Harold M. Tanner > Quotes

“In a world that respects usefulness, Zhuangzi finds value in uselessness, pointing out that a great, crooked tree, useless for timber, will live long, while the trees that are useful to men are abused and their lives cut short.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Since large, powerful landowners were better able to resist taxation than individual families, this often meant that the state’s tax revenue declined.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“That task was conceived of and carried out by men who placed a higher value on power than on culture or morality.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“The Shandong Peninsula was an island,”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Zhuangzi is more concerned with escaping from the world”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Toward Reunification”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Enabling his younger brother to become an emperor was not at all what Möngke had in mind.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“It was not merely that they enjoyed these things (though they certainly did); a man’s career depended on his talents in the arts, particularly poetry and calligraphy.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History: From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“he who would control the Central Plains from the Wei Valley must control Luoyang as well.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“In addition to metallurgy,”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“The Eastern Han ruled over an empire which was retreating in the north,”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“if necessary by committing ritual suicide.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Empress Wu followed much the same policies as other Tang emperors,”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“the people organized into groups for mutual surveillance and mutual responsibility.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“They believed that this broad variety of gods and spirits took an active interest in their daily lives”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Qin Shi Huangdi died”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“the poor cannot stand up to the rich who”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“laying the foundations of what later became Confucianism”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Filial piety was an essential ingredient in making these hierarchical relationships work.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“much as one-third or even one-half of all the silver mined in the Spanish colonies ended up in the Ming Empire from the mid-16th to the early 17th centuries.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“The Mongols had a great respect for medical doctors.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“and she certainly was expected to obey her mother-in-law!”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“this event included commoners making such extreme manifestations of devoutness as burning or biting off their own fingers as offerings to the Buddha.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“they did share some core assumptions: they regarded disunity and chaos as a problem to be solved,”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Beginning in the late Han”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“the Three Feudatories ignored it. In 1683”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“The Early to
Mid-Ming Dynasty”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Han had tried to pursue a policy of “harmonious kinship” toward the Xiongnu.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“Little wonder that the armies of Qin ate away steadily at the lands of their neighbors,”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,

“It is little surprise that expenses outpaced revenue significantly during the Yongle reign.”
― Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire,