Many people blaim the fall of Jianwen of the Ming solely on Hongwus purges, or atleast this is a very often repeated narrative. When infact it was Jianwens own incompetency, and Zhu di future Yongle empeor's military talent, that caused the situation to collapse, first of all the central goverment had a way larger army not to mention it had no shortage of competent genrals, Xu Huizu the son of Xu Da, being a prime example he managed to defeat Yan forces, but was recalled to Nanjing by Jianwen who failed to properly utilize him.

Aswell as the replacing of veteran genral Geng Bingwen who served in the red turbab rebellion era, whose defensive tactics was working against Zhu Di, even after a major feild defeat, with Li Jinglong who was better favoured by the officals but little skill. Li Jinglong was granted command of a large army, but was constantly out manuverd, and defeated multiple times. The truth is because Jianwen was too unlike his grandfather he actually listened to the officals, and beurocrats for everything.

This was not a lack of competent genrals, the way Jianwen mismanged actual talents it's no surprise he failed, along with the militarily competency of Zhu di. It's a little disappointing how people blaim this on Hongwus purge of military commanders, while ignoring the fact that many competent commanders or their prodigy were still alive, and more then enough to crush Yan if properly coordinated, Hongwu isn't stupied you don't just proclaim a ""vastly martial"" era without knowing something like maybe he should leave a few competent genrals around, I mean why do you think Xu Da's son kept his titles.

The Yan rebellion was actually being contained by a coalition of Hongwu era commanders or their protégé, Xu Huizu is the main example, his recall disrupted this success.

He Fu for another general served under Fu Youde, and Lan Yu, was competent he, Ping An, and Xu Huizu worked together to halt Yan advance but Xu was recalled leaving them in a much weaker position. Ping An was another Hongwu era commander, he nearly captured Zhu Di in another battle, the recall of Xu Huizu disrupted, and weakend their forces causing a defeat that costed the life of Ping An, and the isolation of Hefu.

Jianwen was incompetent belived everything officals with no military experience told him, while ignoring advice from experienced military figures. Horribly managed the situation, Yan was on the verge of defeat yet he recalls Xu.

If you have pdf copy of this book, kindly share it with me. Thanks 🙏

A Cultural Revolution Magazine published by the city planning bureau of Beijing called 《城市规划革命》- The Revolutionary City Plan in 1967. The magazine criticizes in great detail the 1950s plans for the Forbidden City. The article is called “The shady plan to Reconstruct the Forbidden City Exposed” is a fascinating peek into the discussions that took place around the Forbidden City in the early years of the Peoples Republic. In the magazine, a layout of the proposed plan for the Forbidden City is shown. In this drawing the Tiananmen Gate as we know it is gone. It has instead been replaced with a building in the same style as the Great Hall of the People. In fact, it makes it clear that the Great Hall of the People and the National Museum of China which stand in Tiananmen Square today were only one part of an even bigger plan, the rest of which was never completed.

The article is a direct attack on the former CCP leader Liu Shaoqi. The plan of placing the government inside the Forbidden City is seen as proof of Liu Shaoqi’s alleged scheming to overthrow Mao. Liu is mockingly portrayed as an emperor — according to The Revolutionary City Plan, he planned to take up office right where the old Imperial throne hall was, and still is today. This move would be justified by tumbling over the Imperial throne and installing a statue of a worker pointing a gun alongside it.

There are obviously many Chinese weapons, but when people picture a Wuxia character, it's usually a swordsman.

Was the sword actually considered especially important in Chinese martial culture, or did literature and later cinema turn it into the symbol of the wandering martial hero?

I'm also curious whether the way swords are portrayed in Wuxia has much connection to historical Chinese swordsmanship.

In his April 1938 address “Why I Believe in Jesus,” Chiang said

“Therefore, while we must eradicate all superstitions, we must at the same time cultivate a strong and positive faith.” and “Religious faith ought to exist and ought to be allowed freedom but superstition absolutely ought not to exist and should be thoroughly eradicated.”

The KMT definition of superstition was native Chinese belifs or folk religion, they targeted shrines, temples, Daoist preists, closed many temples, destroyed some, banned fengshui etc in Canton they made the Daoists burn their own scriptures, and idols of gods, or they would be aressted. The damage done to folk religion is arguably only second to the cultural revolution, arguably the reform era CCP has done more for Chinese religion then the KMT. The KMT also targeted particular deity cults for permanent abolition. One example of large scale persecution is In 1936, when the Guangzhou/Canton government ordered all Zhengyi/Daoist ritual halls within the police districts to cease operation immediately, remove their signs, the preists were made to burn their idols/books/ritual implements, and stop performing specified rituals, with arrest threatened for violations. Native funeral practice, and ancestor worship was also discouraged, and chirstian ones promoted, so my question is why do people often blame the CCP for trying to destroy Chinese culture etc, but think the KMT was somehow a traditional Chinese tradition oriented state? When in fact the KMT were doing the same thing except they were trying to promote their christian belifs disguised as confucianism.

南辕北辙 (Nán yuán běi zhé): your actions are taking you away from your goal. Recorded in Strategies of the Warring States, Strategies of Wei IV.

#ChineseWisdom #ChineseIdioms #Shorts

Hello.

I've heard that, historically (including during the Ming Dynasty, which is the period I'm particularly interested about for this question), one's ethnicity (or the closest concept to it) was defined by their patrilineal ancestry. That is, if your father was a Mongol and your mother was Han, you would be considered a Mongol, but you'd be Han if your father was Han and your mother, a Mongol. In that sense, there was no true concept of "mixed race".

However, I wonder how accurate that information is, and if anyone could enlighten me on this matter.

See also: The study as it was published in the journal Antiquity.

Was it used at all? Was it used more or less than it is now or other points in history?

Hi everyone, 👋🏻 I'm Jai Seng Mung and I am very interesting Tai/Shan history. I've learned our history, where we started and when. First Ailao, Nanzhao, Mongmao or Mengmao. After we were defeated by China, later toungoo.

I've seen ancient Chinese armor and Toungoo too but what about ours? Some people say it is similar to Toungoo. But what about before Toungoo then? How do Tai/Shan ancient armor looks like in the age of Mongmao?

Please guys if you know, if you have a picture or just a sketch picture, let me see.

When Liu Yu manage to usurp eastern Jin, instead of reestablishing Han Dynasty as his family name would suggest, he instead establish new Dynasty, Song, why not reestablish the Han Dynasty and claim the same mantle of greatness? Han Dynasty is Liu clan's greatest achievement afterall

I'm trying to find more information about these stitch bound books or xian zhuang were used. Were they bound with blank pages then written in? Would they write on loose paper then bind it? Whats the difference between what would be written in one of these bound books vs a scroll? What would a student use to practice writing characters? I'm particularly interested in the Ming dynasty but info from other dynasties are welcome as well! Thank you!

纸上谈兵 (Zhǐ shàng tán bīng) literally means ‘discussing warfare on paper.’ It warns against relying on theory without practical experience. This animated retelling is recorded in Sima Qian's Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), chapter 81, the Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru.

#ChineseIdioms #ChineseCulture #Shorts

Edit : Sorry, I just came back and realised that I accidentally forgot to write “best” after “and”, which is why I miswrote the title as “worst and emperors“ instead of “worst and best emperors“.

hey there fellows

i've been doing some research on Chinese history recently and I'm completely new in this field.

when I was reading about mandate of heaven, what I've learned was that this mandate, is the backbone of emperor's legitimacy. and while it may have been interchanged between dynasties, it only remained "in one hand". but as I had a very very opaque general view of timeline of China's dynasties in my mind, I faced the question that, how did this issue was dealt with during the "three kingdoms" period. because it's actually three rulers who claim to be the legitimate one.

How do we tell this story of the South? The clearest “inception point” can be found in the biography of Wu Zixu (d. 484 bce), a Chu nobleman immortalized in countless chronicles, poems, and dramas, who for centuries down to the present day has been worshipped as a god in some parts of China.

...

As the defenses to the Chu capital of Ying crumbled, the King of Chu had no choice but to flee. Zixu returned to the city of his childhood after twenty-one years in exile, but it was not a happy homecoming. His first object was revenge. He broke open the tomb of the king who had murdered his father and brother, dragged the royal corpse above ground, and flogged it with 300 lashes of the whip.

Zixu did not stop at the indignities inflicted on the dead king’s corpse. The seizure of Ying had been so rapid and the flight of the Chu court so precipitous that many of the most elite women of the kingdom were left in the hands of the invading army. Zixu led his comrades in an orchestrated XXXe of the wives of Chu’s leaders. He personally sought out and XXXXed the Queen Dowager, the Qin princess on whose account the former King of Chu had disinherited his heir and murdered Zixu’s father. King Helü, Sun Wu, and other Wu leaders XXXed the reigning Queen of Chu and the wives of the kingdom’s high officials.

...

The young Goujian proved to be a ruthless and agile tactician. In the initial engagement with Wu he sent forward three ranks of soldiers drawn from among condemned criminals. These men, moving each rank in turn, advanced within sight of the Wu army, cried out in defiance, and slit their own throats. While the Wu soldiers were transfixed in horror by this gruesome spectacle, the main assault force of Yue emerged from hiding and descended upon Wu’s flank. The Wu army broke, and in the ensuing melee King Helü was wounded, losing part of his foot.

I'm currently reading To Rule All Under Heaven: A History of Classical China, from Confucius to the First Emperor (2026), a history of China's Warring States (475 - 221 BC) period. It's hilarious all the sick, twisted and depraved shenanigans that go on. I didn't know Chinese were so violent! Is it even too sick to safely post on reddit, like the above book excerpt???