Random Thoughts 11: Reflections on Finding Ways to Fall Asleep
Read while thinking, to broaden your horizons; think while reading, to expand the application of two-tiered social theory!

Qigong emphasizes focusing the mind on the dantian, meaning concentrating one’s awareness on that area. This focus can be on one’s breath, or even mentally counting with each breath. I often use this method to help myself fall asleep, and it’s quite effective. Early last year, I discovered that focusing on a specific part of the body or the sensations throughout the body was even more effective. Therefore, I wrote:

Sleep Revelation: Focusing on a sensation (feeling) is more effective for sleep than focusing on the lower abdomen, breathing, counting, etc. This sensation could be a general feeling or a feeling in a specific part of the body. The feeling in the specific part can change later, or it can transform into a general feeling. This makes it less likely for the mind to wander. This makes me think that the original social order was aesthetic, meaning that people in the original society followed their instincts, which constituted the ideology of a secondary society. And this instinct, for an individual, may be a kind of self-feeling deep in the human brain, the academic term: subconscious.

The subconscious in primitive societies is different from our individual subconscious today. Our subconscious is the sedimentation of many learned memories, such as our dreams.

Extended meaning: In primitive society, the overall psychological and emotional exchange among all members led to a shared overall feeling, which had a decisive influence on their social behavior. Although they also had interconnected thought chains, these chains were not long enough to form a dominant thought system that governed their social behavior.

Secondary societies are influenced by different ideologies. A person’s overall feelings at the level of deep consciousness, or mentality, do not constitute the basis of a person’s behavior.

Secondary societies do not necessarily transform human nature; rather, they foster an independent system of thought that controls human behavior, representing a transcendence of human nature. In other words, when humanity enters a secondary social level, it forgets its own humanity. Historically, the transformation of human nature by secondary societies stemmed from humanity becoming slaves to its own creations, such as ordinary people becoming slaves to money.

Early social and psychological communication had the function of purifying and spiritualizing emotions, as well as the cathartic function described by Aristotle.

Random Thoughts 12: Reading Can Xue’s short essay “Great Works in My Mind”
– Reading with reflection to broaden horizons; reflecting while reading to expand the application of two-tiered social theory!

Reading: My Favorite Masterpiece – Remnant Snow (http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_46eacfc90100014y.html)

In this short essay, Can Xue frankly and clearly expresses her views on literary works. These views are her own and represent one of the potential directions for the development of Chinese literature—a direction that has not been recognized or accepted by the majority of writers, yet it is the mainstream of Western literature, something lacking in Chinese literature. This also reflects the different origins of Eastern and Western civilizations: Western civilization originated from man-made secondary societies, as the biblical story tells: the sons of Adam and Eve began to kill each other, to the point that God regretted creating humans on earth. This represents, from a personal perspective: emotional trauma, and understanding oneself and the world through pain—this is the essence of Can Xue’s great work.

She begins by writing: “The great works in my mind are those that possess timelessness. That is, the works of such authors, no matter how many centuries pass, continue to be interpreted by later generations, evoking new feelings in them. Such authors possess a kind of divinity, somewhat akin to prophets.”

Can Xue then further defined her great works, specifying them, saying: “Great works are introspective and self-critical. In my list of stars, there are writers like Homer, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goethe, Kafka, Borges, Calvino, Saint-Exupéry, Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and so on. The majority of this list consists of Westerners and writers with Western ideas, because I believe the source of literature lies in the West, while in China, literature has never existed as an independent spiritual product. Chinese literature has historically lacked the most fundamental characteristic of literature—human beings’ conscious understanding of their own essence. In other words, Chinese literature completely lacks the power and skill to fully develop self-contradiction. Traditional literature has always been dependent and outward-looking (i.e., remaining on the surface).”

Can Xue’s view of Eastern and Western literature will likely face strong opposition in China, but I deeply sympathize with and cherish her resolute cry: China lacks truly meaningful literature, and truly great literary works await Chinese writers to take on this responsibility. In Can Xue’s view, Chinese writers do not yet possess this awareness.

Chinese civilization originated from a primordial society encoded in our genetic code. The Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties were superpowers in this primordial society, and Confucianism and Taoism, as the mainstream cultures, both regarded this primordial society as their ideal. Humans in this primordial society, like other animals, viewed and understood the world with a leisurely and carefree attitude. They lacked the pathos and depth of Western-style artificial secondary societies, possessing instead a self-deceptive and opportunistic approach, much like Ah Q. I disagree with Can Xue’s evaluation of *Dream of the Red Chamber*. Cao Xueqin dared to portray all the women in the book as increasingly virtuous and all the men as increasingly wicked; a work that praises women and demonizes all men is profound in itself. However, I also agree with Can Xue that *Dream of the Red Chamber* ultimately aims to resonate with this primordial society, without placing people within a secondary society to explore their fates, possibilities, and the tragic and profound journey of human nature.

I have a relative who, when discussing the tens of millions who starved to death during the three years of hardship, said, “They’re dead, they’re dead, why keep bringing it up?” In Western history, wars have escalated continuously, accompanied by a gradual escalation of social and cultural development, directly related to the kind of literary exploration of human nature that Can Xue describes. China compresses the three to four thousand years of Western war history into the two hundred years of the Warring States period, with two thousand years of stability before and after. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the ultra-stable social structures were interspersed with cyclical upheavals involving large-scale killings. The author once used the frequency of the word “I” in poetry to examine the degree of human subjective expression. The degree and persistence of the decline in subjective expression in the two thousand years after the Qin and Han dynasties are striking. The ratio of the “I” in the subject and object of poetry after the Tang dynasty is similar to that of the suicidal poet Qu Yuan, making one imagine the heart-wrenching pain of the ancients. What Chinese society lacks is precisely this kind of exploration and understanding of society and life that Can Xue advocates; what it has more of is Ah Q-style self-amusement and sophistry, including the works of Mo Yan and others.

Research on the degree of subjective expression shows that this Ah Q-style self-amusement and sophistry, including works by figures like Mo Yan, has not healed the psychological trauma of secondary society. My relative, when discussing the tens of millions who starved to death during the three years of hardship, said, “They’re dead, they’re dead, why keep talking about it?” She hadn’t psychologically healed from the mass death toll; she was still thinking about those who died, just not saying it. Even further, she stopped thinking about the dead altogether, instead, as Freud described, repressing them into the subconscious, only to surface in nightmares. Finally, she stopped even having such nightmares, but the psychological trauma remained; it was merely repressed into a deeper level of unconsciousness. Even ancient poets didn’t directly express this in their works, simply subtly reducing the use of the word “I.” I firmly believe that if, as Can Xue said, this repressed psychological emotion is expressed in the greatest literary works and sublimated to a perfect and radiant state, readers will all feel psychologically soothed and elevated after reading it. Only then will the Chinese people have a different mindset and temperament.

Can Xue concludes by saying, “A writer, regardless of their writing method, as long as they possess the curiosity to understand themselves, the impulse to transform themselves, and an open mind, will inevitably delve into the deeper realms of human nature, offering an unprecedented interpretation of that ancient contradiction, influencing readers and transforming national character while simultaneously achieving self-salvation.” She concludes her article with a quote from Shakespeare:

“God created us and gave us so much wisdom / so that we could see ahead and behind, not so that we would / let this intelligence, this divine reason / rot away and remain unused.”

Random Thoughts 13: Different Historical Perspectives Between China and the West (Part 1): Reading the Preface to Can Xue’s “Art and Childhood” (First Published in 2008)

In her preface, which is only a few hundred words long, Can Xue discusses the different historical perspectives of the East and West. She says, “Compared to them (Westerners), dare we say we have a history? History is not something to be spoken, but something to be done. Because we never act, all that remains behind us is an unchanging chaos and nothingness. We mistake clichés for history.”

According to Can Xue, Chinese history is a collection of empty rhetoric and clichés, while Western history is built on concrete actions. This difference between talk and action has nothing to do with the notion of Chinese diligence, because Can Xue explicitly mentions the word “creation.” Diligence without creation is the reason for a lack of history. Can Xue says, “Perhaps it’s because we don’t know what creation is that we’ve so thoroughly lost our childhood.” A nation without a childhood, of course, has no history to speak of.

I understand that Can Xue emphasizes that we, as adults, need to re-examine childhood and imbue it with a new and unique meaning. I once divided human society into a genetically encoded primordial society and a man-made secondary society. I discovered that Western civilization originated from the man-made secondary society, while Chinese civilization originated from the primordial society, which both Confucianism and Taoism idealized. As a result, Chinese history exhibited stagnation and an extremely stable social structure, while the West underwent rapid social transformation amidst escalating wars, with the former society serving as a model for the latter to learn from and transform. The different historical processes of China and the West naturally lead to different historical perspectives.

China has been renowned worldwide for its meticulous historical records since ancient times; no other nation or country in the world has preserved such a vast amount of historical material. Even a single county maintains its own gazetteer from various dynasties. In Canxue’s view, however, these vast amounts of text are rife with clichés. This is clearly related to the differences between the two levels of society. Primitive society was singular, best suited to human nature, while secondary societies are countless, offering ample room for evolution. But while the rapid changes in society are breathtaking, they do not necessarily bring comfort or joy.

Chinese history begins with figures like Suiren, Shennong, and the flood-taming hero Yu the Great, while Western history begins with the Bible’s account of God’s regret after creating man, because God saw that humanity was doing evil on earth, leading to the story of the Great Flood. This difference reflects the distinction between primordial and secondary societies. Humanity’s inability to manage secondary societies resulted in constant warfare in the West, and also led to the constantly evolving society and history as seen by Canxue.

Random Thoughts 14: Einstein’s Desk

This photograph, taken and archived the day after Einstein’s death, shows his desk, which had been in disarray all day. It’s said that this is common among geniuses; ordinary people like you and me are concerned with appearance, blindly conforming to societal norms in our actions and thoughts—how can we possibly be geniuses? This also aligns with Benbock’s theory of the two-tier society: human civilization is not a genetic construct of a primordial society, but rather a journey against human nature. We are all products of a secondary social culture, or man-made beings; the culture that nurtured us was collectively created by billions of predecessors, and we were collectively created as well.

When we forget everything we’ve learned, our minds enter a state akin to that of a preschooler, facing a vast world of endless possibilities, no longer trapped in the quagmire of any particular cultural tradition. We’ve all heard stories of scientists struggling to solve a difficult problem, working day and night without hope. Then, they fall into a deep sleep and find the answer in their dreams. Sleep loosens the shackles of cultural tradition, making creative thinking easier. It’s said that during World War II, British scientists claimed their inventions were made in three Bs: bed, bath, and bus.

Another prominent characteristic of geniuses is the higher rate of mental illness among their immediate family members compared to the general population, and some geniuses themselves often exhibit mild psychotic behaviors. During World War II, Winston Churchill of Britain and Charles de Gaulle of France were both geniuses who defied public opinion and went against the tide, both known for their extraordinary personality traits. De Gaulle was famously neurotic, while Churchill suffered from bipolar disorder. Why do our geniuses deviate so much from the norm? This is determined by our artificial, two-tiered society. This artificial society, deviating from human nature and yet striving for rapid development, can only exploit peripheral human potential, such as extreme qualities like diligence, discipline, and courage. This forces us to work like ants, constantly fighting and struggling with each other, while also creating a large demand for marginal geniuses—those on the borderline between normal and abnormal.

Random Thoughts 15: The Ideal Future Society and Human Brain Memory

According to the two-tier society theory, society is currently in the early stage of the evolution of artificial second-tier society, much like fish in the history of biological evolution that have just crawled onto land and are still half-fish and half-reptile, the so-called total fin fish. Their lives are naturally very difficult because they are not yet true terrestrial animals.

In the 1980s and 90s, the Japanese scholar Francis Fukuyama (1952-) proposed the “end of history” theory in the United States, arguing that Western liberal democracy represents “the end of the development of human ideology” and “the last form of human rule.” From the perspective of the two-tiered society theory, Western democracy is merely a struggle and self-adjustment of humanity caught in the gap between primitive and secondary societies. The ultimate ideal society should resemble the human body’s management of trillions of cells, divided into hierarchical levels with no meaningful management beyond a balancing feedback mechanism—essentially the Daoist concept of non-action (wuwei).

Doctors now use computers to assist them in diagnosing and treating patients. The author once wrote, “If well-trained national administrators were to use mainframe computers to manage the country and society, decision-making would be faster and cheaper. The wishes of the people could also be input into the computer and considered simultaneously. Such a system would be more like the human body’s management system for its own cells, tissues, and physiological and biochemical processes.”

Coincidentally, scientists have recently appeared online predicting that in the future, medication will be used to input memories into the brain, thereby replacing learning and even school.

According to the British newspaper *Daily Mail*, renowned American scientist Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab, recently predicted at a TED conference that within 30 years, people will be able to learn languages ​​or literature by swallowing pills. He stated that while people are good at absorbing information through their eyes, this method is perhaps less efficient compared to other methods. He predicts that in the future, people will be able to absorb information in a “take-in” manner; simply by swallowing a pill, the drug will enter the bloodstream and act on it in the brain, instantly providing the information. He said: “You’ll swallow a pill and you’ll speak English. You’ll swallow a pill and you’ll understand Shakespeare.”

The scientist didn’t say that this method of medication could create different people, turning one person into a completely different one. A mute idiot who can’t even speak clearly could suddenly become a doctor, or even the President of the United States, after taking the drug. The author, in his 2009 book, “Looking at the World and Life from a Different Angle: 21st Century Chinese Taoism,” expressed ideas very similar to, yet different from, this scientist’s. The author wrote:

In the near future, we will be able to connect our brains to computers, downloading and transferring all our memories and thought processes onto the computer. When the computer’s capacity is as large as the human brain, it can become our consciousness. Scientists and philosophers have struggled to define consciousness, but we perceive its existence as long as we are aware of how the brain works. In fact, most of the brain’s work is unknown to us; it not only affects our consciousness but also often enters it in unpredictable ways, so we should also download it. What we see on a computer screen is merely a projection of the machine’s operation onto the interface; similarly, consciousness is a projection of the human brain’s operation at the level of awareness. If we don’t download the neural pathways of the brain and human senses into the system simultaneously, it’s what Western tradition calls the soul. If we do download these neural pathways simultaneously, it’s the Taoist concept of immortality—soul plus body. If we download all the information from the brain to another brain, human or animal, it becomes the Indian and Buddhist concept of reincarnation. Of course, before downloading, all the original memories of the animal or human brain must be erased. If the erasure is incomplete, leaving some traces, one might recall past lives during dreams or mental confusion. This is all due to the memory erasure being done too carelessly. Modern science tends to believe that people with past life experiences suffer from poor episodic memory of specific events; in short, they have confused different areas of memory.

author By Dr. You-Sheng Li

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