The Kouroo Contexture
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Page 4: Giving War a Chance

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Page 8: Henry Thoreau

Page 9: The People of WALDEN, A WEEK, and CAPE COD



Page 11: The People of Concord
[Page 10: The Orient]

These Adobe Reader files which you are here perusing by way of the internet have been generated out of a computer database called the "Kouroo Contexture." They will fool you, because they are not so much written by a human, as compiled by a machine. They make use of a new technology called hypercontext. Hypercontext is to hypertext as Star Trek's transporter is to a tricycle. (Basically, in hypertext you press a button and you have gone somewhere else, creating the "Lost in Hyperspace" effect, whereas in hypercontext you press a button and you have gone nowhere, but everything around you has been rearranged into a very different configuration.) Here is a file that will provide you with an explanation of the agenda of this new hypercontext tool:

The motivation for the creation of the Kouroo Contexture 

To show the range of information that may be computer-extrapolated from the Kouroo Contexture merely by the push of a button, here are some extrapolations made in regard to The Orient. Also, this is your chance to place on record what you consider should be of record in this context. Download the Acrobat PDF file to your home computer --annotate your copy with your freebie Acrobat Reader --and then quickly send off your annotated copy by email enclosure, please, to kouroo@brown.edu. Your remarks will be promptly incorporated, and attributed to you.

 What to do when the Buddha comes to visit?

The life story of a special person.

 The Historical Development of Taoism

The story of Old Fellow who rode on a water buffalo, and the wise things somebody said that he said.

 Where is David T. Y. Ch'en?

This scholar of Taoism and Henry David Thoreau, we have discovered belatedly, is deceased. All we knew of him during his lifetime was his name. His one article was published in India, years and years ago. Here is the full text of that article: DavidTYChen_HDT_Taoism

 When India came to America

Early in the 19th Century the Brahmins of Boston had a cultural encounter with the religious philosophy of India, when the first English translations of Hindu and Buddhist scriptures began to circulate. One of the primary people to be so influenced was Henry David Thoreau, who took no end of guff for discovering that there were other scriptures in addition to the Christian one.

 The History and Context of Hong Kong

The history of the colony of Great Britain that became a colony of China -- "colonized, isn't this nice, not once but twice!"

An early visitor to China and Tibet, Father Huc 

An early Western visitor to China and Tibet -- and the story he told after he got back home to France and resigned from his religious order.

Lin Yu-t'ang

An influential Hong Kong journalist and philosopher of leisure, he commented once that Henry Thoreau was, more than any other Westerner who had ever come to his attention, very like a Chinaman.

Hung Hsiu Chuan

Did you know that Jesus Christ had a little brother? Did you know that his little brother was born in China? Did you know that the biggest and longest civil war in human history was fought in China, between the Chinese Christians of South China and the Chinese Buddhists of North China, just prior to the US Civil War?

 

 Captain Faucon of the Frolic

The story of a drug runner who won prizes and retired honorably. May all us sinners be so lucky!

 

 Frolicking in the Drug Trade

The story of the opium trade, told from the point of view of the fast sailing sloop "Frolic" that carried the black mud across the oceans. Find out how to help a tribe of Indians in California be very, very contented and sedate, without letting them erect a gambling casino.

Confucius and Mencius 

The founders of Confucianism -- by the way, were you aware that there is no such term as "Confucianism" in the Chinese vocabulary?

The Last Emperor 

Read this while listening to a CD of the music from the Bertolucci film.

Chinese Christianity 

Have you every wondered why the government of the People's Republic of China is so "down" on Christians, allowing them no meetings in private homes? There's a sad historical experience behind this. It was the largest and longest and bloodiest civil war in human history, it was between the Chinese Buddhists of North China and the Chinese Christians of South China, it happened just before the US Civil War -- and white mercenaries from New England (known then as "fillibusters") took part in it on the side of the Buddhists, helping to exterminate the Christians.

The History of the Central Kingdom

China is a long story, with heroes and villains.

The History of Japan

Japan is almost as long a story, with heroes and villains.

Sadako Sasaki

The story of one of our victims. You will cry.

(Much More is Coming!)