Turning the corner and coming face-to-face with a jade burial suit for the first time, even one behind glass, with the hum of the museum crowd in the air, stopped me cold. Its solemnity was almost overwhelming. 2,000+ years old from China’s Han Dynasty. An Imperial extravagance from shortly after the end of the 100 Schools of Thought Period when the foundations of the Chinese society we know today were coalescing. As I get ready to return to China next week, today’s issue sp

“‘ The tendency of human nature to do good is like that of water to flow downward .’” 1 This 2,300-year-old statement by Mencius, second only to Confucius in the Confucian pantheon, would have been relatable, yet not, to Daoists Laozi and Zhuangzi who believed that the Way of nature is balanced. This distinction is representative of the freewheeling philosophical “Hundred Schools of Thought” discourse for hearts and minds that blossomed in the Chinese heartland during the hal