Amazing how in one paragraph there is a dynasty, like the
Sui, and in the next paragraph they have collapsed. How quickly things turn.
All you have to do is bring in the arts, and voila, you’ve
got yourself a “golden age.”
Oh, it figures: the privileged get positions even when they
flunk testing – still goes on today, I bet, and those poor peasants are forever
being abused by the bullies.
Foot binding!
Certainly that was not thought up by anyone female! What a ridiculously cruel thing to do
to young girls. Absolutely thoughtless. Sickening, really, and right up there
with animal abuse. I want to know
who dreamed up that idea! Whoever
the man is responsible for foot
binding should be floating around purgatory forever and a day.
The “tribute system” is an ingenious idea, I must say. Let’s have the barbarians pay homage to
the emperor with gifts, and we will gift them at a higher level just to cement
who is in charge. Great strategy –
kind of in line with the Godfather.
OK, right on with the Godfather theme: protection money (p. 375). Still goes on today, I’m sure. Extortion, a way of life for many
people over many eras of time.
It’s all an illusion.
I had no idea that Chinese culture was so sought after and
borrowed from by Korea, Viet Nam, and Japan, although Japan had the most upper
hand in being selective because they were physically removed from China.
I also had no idea that China was the leader in papermaking
and printing.
Seemingly, the rise and demise of dynasties coincides with
foreign religions that had been slowly infiltrating. For example, Buddhism was accepted into the folds during the
demise of the Han Dynasty. Timing
is everything.
As always, things do get lost in translation: “husband supports wife” gets translated
to “husband controls wife.” I am
sure that was deliberate.
Monasteries, like the Catholic Church, are businesses and
acquire wealth, so it is no wonder critics resented Buddhism’s hold in China.
Everything is a two-way street: “what comes from beyond is always transformed by what it
encounters within” (p. 393).
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