Loud Thoughts

If you read Jim Grisanzio's blog like many, you have already known about our ACM/ICPC contest in Nanjing and seen this picture.

They are high-school kids! These two are 17 and their teammates are even younger. They, about 10 high-schoolers, are guests in this college-only event. They would go through the contest like real teams, but won't be eligible for winnning.

I chatted with them briefly. They have only heard about Solaris prior to this contest. “It seems very powerful. Everything that is supposed to work really does.” Jim had a conversation with them too — in English. They are not shy, they know they probably won't win, but they knew the future will be theirs.

And I am real glad that they learned Solaris already.

Qing Dynasty's 12 Emperors (New with Full-Color Illustrations) YAN ChongNian ISBN: 710105062X Pub. Date: 2006-4-1 Publisher: 中华书局

Only Han, Tang, Ming and Qing dynasties survived more than 200 years in China history. Qing is the last one and also the only one whose rulers were not of the Han race. Every Chinese people shakes head and sighs when they read the recent history. Why! Is it the monarchy governance? Is it Cixi (慈禧) to be blamed? Was it God's will? If I were Qian Long (乾隆), would China have risen to its place as a major global player 300 years ago? At the very least we would have avoided the multi-nation invasion and the Opium Wars. After the Tong Zhi period, the demise of the Qing Dynasty became just a matter of time. The government botched one opportunity after another. It has been 210 years since Qian Long descended from the throne in 1796 and left behind the most prosperous time. If we think about these last 200 years Chinese people have to sigh again.

YI ZhongTian's (易中天) commentary on the era of the Three Kingdoms (品味三国) has inspired the public to take an interest in popular history. YAN ChongNian (阎崇年) further demythified history for the mass. They both came to fame as media personalities before they published: re-printed again, then new edition, then newer with illustrations, then with color illustrations - the contents are mostly the same but the price is not. Those who bought the book early on might begin to feel buyer's remorse. But the whole book (TV versions) can be downloaded free of charge. Interesting business model.

Although the Qing Dynasty had such a long history it had no more than twelve emperors. The reign of Nurhaci (努儿哈赤) and Hung Taiji (皇太极) didn't really count. Guang Xu (光绪) and Xuan Tong (宣统) were useless. The prosperity of the early era was followed by the Jia Qing (嘉庆), Dao Guang (道光), Xian Feng (咸丰) and Tong Zhi (同治). Those 4 did away the great Qing Dynasty in 80 short years.

Make you think.

Guess which school my kid is in?

It's national holiday for the whole week. My plan was simple: sleep. I have crossed pacific too many times this year. I need to get to know my bed better. For the 1st two day, it worked. I will doze off few times during the day. I can feel the sleep deficit being paid back. I really needed this holiday.

When a friend called for a day-trip to the Qing tombs, I was just about to get bored. I jumped on it immediately and was quite glad that I did. Qing's emperors chose to have their tombs about 150 kilometers east of Beijing. (Ming's emperors picked a site north of Beijing along the route to a famous Great Wall spot.) The trip organizer decided to visit a buddasm temple, DuLe temple (独乐寺) on our way. It was a great choice. DuLe temple is a thousand-year old historical site and an active temple. We studied the architecture and marvelled at the artifacts.
The temple is at Ji county in TianJin City (天津市，蓟县： There is no mistake here. TianJin city has a Province level status.) As we walked around the town, we realized that Ji county used to be called YuYang (渔阳) few hundred years ago.
Waves of memory swept over me and I was thrown back to teenage years. This is the city I dreamt about so many times. Cool, cool, cool!

About 1300 years ago, Tang (唐) dynasty ruled the middle kingdom. It was glorious time. But warlord AnLuShan (安禄山: 703~757) wanted more. He started his coup right here from this city of YuYang. When he was stationed here, he read a line from Confucius that the happiness of many is better than one and named the temple accordingly. The literal interpretation would be “The Temple of Solitary Happiness.” The general interpretation is that he would rather not share.

Few decades later, poet BAI JuYi (白居易) wrote a long poem about a beautiful girl, the emperor, and Mr. AnLuShan. Every generation re-read the poem and all got enchanted by the sadness and the intensity of the story.

Time warped to 1930s, musician HUANG Zi (黄自) captured the story and turned it into a master-piece choir. My high-school class, in my junior year, picked it to enter a choir competition. We practiced hard, won at school level, entered a tournament, and won again. That was many months of intense practice, focus, camaraderie, and hardwork. It was one of the best times of my life.