A look at a famous quote, and efforts to clarify its meaning … after the jump ...
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As regular readers know, I am a soft touch for old stories — especially ones that seem to have a deeper meaning. And this one concerns the premier of China from 1949-1976, named Zhou Enlai — first, a brief look at his life.
Born in 1898, Zhou went on to study in Japan and also in France: which is where he first became acquainted with Communism. He became the PRC’s first premier upon its inception in 1949 and also served as foreign minister for much of that time. He was one of the principals who arranged the historic 1972 meeting between Mao and President Nixon and was apparently one of the few leaders in the Party able to maintain his post despite the Cultural Revolution — in fact, he played a key role in exercising restraints on the extremists and was probably the single most important stabilizing factor during that chaotic period. He died in January, 1976 at the age of 77.
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Yet it was a comment attributed to him during Nixon’s visit that has ensured his notoriety, forty years after his death. Noting his early studies in France, he was supposed to have been asked what he thought the effects of the French Revolution were — and his response (with varying degrees of translation) was:
It is too early to tell.
Commentators over the years have used this as a metaphor for the “long arc of history”, with the Chinese propensity for sage, patient, and far-sighted ways — looking at 1789 from the vantage point of 1972 — and besides, this would have been (around) the year 4670 in the Chinese calendar. A mere speck of time, yes.
But …. and you knew there had to be a but …. recently, many insist that Zhou didn’t go that far back in history, as this 2011 story in the Financial Times states:
The trouble is that Zhou was not referring to the 1789 storming of the Bastille in a discussion with Richard Nixon during the late US president’s pioneering China visit. Zhou’s answer related to events only three years earlier – the 1968 students’ riots in Paris, according to Nixon’s interpreter at the time.
At a seminar in Washington to mark the publication of Henry Kissinger’s book, On China, Chas Freeman, a retired foreign service officer, sought to correct the long-standing error.
“I distinctly remember the exchange. There was a misunderstanding that was too delicious to invite correction,” said Mr Freeman.
I don’t know about you, but while I’m all for learning the truth of a situation ….. darn right, the earlier version sounded much better. Next thing you know, they’ll be telling us that the ancient Chinese saying “May you live in interesting times” is not an ancient saying. Oh, wait …….
Let’s close with the great pianist Bill Evans, with his famous 1962 song Very Early — which should at least point out the value of the test-of-time.
Now, on to Top Comments:
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From greenbird:
In the diary by Daniel Donner about the difficult mathematical path ahead for Ted Cruz — leave it to kpadwe to provide a Jeopardy!-like question …. for an already existing answer.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story about the cancellation of a concert (after learning it would be a GOP convention-oriented event by the nonpareil guitarist Joe Walsh — of course, the jokes started flying about the namesake booted-out GOP congressman from Illinois ….. but I preferred the suggested replacement acts, who are more to the GOP’s liking. Bush Bites got the ball rolling, then anastasia p gave us some history going back to 2004.
And in the front-page story about the callous veto of a drug overdose bill (passed unanimously) by Maine governor Paul LePage — Awesome Man gets the ball running as to just how far this gambit has placed LePage in the USA’s worst governor race …. and it gets even messier from there.
TOP PHOTOS
April 20, 2016
Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo.
(NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)
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And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion: