A time of simple study...

I have been spending my time reading. Reading different accounts of early French and Chinese history. I read of the great Charlamagne. I read of the terrible Xin dynasty, the brilliant dictatoriship of the Qin, and the brilliance of the Han (briefly interrupted by the terrible Xin).

For me the interplay of the path of Confucious with the relevent dynasties is amazing and momentous. From the burning of books by an anti-confucian Qin emperor (who built the Great Wall of China and the Terra Cotta army), to the Han Liu Bang who urinated in a scholar's possession to show disrespect to that profession while allowing confucian religion to flourish. Most notable to me is that the Xin dynasty sought to exactingly enforce confucian beliefs, to the destruction of the poor and the detriment of the wealthy.

So? How does this relate to the first Holy Roman Emperor?

For me it relates most ostencibly to the value of literacy and of education. Confucism is called the scholarly tradition by the Chinese. It seeks to promote the best from the past by study. It seeks to incorporate learning and spread literacy. Charlamagne sought something similar: an educated France which could be bent to his will. His greatness was in his cultural achievements, not his mass murders. His push for better education and restoration helped to regain western europe with the blessing of the weak and foolish papacy of the time.

They say museum visits make the poor and underprivileged more likely to succeed in life, and to pursue education. They being people who studied the matter in America. Education and not marxism is the great uplifter of humankind. Culture also is. It is by turning to culture and history and learning that we truly graduate in humanity.

So, I thought to take a short break from my enjoyable studies of humankind. Why? Because of what I learnt, what I always knew. Culture is the core of humanity.