Shu Parent Consent: Fill & Download for Free

Spend less than you make.I think this is the first rule and the last. Yet repeatedly violated. One of the reasons that lottery winners are more likely to file for bankruptcy (three to five years after winning) than the average American is that more leaves their bank account than enters it (Hankins et al, 2009).Save as much as you can.The sun will not always shine. Your car will break down. You’ll be in the hospital. Your mum will need a new phone. Saving is not in our DNA. But it is necessary in modern economies.The Fed asks US citizens regularly how they would cover an unexpected $400 expense. In 2017, still 4 in 10 adults would struggle to cover that expense, having to borrow from institutions, friends, or family (Federal Reserve Board, 2018).Put your money in the S&P 500.Many people have their savings and pensions in some obscure funds. Most of these funds, even if expensive hedge funds, often underperform the S&P 500 (Berkshire Hathaway, 2018). This means consumers are paying higher fees for below-average returns. The investment industry is built on middle-men taking money from consumers.Then again, there are those who think they can outperform the market and select their own stocks. A large UK study showed that the average person does not succeed (Barber and Odean, 2000). Very few people can outperform the market in the long-term.A good strategy is to put as much money as you can into the S&P 500 from a young age. If you start late, you will have to compensate by living longer.Buy few things.Things weigh you down if you have to move. Things make you a target. It is difficult to keep track of them. They only make you happy for a minute and then something new is needed. Things require brain capacity and can overstimulate you. In short, many things have little long-term value. Moreover, once you buy one nice thing, e.g. a suit, you will have to buy many others, e.g. shoes, a belt, a tie.As you become older, you will get bogged down with admin stuff, because of the many things you have bought, e.g. carpet flayed and needs repair, suit needs to be washed, car broken, need to call customer support and ask about the VR headset. Buy yourself time. Not things.Buy a dollar for 40 cents.The prices of goods fluctuate more or less. Buy them when they are cheaper. Buy clothes on sale. Buy food when they are about to expire and are cheaper. Use coupons. Buy things in bulk, e.g. toothpaste. Buy video games when they are older.Free is always better.There is a number of things one can get for free tastefully – I stress the word ‘tastefully’ because a reputation as a freeloader may not do you any good.You can refer friends for bank accounts, credit cards, etc. for cash. American Express offers a cashback credit card, that pays you for your spending (caveat on credit below). Businesses run promotions. Startups (like us) look for beta testers and give away products for free. Again, you have to see if it is worth it. 1 hour of your life is more valuable than saving 10 cents.Measure your P&L (profit and loss).Check every day what leaves your account and what comes in. Problems are usually more readily solved if spotted sooner. It will also alert you to whether you are overspending and you can prevent it. I have seen trading firms losing money at year-end, simply because they do not check properly capital inflow and outflow.Use credit sparingly.I only use a credit card because it gives me free cash. I would almost never buy anything on credit and then pay back interest. Credit is a great way to ensnare the unwitting. Many people also fail to figure out the full cost of credit (e.g. annual fees) (Madrian, 2017).Wait.Before making buying decisions wait a few days or weeks. We are designed to be emotional and therefore make counterproductive decisions. Often we also miss out on better deals because we want to react fast (Madrian, 2017).Stay away from temptation.Don’t browse unless you need something. There is some evidence that willpower can be depleted, and you will give in, buying things you do no need (Baumeister and Tierney, 2012). Browsing wastes time you could otherwise use productively.A small leak will sink a great ship.Many think that small charges here and there do not matter. They do, however, add up.Don’t waste your money.Every time you leave food on your plate and throw away the leftovers, you are throwing away money.None betrayed but he that trusts.There are a hundred people who claim they can make you more money if only you invest in their business, fund, bitcoin, tulips, etc. Once you start to save up some money, you will attract those who want to take it from you.There is one fundamental conclusion in the competency literature: in order to know what is good, you must usually be able to deliver what is good. For example, in one experiment, psychologists found that only people who score high on grammar tests could evaluate good and bad grammar when they saw other people’s writing (Dunning and Kruger, 1997).Consequently, most people do not have the skillset to evaluate whether the ideas that are presented to them will make money. It is safer to pass. Your money should be in the S&P 500 anyway.Beware the other sex.Aesop tells us the fable of the lion and the maid.Once upon a time, a lion was in love with a maid. So the lion went to the maid’s parents and asked for permission to marry her. The parents trembled and said, ‘Dear Lion, nothing more would please us than to agree to your union. But we fear that your love is too ferocious. Your teeth are too sharp, and your claws too jagged. But if you were to remove these, we would consent.’ So the lion in love went and had his teeth and claws removed. He then returned to the parents, his heart thumping with expectation. The parents, however, glared and snarled at him, ‘Do your worst. What do we have to fear now?’ And throwing stones, they chased the lion off.What is the point of that story? Well, we do a lot of things to impress the opposite sex. Men take women out on dates, buy them rings, and take them on holidays. Women take out loans to pay for a boyfriend’s car.There is many a way that a relationship can exhaust your capital, e.g. divorce, sick relatives, ludicrous business ideas. Relationships above all things are a trade agreement, and marriage is a financial contract. The best thing anyone can do is research things that have gone wrong for others, e.g. there is plenty of people regretting their marriages, prenuptials, etc. Best to learn from the experiences of others. Not from our own. Anyone who has anything valuable should fear losing it.BibliographyBarber, B. and Odean, T. (2000), ‘Trading is hazardous to your wealth: the common stock investment performance of individual investors.’ The Journal of Finance. LV(2), 773–806.Baumeister, R. and Tierney, J. (2012), Willpower: rediscovering our greatest strength. Penguin: London.Berkshire Hathaway (2018), Letter to shareholders. Berkshire Hathaway: Omaha.Federal Reserve Board (2018), Report on the economic well-being of U.S. households in 2017. Board of the Governors of the Federal Reserve System: Washington, DC.Hankins, S., Hoekstra, M., and Skiba, p. (2009), ‘The ticket to easy street? The financial consequences of winning the lottery’. The Review of Economics and Statistics. 93(3), 961–969.Kruger, J. and Dunning, D. (1999), ‘Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 77(6), 1121-1134.Madrian, B. , Hershfield, H. , Sussman, A., Bhargava, S., Burke, J., Huettel, S., Jamison, J., Johnson, E., Lynch, J., Meier, S., Rick, S., and Shu, S. (2017) ‘Behaviorally informed policies for household financial decisionmaking’. Behavioral Science & Policy, 3(1), 27–40.

In politics, a parallel can be drawn between the vassal states of Spring&Autumn Period(SAP) and the states of Holy Roman Empire(HRE).In Europe, the HRE was built on the embryonic form of Eastern Frankish Kingdom dating from Henry the Fowler, the first non-Frankish King of Germans that has its root in the Frankish Empire Charlemagne established in late 8th Century. In the far east, however, SAP began with the Zhou capital, Haojing(镐京) being sacked by the Marquess of Shen and the Quanrong barbarians and King Zhou fled to its eastern capital Luoyi(洛邑). Despite Marquess of Shen enthroning his grandson, the once deposed crown prince Yijiu as later known as King Ping of Zhou, the Zhou royal house had lost its de facto power while retaining the de jure “mandate of heaven” thereafter.As the power of Zhou royal family waned, the different fiefdoms once under the rule of Zhou Kings became increasingly independent states, among with the most powerful states annexed or claimed suzerainty over smaller ones. In this process, the most important states held episodic conferences (Hui Meng 会盟）where they decided on the important military matters and sanctioned the restive states by agreeing upon covenants in the name of upholding the authority and patriarchal system of Zhou. Besides, the state that called the conference would be elected and declared as hegemon (霸) which would later be officially recognized by Zhou King and conferred the privilege to launch punitive expedition against any state on its behalf.The main purpose of these conferences was actually to establish the authority and prestige of a dominant vassal state and legitimize the wars they waged. In doing so, they gradually built up their own sphere of influence and alliance groups which further eclipsed the halo of Zhou “son of heaven”.Hegemon (霸 ba) in Chinese was interpreted as the name of rule, or 伯 （Bo) in Chinese aka Zhou Bo or Fang Bo which means the leader of all the vassals.Among these hegemons or bas, the most widely quoted and recognized are five vassals which includes Duke Huan of Qi, for example as such depicted in wikipedia:Over the following years, Duke Huan convened numerous interstate meetings under the auspices of the Zhou royal family. Points of discussion during these meetings ranged from military matters to economics to general orders concerning governance and laws. Overall, the ruler of Qi managed to restore some stability in the volatile and fractious Zhou realm.and Duke Wen of Jin who had a legendary experience travelled all around the states unwittingly building up his reputation before ascending the throne of Duchy of Jin. His great feat of defeating is recounted in wiki as:At the same time, the northward expansion of the State of Chu was also resisted by Duke Wen; the two states' conflict was mostly played out among the smaller states which lay between their territories and formed alliances with one state or another. In 633 BC, Chu invaded the State of Song, which was an ally of Jin; Duke Wen led his coalition, including troops from Qin, Qi and Song, and won a decisive victory over Chu forces at the Battle of Chengpu in 632 BC. This battle checked Chu's northern expansion for decades, while cementing Duke Wen's position; the next year, he convened a large coalition of rulers at Jiantu, and was confirmed as hegemon over the other states, becoming one of the Five Hegemons.Right after his victory over Chu, he called a conference in Jian Tu （践土 in today’s Henan province) at which He was mandated by Zhou King of Xiang, the nominal sovereignty, to “venerate the decree of King, appease the vassals and rectify the renegades”(敬服王命，以绥四国，纠逖王慝) which actually officially recognized his position in leading all the vassals.After Duke Wen’s death, his son Duke Xiang of Jin inherited his cause and carried on with his dominance among the states. The hegemony founded by the father and son lasted itself for over 100 years and largely defined the landscape of politics and diplomacy of SAP.The other three Bas are arguably Duke Mu of Qin, King Zhuang of Chu and Duke Xiang of Song in some historic documents.Duke Wen of Jin in the center and his general Xian Zhen on the 2nd right.Duke Mu of Qin on the 1st left and his courtier Jian Shu and prime minister Bai Li Xi on the 3rd right. Bai Li Xi’s son Meng Ming Shi is on the right.If we take a closer look at the definition of Holy Roman Emperor, we will find some similarities between the two historical concepts in different times and locations, e.g.According to wikipedia,In theory, the Holy Roman Emperor was primus inter pares (first among equals) among other Catholic monarchs. In practice, a Holy Roman Emperor was only as strong as his army and alliances, including marriage alliances, made him.In essence, this says, the Holy Roman Emperor was the leader of all the monarchs by the light of his military and political power among the states. This bears a closely conceptual resemblance to the definition of 霸 ba as the leader of the states of SAP.In addition, HRE also went through a history of disintegration with its central power shifting to the dominant and foremost vassal states marked by a series of events in favor of independent dukes rule starting withthe election of Conrad I of Germany in 911 following the death without issue of Louis the Child, the last Carolingian ruler of GermanyFollowing this, the elective monarchy was institutionalized in the form of so called Imperial Diet——the central forum for imperial states in different colleges to negotiate and elect the emperor for HRE——in a piecemeal fashion.For example,After the conquest of Italy, the 1158 Diet of Roncaglia finalized four laws that would significantly alter the (never formally written) constitution of the Empire, marking the beginning of the steady decline of the central power in favour of the local dukes.In more details, the diet of roncaglia in 1158 also has the following depiction:It followed a series of raids carried out by the forces of Frederick Barbarossa in Italy, which forced the submission of the leading city of Milan. The Emperor wished to establish his rights as feudal sovereign in the face of the growing independence of trading cities, which had won charters of municipal privilege during the earlier periods of strife between Papacy and Empire.The determination of the respective rights of the parties was left to four jurists from Bologna, the home of the great law school founded in 1088. The lawyers' decision favored the emperor, judging that his rule was by divine right, thus restoring the Imperial rights established since the period of nascent trade under rule of Emperor Otto. The lawyers proceed to define taxes, tolls, and exactions of various kinds to be imposed on trade.This is fairly akin to Jian Tu Conference called by Duke Wen of Jin of SAP in China which is also a convened assembly by the later Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, also the Duke of Swabia after the victory over the southern kingdoms in Italy.Frederick Barbarossa, middle, flanked by two of his children, King Henry VI (left) and Duke Frederick VI (right). Source: WikipediaNothing is more interesting here that similar to his Chinese counterpart Duke Wen of Jin, he also laid the foundation for the so called Hohenstaufen (aka House of Staufen) Dynasty that lasted for over another century until his great-great grandson Conradin was executed at Naples by Charles of Anjou after being defeated in 1268.In this sense, Hohenstaufen dynasty is the HRE version of Jin State in SAP of China.Two centuries afterwards, another Holy Roman emperor Charles IV, also the King of Bohemia headed another monumental far-reaching decree issued by Imperial Diet in history, which renounced any papal involvement and thereby restricted the right to choose a new king to the seven prince-electors are named in the Golden Bull of 1356: The Archbishop of Mainz, the Archbishop of Trier, the Archbishop of Cologne, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony and the Margrave of Brandenburg.as the wiki reads:The Golden Bull of 1356 cemented the concept of "territorial rule" (Landesherrschaft), the largely independent rule of the dukes over their respective territories, and also limited the number of electors to seven. The Pope, contrary to modern myth, was never involved in the electoral process but only in the process of ratification and coronation of whomever the Prince-Electors chose..This clearly says Roman pope was excluded from the political affairs of HRE legitimately confirmed in Gold Bull even before 15th century while in SAP of China, Zhou royal family was still revered as the “head of state” in the name of “reverence to the king and drive out the barbarians” (尊王攘夷) throughout SAP and warring states period until the last Zhou king was killed when Qin captured the capital Wangcheng in 256 BC.That being said, pope could always have its influence perceived by appointing prince bishops in ecclesiastical states and bishops in secular states while Zhou King of SAP could by no means influence the politics.In all, HRE and SAP are both historical concepts in which masses of vassal states enjoyed high degree of autonomy and independence in “the structure of confederacy” while aligning themselves with one of the most influential and powerful states like 霸 in SAP China and the state of “King of Romans” in HRE Europe when exercising military and diplomatic actions.In the sense of legal structure, Eastern Zhou in SAP was considered a de jure political entity while HRE was at most viewed as a loose alliance of states.In Culture and Ideology, all the states in HRE observed catholic faith as their religious practice with the Pope at the helm of spiritual world. This theocratic monopoly was occasionally interrupted by minor rebellions such as Hussites Reformation before the Reformation movement in early 16th century.Even after Reformation, the Holy Roman Emperors were still catholics.In sharp Contrast, Eastern Zhou had no official religion. Some states such as Chu and Yue completely preserved their pantheistic and shamanistic religious rituals (e.g. the worship of natural God like God of Thunder analogous to Vikings’ Thor) where their central-plain counterparts already entered the “period of enlightenment” with the “Hundrad Schools of Thought” being sowed as the famous philosophers such as Confucians and Taotze’s words spread out far away from their homes.As the wikipedia puts:The Eastern Zhou, however, is also remembered as the golden age of Chinese philosophy: the Hundred Schools of Thought which flourished as rival lords patronized itinerant shi scholars is led by the example of Qi's Jixia Academy. The Nine Schools of Thought which came to dominate the others were Confucianism (as interpreted by Mencius and others), Legalism, Taoism, Mohism, the utopian communalist Agriculturalism, two strains of Diplomatists, the sophistic Logicians, Sun-tzu's Militarists, and the Naturalists.Although only the first three of these went on to receive imperial patronage in later dynasties, doctrines from each influenced the others and Chinese society in sometimes unusual ways. The Mohists, for instance, found little interest in their praise of meritocracy but much acceptance for their mastery of siege warfare; much later, however, their arguments against nepotism were used in favor of establishing the imperial examination system.So Eastern Zhou had a diverse culture across its masses of vassal states with each developing some distinguished features.For example, Wu and Yue people all had hair cut short and skin tattooed in opposed to the values of central-plain states: Your body including skin and hair is a gift from parents therefore nothing should be done to it. And famous “Song of Yue people” such as“滥兮抃草滥。予昌枑泽予昌州。州鍖州焉乎秦胥胥。缦予乎昭澶秦逾。渗惿随河湖。”which can be translated as ancient Chinese used in Chu at that name:“今夕何夕兮，搴舟中流。今日何日兮，得与王子同舟。蒙羞被好兮，不訾诟耻。心几烦而不绝兮，得知王子。山有木兮木有枝，心悦君兮君不知”In English:“What a beautiful night is this?Drifting down midstream of the river.What a graceful day is this?Same Boat with the princeSo grateful for the fondnessto meet with your gracious consentI'm thrilled and my heart beat like a hammerto even get to see you, my dear PrinceTrees live on mountains and branches live on treesand there's my heart live for you, but you never know.”SAP is the first period in China’s history where cultures of different origins collided and fused, despite the partitioning in statehood, the cultural and civil exchange have never been severed. Even in the state affairs, the talent exchange or “job hopping” phenomenon was quite common among the states, the most famous examples of which includes Bai Li Xi who was sold to Qin as a slave servant, a piece of Princess Jin’s dowry after being prisoned in the fall of his home state Yu into the hands of Jin was bought back from Chu by Duke Mu of Qin for a price of “five black sheepskins” and entrusted with the state administration. Another example is Wu Zi Xu, who fled Chu to Wu to escape his death following his father and brother’s execution by King Ping of Chu, aided He Lv, then King of Wu, to launch a punitive expedition into Chu and defeat his home state Chu. After occupying the capital of Chu, he avenged his father and brother’s slaughter by King Ping of Chu by having his coffin dug out of the tomb and whipping his carcass 300 times under the broad light.Chinese culture is like a living organism that has never ceased to assimilate new nutrients and has grown from a baby to an adult today. It went through its childhood in the wars and conflicts of SAP. But in this period, different thoughts and ideas such as Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism sprang from the rich soil of cultures and laid the foundation for later Chinese culture to embrace more exotic cultures.SAP is one of the most liberal and open periods throughout China’s history.After the crude comparisons of politics, culture and ideology between the SAP of China and HRE before 15th century, let us go back the original question and analyze if China in SAP was a “unified ethnocultural entity”. First, we need to clarify the concept of “ethnocultural”.Based on wiktionaryethnocultural (not comparable)Of or pertaining to the culture of an ethnic group.Describing an ethnic group that has a distinct culture.Note: This answer is far from being complete, due to my busy schedule recently and regard for the quality of my answer, I have decided to write a part each day.This question concerns the cultural and social anthropology which needs an extensive survey of the concepts and facts.The basic comparison between Eastern Zhou in SAP and HRE until 15 centuries just assists to pave the path for the points that are going to be made in the upcoming discourse.ReferenceZhou dynasty - WikipediaSpring and Autumn period - WikipediaDuke Wen of Jin - WikipediaDuke Huan of Qi - Wikipediahttps://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%B7%B5%E5%9C%9F%E4%B9%8B%E7%9B%9F/701909?fromtitle=%E8%B7%B5%E5%9C%9F%E4%BC%9A%E7%9B%9F&fromid=4149844Holy Roman Empire - WikipediaHoly Roman Emperor - WikipediaDiet of Roncaglia - Wikipedia