虛空空虛空沽空，富足足富足買足
To further my writing last month on the Books of Wisdom, I would like to share my recent study on a book called “Qoheleth” (JSOT Press, 1987) by a translation scholar Graham Odgen. The Hebrew term Qoheleth can mean Ecclesiastes or preacher, which is the adopted name of the book in the Bible. However, the drive for my study on this topic is quite “unreligious” and rather pragmatic. As a Chinese, I have been pondering why our pride of our great Confucian teachings and the pioneering ancient inventions didn’t sustain the success of this Middle Kingdom. Yes, since Deng Xiaoping’s Open Door Policy we have been seeing tremendous economic growth. However, on a balanced analysis of such many scholars, including many renowned Chinese ones with close ties to Beijing, have been questioning if such can be coined as success given the massive economic and social costs resulted thereby. Back to the book Ecclesiastes. One of the focal debates is the term Hebel, which is translated as “vanity” or “me