16 posts
Dad once told Yuanyuan and Yuyu that if you no longer existed, the world would no longer exist. This is not a metaphor and not a consolation. It is an absolute fact. No one has ever experienced, nor c…
What is the psyche? This is an ancient question. The Buddha, Freud, Jung, and Nietzsche all invented powerful languages for describing mediating structures that are not identical with outward performa…
I have always had some doubts about physics. What troubles me is that there is no consciousness in physics. Of course, von Neumann once proposed that consciousness is the condition for quantum collaps…
The human brain is generally understood to be a finite computational system. I think this is something we can basically agree on. Its volume, energy consumption, mass, and number of components are all…
I wanted to write a few words because of a news story I saw. In short: a woman from the Xihaigu region, from a poor family, graduated from a 211 university in Beijing. You can imagine what a sensation…
There is an English idiom — "It's not rocket science" — which roughly means something isn't that difficult. For instance, putting an elephant in a refrigerator isn't rocket science, because it's simpl…
I had a beheading dream—dreamt that my head had been severed, and not cleanly either. So I carefully aligned the jagged edges top to bottom, securing them loosely with a scarf. This was, of course, ra…
I quit smoking on some day in April 2019. It was in a city in Hebei province, and I felt acutely that my throat had been severely damaged by over a decade of smoking. I resolved to quit, and I haven't…
When I was young — younger than now — I didn't believe in dialectics at all. The idea that fortune and misfortune are interdependent? Pure sophistry. And that story about the old man at the border who…
During a vacation I once went to Wutai Mountain but passed through the gate without entering, wasting over a hundred yuan on the entrance ticket. Later, visiting the Shanxi Museum, I learned about the…
Back in elementary school, I heard the saying: "Humility leads to progress; pride leads to decline." Then in middle school, reading collections of excellent student essays, a peer argued that humility…
Master Xuanzang. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons is a film rich in detail and exquisite in allegory. On the surface, it tells the story of a "professional demon hunter" subduing monsters. I…
In middle school I listened to Jay Chou. One of his lyrics says, "We all have sins, each committing a different kind." I didn't quite understand it then, and I still don't quite understand it now—take…
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons is a film rich in detail and exquisite in allegory. On the surface, it tells the story of a "professional demon hunter" subduing monsters. In truth, it tells…
On the way home I kept listening to Dao Lang's "Thank You." If there's one last thought before I die, I hope it would be: thank you.
Reaching thirty