Humans, Spirits, and Sages in Chinese Late Antiquity : Ge Hong's Master Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi).

Abstract This paper attempts to answer the questions : What was Ge Hong trying to do when he wrote the Baopuzi ? What were his arguments ? And why, within the context of the time, were these arguments significant ? In answering these questions, the essay claims that there is a unified set of ideas concerning humans, sages, and the spirit world in the Baopuzi. Moreover, it is a set of ideas that underlies both the inner and outer portions of the text. Since the time of Han and Wei, a proliferation of sayings has flourished in abundance. Although their meanings could plumb the deepest mysteries and their points could drive the roaring waves, and if one could set them forth, one could cause auspicious omens to appear in the heavens above and favorable signs to emerge from the earth..., there are no sages in our time to organize their ranked splendor.1 The statement makes reference to two of the issues one finds appearing repeatedly in texts from the first to the fourth centuries CE. First, how to deal with the plethora of writings that had been progressively accumulating since antiquity. And, second, how to deal with the issue of sagehood -r which texts are by sages, how sages should organize the plethora of texts, and how to define a sage. But certain points in Ge Hong's statement are distinctive. To begin with, Ge Hong explicitly states that the texts produced since the time of the Han and Wei are enlightening -a critique of the view that earlier texts were better and more sagely than recent ones. Moreover, and relatedly, Ge Hong is explicitly stating that what is needed is not to return to the teachings of earlier sages but rather to turn to a current sage who can bring order to the huge volume of recent writings. Ge Hong's Baopuzi was written in the early fourth century. The text is well known as an invaluable source for studying the religious practices of Chinese late antiquity. Indeed, of all the texts written from the late Han to the beginning of the Tang, the Baopuzi is probably, at least for scholars studying religion, the single most often-read work. The reason for this is very simple: the text contains extensive discussions of the religious practices of the day, particularly those aimed at the attainment of immortality

A Perspectival Mirror of the Elephant: Investigating Language Bias on Google, ChatGPT, Wikipedia, and YouTube

Contrary to Google Search's mission of delivering information from "many angles so you can form your own understanding of the world," we find that Google and its most prominent returned results -- Wikipedia and YouTube, simply reflect the narrow set of cultural stereotypes tied to the search language for complex topics like "Buddhism," "Liberalism," "colonization," "Iran" and "America." Simply stated, they present, to varying degrees, distinct information across the same search in different languages (we call it 'language bias'). Instead of presenting a global picture of a complex topic, our online searches turn us into the proverbial blind person touching a small portion of an elephant, ignorant of the existence of other cultural perspectives. The language we use to search ends up as a cultural filter to promote ethnocentric views, where a person evaluates other people or ideas based on their own culture. We also find that language bias is deeply embedded in ChatGPT. As it is primarily trained on English language data, it presents the Anglo-American perspective as the normative view, reducing the complexity of a multifaceted issue to the single Anglo-American standard. In this paper, we present evidence and analysis of language bias and discuss its larger social implications. Toward the end of the paper, we propose a potential framework of using automatic translation to leverage language bias and argue that the task of piecing together a genuine depiction of the elephant is a challenging and important endeavor that deserves a new area of research in NLP and requires collaboration with scholars from the humanities to create ethically sound and socially responsible technology together

Confounding and exposure measurement error in air pollution epidemiology

Studies in air pollution epidemiology may suffer from some specific forms of confounding and exposure measurement error. This contribution discusses these, mostly in the framework of cohort studies. Evaluation of potential confounding is critical in studies of the health effects of air pollution. The association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and mortality has been investigated using cohort studies in which subjects are followed over time with respect to their vital status. In such studies, control for individual-level confounders such as smoking is important, as is control for area-level confounders such as neighborhood socio-economic status. In addition, there may be spatial dependencies in the survival data that need to be addressed. These issues are illustrated using the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention II cohort. Exposure measurement error is a challenge in epidemiology because inference about health effects can be incorrect when the measured or predicted exposure used in the analysis is different from the underlying true exposure. Air pollution epidemiology rarely if ever uses personal measurements of exposure for reasons of cost and feasibility. Exposure measurement error in air pollution epidemiology comes in various dominant forms, which are different for time-series and cohort studies. The challenges are reviewed and a number of suggested solutions are discussed for both study domains

Effects of an eight-week stepladder exercise protocol on lower limb muscular strength of apparently healthy young adults

Purpose. backward descent of stairs is associated with improved muscle strength and reduced joint stress, but the effect of backward ascent of stairs on lower limb muscle strength has not been reported. This study compared the effects of forward and backward stair climbing on lower limb muscle strength in apparently healthy young adults. Methods. The total of 31 young volunteers were allocated to either forward or backward stair climbing group (n = 16 and 15, respectively). Dynamic quadriceps and hamstring muscle strength was assessed in addition to thigh girth at baseline and at weeks 4 and 8 with the use of the repetitive maximum method and tape measure, respectively. Results. Between baseline and week 8, muscular strength in both groups (quadriceps: 14.4 ± 3.6 to 16.4 ± 3.4 kg; 14.0 ± 2.9 to 15.3 ± 2.7 kg; hamstring: 12.2 ± 3.2 to 13.4 ± 3.2; 11.7 ± 2.5 to 12.9 ± 2.7 kg) increased significantly (p0.05). The groups were comparable in all three measures post intervention. Conclusions. Forward and backward stair climbing protocols are effective for improving the dynamic strength of the hamstring and quadriceps muscles of apparently healthy young adults. Thus, either protocol could be used for the improvement of lower limbs dynamic muscle strength

Life, domesticated and undomesticated: Ghosts, sacrifice, and the efficacy of ritual practice in early China

This article explores classical Chinese conceptions of and practices surrounding life and vitality. Focus is given to the practice of sacrifice as well as the rejections of sacrifice among millenarian movements in Chinese late antiquity. My argument is that an engagement with this material challenges many of our understandings in the anthropology of religion concerning ritual, sacrifice, and interpretation

Humans, Spirits, and Sages in Chinese Late Antiquity : Ge Hong's Master Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi).

This paper attempts to answer the questions : What was Ge Hong trying to do when he wrote the Baopuzi ? What were his arguments ? And why, within the context of the time, were these arguments significant ? In answering these questions, the essay claims that there is a unified set of ideas concerning humans, sages, and the spirit world in the Baopuzi. Moreover, it is a set of ideas that underlies both the inner and outer portions of the text.Hommes, esprits et sages dans l'Antiquité tardive : Le Maître qui embrasse la simplicité (Baopuzi) de Ge Hong Le présent article s'efforce de répondre à la question de savoir quelle pouvait être la visée de Ge Hong lorsqu'il composa le Baopuzi. Quelles idées y a-t-il avancées et comment les a-t-il défendues ? Enfin, qu'est-ce qui à la lumière de son époque donne à ses arguments un tour si particulier ? Nous soutenons dans ces pages qu'il y a une réelle cohérence argumentative et une vision d'ensemble dans le discours de Ge Hong sur les humains, les sages et les esprits. Cette ensemble d'idées innerve aussi bien les chapitres intérieurs qu'extérieurs de l'ouvrage.Michael Puett m^nMMtanammm.mi «##»*, «KHira, «h»a. mxuPuett Michael. Humans, Spirits, and Sages in Chinese Late Antiquity : Ge Hong's Master Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi).. In: Extrême-Orient, Extrême-Occident, 2007, n°29. De l'esprit aux esprits. Enquête sur la notion de shen. Of self and spirits : exploring shen in China, sous la direction de Romain Graziani et Roel Sterckx. pp. 95-119