The Economy and a ‘cultural noise in the background of our minds’

The word economy can be traced back to the Greek word oikonomos meaning ‘one who manages a household.’ The first recorded todays’ meaning of  economy was traced in the work, although could not be proven but was very likely  composed in the year of  1440, referring to ‘the management of economic affairs,’ in this case, of a monastery.

Very few would argue that a modern economy is customarily said to have begun with Adam Smith (1723–1790). Smith characterizes economy as three orders in society: those who live by the rent, by their labor, and by the profits. Therefore we could say that we have been caught under the Smith’s ‘invisible hand’, the economic paradigm, more than 250 hundred years ago. And it was modeled upon the prevailing ‘cultural background noise’ of that age. It was also very much ‘trapped’ by religion.

Joseph Schumpeter described economy also as three-folded namely, monetary, interests, and value theory within a natural-law perspective. And those two economists were not the only ones thinking it this way. It really looks like the economy is based on three main concepts. One does not need be an expert to deduct: a (free) market, which can by definition is something imaginary as a Holy Ghost; a (private) property, which equals to omnipotence - the God; and the third is labor, which can be linked to a sacrifice - Jesus Christ.

Martial arts are a value-driven system

In the past, the main objective of martial arts was effective and efficient combat that regularly resulted in mortality or caused some degree of injury, often very severe, while today, martial arts are being used in more than one way. The first would be in the direct usage of martial arts that serves the original purpose. It is only used in extreme situations by military, police, and such organizations.Nowadays, the term is usually associated with various unarmed Asian martial arts, such as Wing Chun, karate do, judo, taekwondo, aikido, and others, and martial arts using mostly cold weaponry, such as kendo, ninjutsu, battojutsu. In reality, it encompasses a whole plethora of martial arts from around the world, like boxing, savate, capoeira, jeet kune do, krav maga, fencing, and much more. But here we need to be aware of the differences in the ways of thinking coming from the environments influenced by Confucianism, Daoism, or Buddhism on one side, and the West on the other. This is all reflected in those martial arts. While the Chinese martial arts are predominantly rhythmic in movement, the Western tend to be more dynamic and tense.

Why yellow

A Chinese character for colour is 顏色 (yán sè). Before the Five Elements Theory was used and according to Daoists’ believe, there were only two colours: opposing, yet complementary principles, black and white, yīn (阴) and yáng (阳).

According to Chinese calendar system, the Ten Celestial Stems (shí tiān gān 十天干) are connected with the Five Elements or Phases (wǔ xíng 五行) representing five states of forces of expansion or condensation (the plus energy, or , expansion; the minus energy, or , condensation) and their corresponding colours are:

Why dragon

Dragons are deeply rooted in the Chinese culture. This mythological symbol dates back to 3000 BC and stands for happiness, immortality, procreation, fertility and activity. The Chinese call the dragon lóng - 竜 and it is the first of the four Divine Creatures to Chinese – the others being the unicorn, the phoenix and the tortoise. The Chinese often consider themselves, 'the descendants of the dragon' (龍的傳人; pinyin: lóng de chuán rén).

Chinese dragon has the following nine characteristics: 

• head is like a camels,
• horns like a deer's,
• eyes like a hare's,
• ears like a bull's,
• neck like an iguana's,
• belly like a frog's,
• scales like those of a carp,
• paws like a tiger's, and
• claws like an eagle's.

New @

Almost three years ago (April 2010) I have made a real lengthy dream of mine to come thru – to write a book. But not any book. A book about my two passions: Leadership and Martial arts. It was the time of my visiting exchange to the Xi’an Technological University as a professor.  Both professors at the Economic & Management College of Xi’an: Chunqing and Gang during my teaching and researching at first did not understood but later on grasped my thoughts and research intentions. The aim was to use Martial Arts doctrines based on two fundamental Chinese philosophies Daoism and Confucianism for Leadership. They helped me in grasping through long talks the ideas behind those two philosophies. At that time I didn’t know yet what would follow … Ok, I’ll tell this in ensuing blogs.