。雖有忠臣碩士列于朝廷，而人主以為去己疎遠，不若起居飲食、前後左右之親為可恃也

'Lord Palmerston is reported to have said: "Only three people have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business – the Prince Consort, who is dead – a German professor, who has gone mad – and I, who have forgotten all about it."'

《#古文觀止 五代史宦者傳論》故前後左右者日益親，則忠臣碩士日益疎，而人主之勢日益孤。勢孤則懼禍之心日益切，而把持者日益牢。安危出其喜怒，禍患伏於帷闥，則嚮之所謂可恃者，乃所以為患也。患已深而覺之，欲與疎遠之臣圖左右之親近，緩之則養禍而益深，急之則挾人主以為質。雖有聖智，不能與謀。

Let the #DO promote your work! Submit a guest piece, any time, any topic in the #DH worlds of Asian, N. African and Middle Eastern fields. Submission info here 👉 digitalorientalist.com/submission-gui…

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Conversations on Dictionaries. amzn.to/47nXblp How did dictionaries come to be? When and how did they originate in a specific language? Who was involved in that origin story? How have they evolved over time? What is the tension between scholarly and commercial, and

Taking advantage of my trip to Japan for the PRRLA conference, I visited the Chinese collections at Tohoku University東北大學 and Keio University慶應義塾大學. Their holdings are remarkable. I also stopped by 東方書店. All thanks to my former Cambridge colleague and dear friend!