Having had great pleasure in reading "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli , I can't help but writing down some thoughts I had in mind. With all due respect, Machiavelli's advice to a new prince may seem novel to the Greco-Roman world but are almost trite to the Sino-centric world. For example, Cesare Borgia's plan of letting Remirro de Orco, an extremely cruel person (酷吏), do all the dirty job of purging the unruly lords in the newly acquired Romagna then cutting him in half to please the people, which Machiavelli praised as an excellent example of political maneuver, was in any Chinese princes' playbook since probably the beginning of written Chinese history. What was new to me was Machiavelli's proto-scientific treatment of politics, which draws conclusions on logical analysis of the actual results of each political decision. For example, "it is better to be feared than loved." Modern political science's reliance on polls and data is sim
Started as a playground for my English writing skills, this blog is gradually becoming a documentation of my personal life, or highlights thereof.