Zhang Jingsheng (20 February 1888 – 18 June 1970) was a Chinese philosopher and sexologist. Born to merchants in rural Guangdong, he was a militant supporter of the Tongmenghui revolutionaries. After being expelled from school, Zhang entered Peking University and became an advocate for European ideas of social Darwinism, scientific racism, and eugenics. He changed his personal name to Jingsheng, meaning 'competition for survival'. After the 1911 Revolution, Zhang went to France to study philosophy, receiving his doctorate in 1919. He soon became a professor at Peking, publishing two books advocating for a utopian society arranged around aesthetics. In 1926, he published the sexology text Sex Histories. Zhang was ridiculed by the Chinese media and academia for this work, and tabloids gave him the mocking nickname Dr. Sex. After an unsuccessful bookstore venture in Shanghai, he returned home and worked in obscurity. Zhang was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and died in confinement. (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Jingsheng> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1846: Polish insurgents in the Free City of Kraków led an uprising (depicted) attempting to incite a fight for national independence that was put down by the Austrian Empire nine days later. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak%C3%B3w_Uprising> 1931: Paraguayan anarchists briefly seized the city of Encarnación as part of a larger plan to initiate a social revolution in the country. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking_of_Encarnaci%C3%B3n> 1943: The Saturday Evening Post published the first of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms, among the most widely distributed paintings ever produced, in support of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms_%28Rockwell%29> 1965: The NASA spacecraft Ranger 8 spacecraft transmitted 7,137 photographs of the Moon in the final 23 minutes of its mission before crashing as planned into Mare Tranquillitatis. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_8> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: precarity: 1. (uncountable) Synonym of precariousness (“the state of being uncertain or unstable”); (countable) an instance of this. 2. (sociology, specifically, uncountable) The condition of existence without predictability or security, thus affecting material or psychological welfare; (countable) an instance of this. 3. About Word of the Day 4. Nominate a word 5. Leave feedback <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/precarity> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Crimes have all had their defenses and apologies. Prejudice of race and color has been equally upheld. The two best arguments in the defense are, first, the worthlessness of the class against which it is directed; and, second, that the feeling itself is entirely natural. The way to overcome the first argument is to work for the elevation of those deemed worthless, and thus make them worthy of regard, and they will soon become worthy and not worthless. As to the natural argument, it may be said that nature has many sides. Many things are in a certain sense natural, which are neither wise nor best. It is natural to walk, but shall men therefore refuse to ride? It is natural to ride on horseback, shall men therefore refuse steam and rail? --Frederick Douglass <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
