Miscellaneous News

siegecrossbow said:

Seeseepee spy finally arrives at the leakage site after wreckage have been covered up for over ten days.

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siegecrossbow said:

Seeseepee spy finally arrives at the leakage site after wreckage have been covered up for over ten days.

View attachment 107377

Click to expand...

Breadbox said:

I don't think it's so much climate change as much as it as with

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, it gets a bad rep in modern day as emerging technology and social trends made it obsolete, but it is absolutely true back in the day, every dynasty will inevitable be rocked by massive peasant rebellion no matter what. None of it is is due to human mistake, no one could have escaped it.

Europe and Japan won't be experiencing such cycles as Europe saw massive population loss during the collapse of the Western Roman Empire while Japan is a tribal backwater for most of its history, which means the grass root aren't nearly as numerous and farming land aren't nearly as scarce while regional nobles each have their private armies which can quickly put down rebellion on the spot.

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Feima said:

Long ago I read a book in Chinese that offered a theory: All dynastic founders were capable men who gathered other strong, able men around them and led them wisely. After decades of war to overthrow the previous regime, and sometimes a century or more of warlordism, the new ruling elite and general population were war-weary, went about rebuilding and brought stability to the new dynasty. After some decades, the rulers, who could be sons, grandsons or great grandsons of the founder, had grown soft in the new prosperity. Invariably some crisis happened, could be power struggle from court intrigue, natural disasters or foreign invasions. If the new dynasty survived, it will stabilize and last for much longer. Otherwise it fell, and other strong men would rise to found another dynasty.

Above theory, called the "new dynasty bottleneck test", is said to be supported by the data from the few thousand years of Chinese history. For Qin, history tells us Li Shi and the eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Yin Zheng's capable older son and put the useless second son in power, so that they could dominate him. For Sui, 2nd emperor is well known as a brutal mad tyrant. For Ming, the founder's son Zhu Di fought a civil war and wrested power from his nephew but he proved a capable ruler and the dynasty survived.

For the current dynasty, question is, was the Cultural Revolution the bottleneck test, or is it the current all-but-kinetic war from the global hegemon?

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Feima said:

Long ago I read a book in Chinese that offered a theory: All dynastic founders were capable men who gathered other strong, able men around them and led them wisely. After decades of war to overthrow the previous regime, and sometimes a century or more of warlordism, the new ruling elite and general population were war-weary, went about rebuilding and brought stability to the new dynasty. After some decades, the rulers, who could be sons, grandsons or great grandsons of the founder, had grown soft in the new prosperity. Invariably some crisis happened, could be power struggle from court intrigue, natural disasters or foreign invasions. If the new dynasty survived, it will stabilize and last for much longer. Otherwise it fell, and other strong men would rise to found another dynasty.

Above theory, called the "new dynasty bottleneck test", is said to be supported by the data from the few thousand years of Chinese history. For Qin, history tells us Li Shi and the eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Yin Zheng's capable older son and put the useless second son in power, so that they could dominate him. For Sui, 2nd emperor is well known as a brutal mad tyrant. For Ming, the founder's son Zhu Di fought a civil war and wrested power from his nephew but he proved a capable ruler and the dynasty survived.

For the current dynasty, question is, was the Cultural Revolution the bottleneck test, or is it the current all-but-kinetic war from the global hegemon?

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Temstar said:

I've watched a video on this topic. Latest opinion from some historians are Emperor Yang of Sui's madness is overblown and a smear campaign by people (ie: official Tang dynasty historians who have plenty of reason to smear Sui to show how righteous is it that Tang replaced them) after his time.

In particular the major cause of Sui's downfall - that of Emperor Yang's two major failed wars against Goguryeo (Korea) where fought for the right reason at the wrong time. His wars were really not that different from Han Wudi's wars against Xiongnu. Even Han Wudi was not successful in all of his wars, but Han dynasty of his time can afford to absorb the losses and bounce back for another round thanks to all the hard work in economic development under his dad and grandpa Emperor Jing and Emperor Wen, aka Han's golden period known as Rule of Wen and Jing.

Emperor Yang of Sui could therefore be argued to be the right person at the wrong time. If he acknowledged the role he should have played and acted like Emperor Wen or Jing then Sui might have survived for much longer and his son or grandson might be remembered as vanquisher of Goguryeo. But alas he was prideful and glory hog and wanted to be a Han Wudi himself and it ended up destroying his dynasty.

Which brings me to the topic of Jiang Zemin. For a very long time Jiang Zemin had the reputation of being soft on the geopolitical stage and a coward. In my opinion Jiang played the role of a modern day Emperor Wen/Jing. He deliberately hid China's strength in his time over provocations like Yinhe incident and bombing of the embassy in Belgrade while quietly building up China's strength with things like banning PLA from running business, giving his personal backing to the J-10 project, approved buying Varyag etc. Like Emperor Jing and Emperor Wen he laid down the solid foundation which then allowed his successor to engage the enemy head on openly. Had Jiang instead blew his top like Emperor Yang and decided to throw down right then PRC might have already followed the fate of Sui Dynasty.

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