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Preparatory Assignment

Li Zehou

Li Zehou's article, while accurate, is not a very useful source pertaining to his philosophical and aesthetic views. The page discusses basic biographical information but fails to credit Li Zehou for any of his intellectual theories on China. As an important voice against communism, especially in response to the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, the article leaves out the important scope of his career as a controversial thinker. Li stressed the importance of Chinese Aesthetics: claiming that four major aspects of this aesthetic separated the Chinese from other cultures. The four divisions of aesthetics he denotes are: Joy (in music), The Line, The Blending of Feeling and Reason, and The Union of Heaven and Humankind. The overall accuracy of the original post is correct, yet such a short scope of information on Li Zehou leaves the article quite unfinished as all his beliefs and works are left out. With such a large body of work, the theories and slogans of Li Zehou should be added to the article to strengthen the article's the overall scope.

Liu Shaoqi

Li Shaoqiis an article that is all together strong. It displays generally accurate information, and a wider scope than the other two articles analyzed. While the scope could always be larger, the subsection | Conflict With Mao could use a more balanced, non-biased explanation of the ideological conflict between the two leaders instead of the personal feelings of each. The article touches upon the problems with the | Cultural Revolution that Li Shaoqi attempted to fight against and repair, but focuses too much on the pro-Maoist philosophy that the Cultural Revolution fostered. Statements such as "By 1962 Liu's opposition to Mao's policies had led Mao to distrust Liu.[10] After Mao succeeded in restoring his prestige during the 1960s,[11] Liu's eventual downfall became "inevitable"," leaves too much subjectivity towards the transpiring events. A better, less personalized, addition would contain explanations of certain disputes that Mao and Liu had such as agricultural disputes with Liu's economic reforms. The attempt at rapid industrialization that Liu Shaoqi championed led to disputes with Mao, especially as Liu initiated agricultural privatization of plots to certain peasant communities. The article assumes too much of the reader in that they are looking for less information than they need based off of unsupported assumptions, and focuses too much on interpreted emotions rather than pure theoretical disputes between the two leaders.

Chinese Aesthetics

Chinese Aesthetics is a sub-section of the larger page of aesthetics. Such a broad topic needs to be divided into sub-sections, the Chinese Aesthetics page is, again accurate, but leaves out any modern views on aesthetics. Much can be added to the section on the topic of classical Chinese Aesthetics, those pertaining to art, and the four divisions of aesthetics presented by Li Zehou but there are even more progressive, modern beliefs on Chinese Aesthetics that should be added to the sub-section. Ban Wang examines the importance of aesthetics to Chinese politics and to the life of Chinese Citizen. The trend of Chinese politics: mass movements towards a general subjectivity and the growing importance of self-realization becomes an aesthetic experience for Chinese citizens. The merging of the individual in China with the collective politics of Chinese history involves an aesthetic "full blooded life-world." The sub-section devoted to Chinese Aesthetics leaves out many modern theories pertaining to the overall importance of Chinese Aesthetics towards other disciplines and thus requires the addition of much more information.

Opportunities and Challenges

Learning about how to edit a Wikipedia page and taking a newly enlightened look at the mass amount of information presented in one space changed my thinking about the source I use so consistently. To truly examine a page for bias and potential bad information is not an easy skill, and the subject Modern Chinese Philosophy aided my doing so. If using Wikipedia as my base research tool, small inaccuracies would undoubtedly escape my close reading, but reversing this step showed how the smallest error in language or mistaken fact could sway an article from encyclopedia to personal belief. Writing the encyclopedia entry was difficult in context of the usual philosophical, or argumentative essays that I commonly write. The argumentative essay requires that a thesis is created and argued for in attempt to convince an audience of its validity. The difference with Wikipedia is that no thesis statement can be made; only the hard facts have a place and in a complex discipline such as Chinese Philosophy this is complicated. Upon reading of the primary sources, there is a gut reaction and a close reading influenced heavily by prior academic and social experience that frames each thinker. To try to distance oneself from opinion and analysis in a field of such controversy is not easy, but something I believe to be important and helpful to my writing. By being able to separate the terms of the argument or the facts, from my own personal beliefs and theories will be a helpful tool in creating successful and clear arguments in the future.